50,000 march in NHS cuts protest in Manchester

[Dennis the 'Bloody Peasant']

http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/70175000/jpg/_70175847_protest.jpg

About 50,000 have taken part in a union protest against austerity cuts and NHS changes during the Conservative Party conference in Manchester.
The march, which set off from Liverpool Road at 12:15 BST, passed through the city centre and ended with speeches in Whitworth Park.
Greater Manchester Police described it as one of the largest protests they had ever policed.
The 2013 Conservative Party Conference started earlier at Manchester Central.
Frances O'Grady, TUC general secretary, said: "Austerity is having a devastating effect on our communities and services, with 21,000 NHS jobs lost over the last three months alone.
"The NHS is one of Britain's finest achievements and we will not allow ministers to destroy, through cuts and privatisation, what has taken generations to build.
Andy Burnham, Labour's shadow health secretary, said: "David Cameron needs to be forcefully reminded that he has never been given the public's permission to put the NHS up for sale.
"These figures reveal the frightening scale and pace of NHS privatisation since Cameron's Health Act came in."
Children's charity worker Jo McSwaine, 22, from Manchester, said: "I don't believe in cutting public services, that's the biggest thing. We have to look after everyone, not just the rich".
Her mother Judith McSwaine, 61, who travelled from Newcastle to attend, described the turnout as "absolutely fabulous."
Catharyn Lawrence, a Unison regional organiser from Wakefield, said: "This will show we are a collective force. It is great people are standing together."

(BBC NEWS)

[The Idler]

Were there any socialist groups there?

[Comrade Jacob]

I heard the numbers where up to 70,000. Protesting doesn't do anything sadly and like the Iraq protest it will go unheeded.

[GiantMonkeyMan]

Were there any socialist groups there?
I was there, waving the red flag, agitating for a general strike etc. Matt Wrack of the FBU called for united struggle of the unions when he made his speech. Other speeches followed along the same lines: uniting the struggles, calling for striking together. The People's Assembly folks were there calling for people to engage with the 5th of November day of civil disobedience. Was a good turnout.


I heard the numbers where up to 70,000. Protesting doesn't do anything sadly and like the Iraq protest it will go unheeded.
The vast majority of workers don't talk about politics, don't engage in politics. Getting 70,000 people on a march (when the TUC was expecting 40,000) is a significant thing. It reinvigorates people, gets them charged and puts out the message. Yes, alone it's useless but that's why we're not activists but revolutionaries. These are tactics to us and not strategies.

Also, news coverage of this has been pathetic. TV crews were stopped from filming the march from within the conference hall (as in, from the perspective of the tories themselves) by G4S security and all the coverage has been minimal. Personally I think this was a concerted effort to quell any news getting out.