Stand up for a future that works

A Future that Works LogoIt was great to see the TUC call the mass demonstration that the CWU Youth and other unions called for at our national conferences earlier this year. Right now we are engaged in the final push to make sure that we have maximum attendance at this historic event in London on Saturday.

Workers RightsThroughout history there have been times when working people’s rights have come under severe attacks, and when that has happened we have had to stand up and fight to make our voices heard. It is because of those historic struggles that many of us currently enjoy maternity leave, holiday pay, collective bargaining rights – the list goes on.

Broken BankThis current right-wing reactionary government exists to erode such rights and to help the rich get richer be implementing austerity measures – making us workers pay for a crisis that we didn’t cause. It is now time for us to go through the process of standing up again to defend what our ancestors won for us.

We all know that it has been widely reported in the popular press that austerity measures are failing to positively impact on the nation’s deficit. An article in yesterday’s Guardian said that the IMF now believes this to be the case.

Their idea is simple – the ideology they follow is toJob Vacanciesfundamentally change the fabric of society with attacks on all of these things that we have fought for over the years. We must show them the strength of our collective desire for investment in job creation and education – surely a better alternative to the nightmare of long term unemployment, poverty and homelessness faced by increasing numbers of today’s youth and working people.

David Chivers blog 3This Saturday we will show the Tories that we do not accept their divisive polices that clearly seek to make the rich richer and the poor poorer whilst playing us off in a game of public sector vs private sector, employed vs benefit claimer, British worker vs migrant worker, able bodied workers vs disabled workers. By participating in this mass demonstration of people from all walks of life we can show them that we won’t be divided.

‘A future that works’ is a powerful slogan. I think that people participating on Saturday will realise that there are thousands of people who feel the same way they do and will be empowered to continue the fight back against the coalition by involving themselves in their local labour movements. Inspirational activists inspire leadership to domore for our members than organise such demonstrations – momentum needs to be converted into more action than Saturday’s march if we are to push back these attacks.

So, if you’re going, be sure to take as many people along with you as possible. If you’re a trade union representative, there are surely no excuses – let’s make some noise!

Further information on the march can be found here:

www.afuturethatworks.org

See how the CWU is getting involved:

www.cwu.org/a-future-that-works-2012

David Chivers
Vice Chair, CWU Youth committee
Southdowns Amal SE.N1