An Army Awakens

There is a war going on in Britain, and the working class are finally waking up in response to the all out ConDen attacks on public services and welfare cuts. I was one of the 7,000 crowd who marched in Birmingham as the Tory party conference got underway. The rain may have been coming down all morning but the mood from the demonstration was one of awakening - slowly those who serve the public or rely on public services are beginning to see how drastic the coalition cuts are going to be.

I was stood shoulder to shoulder with a group of women who had never been on a demo before, but now they were losing their jobs at Connextions in Birmingham - they took to the streets because these cuts were now affecting them. As we passed their place of work, the group stood in unity outside the building, chanting in unison. While Britain may be far behind Greece and France when it comes to demonstrating on the streets, slowly a consciousness is being aroused. The ConDem government has been firing shot after shot (or  cut after cut!) since it came into power, they are merely continuing the work of Labour but an army of people are starting to mobilise. People do not want to see the NHS destroyed through privatisation, nor do they want to see local services in their council outsourced or axed. Over the coming months Britain will see more demos and protests, but we need more than a march to save this country from slipping back into some type of Victorian era.

People are angry that not only did the banks take our money (£1.3 trillion) , they have continued to award themselves big bonuses as they profit from our bailout. People are angry that we are being forced to pay for their mistakes. Yet none of the three major parties have an alternative to cuts - Labour, Tory and Liberal councils are rushing to cut jobs and destroy lives. Eventually ordinary people will stand in elections as independents, anti-cuts or as Socialists in a bid to remove the politicians who have become deaf to the painful cries coming from the working class.