Manchester and Salford will be flooded with the demonstration Manchester for the Alternative organised by the trade unions and other nation-wide and local groups against the Tory Party conference.
It is more generally a protest against the wave of cuts that are ripping up the welfare state in the UK as well as in other countries in Europe. We are facing an unprecedented era of cutbacks to basic social rights like education and health services - or, to name a few more specific and local examples, childcare, pensions, affordable higher education, even libraries!
It has taken more than 150 years of struggles (measured in human lives) to achieve those rights. Are we really going to look aside and wait while they take those rights away from the people?
It is time to remind our governments that their power stems from the citizens that have elected them - that they work for ALL the citizens, not only for the rich and for the lobbies - and especially that they do NOT (or rather should not) work for the bankers, financial traders nor for the opaque and non-democratic institutions that nobody has elected (like the IMF, WB, ECB, or the increasingly powerful rating agencies, which have lately been allowed -by our governments- to have a dangerously high influence on the everyday lives of millions of people in Europe).
It is clearly not enough to vote once every four years or to march from time to time. It is time to diversify and to globalise the struggle.
That is why this Sunday will be an important day here in the UK.
A couple of months ago we were very happy at Real Democracy Manchester to hear about the birth of a local group-of-groups, OCCUPY! Manchester, as it was precisely what we had been waiting for since last May. We have in this way joined forces with many local groups with whom this Sunday we will
- take part in the Education part of the march that is starting from University Place on Oxford Road at 11am and which will join the main march at 12am (see route map),
- OCCUPY! Albert Square after the march, in order to create a space for assemblies and creative discussions (in the style of the square occupations that sprung up e.g. in Spain last May or in Wall Street, New York two weeks ago).
In short - we hope to see you on Sunday, knowing that October 2nd is not an end, but a beginning!
