Manchester Rally 2nd October

What do the Coalition government cuts mean for us? The Con-Dem Coalition government wants to boost profits for the wealthy by cutting £87 billion off public services and the welfare state. These cuts will wreck millions of lives through: Mass job cuts - ½ million jobs are set to go in the public sector alone.

For every job lost in the public sector at least one is also lost in private sector, effectively doubling the damage done by public sector job cuts. 

A devastating loss of public services with closure of social care services, youth centres, libraries and much, much more;

A massive assault on pensions and wages;

Cuts in housing and disability benefits and tax credits; 

Forcing people to work for pittance wages;

Forcing young people to give up their education or face life long debt;

Making people work longer for smaller pensions;

Allowing private companies to take overthe NHS to run for their profit and not patients’ needs.

If not stopped the cuts will decimate the welfare state for us and for future generations and risk plunging the British economy into further difficulties and another round of cuts as has already happened in Greece and Ireland. The government claims cuts are necessary to reduce the debt created by bailing out the banks. Yet this debt is only one fifth of what it was after WWII when the NHS was formed and millions of council homes were built.

The Con-Dem Coalition could pay the debt back over a longer period without slashing jobs and the welfare state - instead they are using the problems in the banking system as an excuse to fundamentally change our society to meet the wishes of big business.

There is an alternative We could raise revenue by:

Progressive taxation;

Plugging tax loopholes;

Collecting the tens of billions of pounds

of unpaid corporation tax and taking the bankers bonuses.

If the government can support money being spent to bail out negligent bankers it could boost the economy, protect public services and end mass unemployment by creating a million green jobs.

Is it possible to stop the cuts?

Absolutely. Over the last year the outrageous lie that we need to sacrifice jobs, wages, pensions, benefits and public services to pay off the public debt caused by bailing out the banks has been met with waves of protest. From the rallies against the austerity budget in October 2010 the resistance has grown to include students demonstrating and organising mass walk-outs and occupations against rises in tuition fees; half a million people joining the biggest trade union-called march the country has ever seen, and 700,000 teachers, lecturers and

civil servants striking in defence of pensions and jobs.

The next TUC March for an Alternative will take place outside the Conservative party conference and provides a huge opportunity to destroy any illusion that there is any public support for the government

imposing austerity on us, and to show the scale of the resistance.A massive show of opposition will help

inspire more action to stop the cuts.