{vsig}anti_austerity_march{/vsig}
On Saturday 20 June, Revolutionary Communist Group (RCG) supporters attended the ‘End Austerity Now’ demonstration in London, called by the People’s Assembly. Up to 150,000 people marched.
Following the addition of Jeremy Corbyn to the ballot for leader of the Labour Party, the People’s Assembly attempted to turn the march into an election rally. Sam Fairbarn, General Secretary of the People’s Assembly, was reported in The Guardian on 16 June as backing Corbyn and complaining that Burnham, Cooper and Kendall had refused to attend the march. Of Corbyn, he said ‘Jeremy is the only candidate who takes a principled anti-austerity, anti-war stance consistently’. This was followed by an article on 17 June by Chris Nineham, national officer of the Stop the War Coalition and a leading member of the People’s Assembly, under the headline ‘Corbyn is in the leadership race – don’t just celebrate, organise!’:
‘Getting Jeremy Corbyn onto the Labour leadership ballot was a breakthrough which opens up a big opportunity for the left in Britain…An ambitious, high profile campaign for Jeremy which draws on the movements against austerity, war and racism, can project radical ideas to a huge audience and build the forces of the left in every area.’
Yet Corbyn’s ‘principled stance’ has not prevented him remaining a member of a Labour Party that in government has implemented savage austerity policies, murdered hundreds of thousands in imperialist wars, and when last in office boasted of deporting one person every eight minutes – all of this while he has been an MP. There is no chance Corbyn will win the leadership contest: he is simply a left cover its evermore reactionary character.
The trade union leaders on the platform offered little else other than cheerleading Labour. Mark Serwotka, General Secretary of the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS), urged ‘every one here to register and vote for Jeremy Corbyn’ in the leadership contest, and once again called for a ‘national strike’ – a lot of hot air when the days lost to strike action over the last five years have been at a historic low. Unite boss Len McClusky also ranted against austerity, but there was no evidence as to how he would lead a real fight back given Unite’s many ties, financial and otherwise, to Labour.
In the week before the march the media, police, and leaders of the People’s Assembly all combined to deter any more radical challenge. On 13 June the Sunday Mail launched a witch-hunt against individuals who had spoken at a public meeting organised by the Radical Left Assembly/Brick Lane Debates to discuss creative interventions during the march. Disgracefully, leading People’s Assembly member Alex Snowdon went on Facebook to condone the attack, saying ‘Having small meetings to discuss how to disrupt a mass demonstration, eg by storming the stage, achieves nothing and merely reflects contempt for the vast bulk of those protesting’ When asked if he knew how much of the article was actually true, he replied: ‘I don’t know what is and isn’t true, but I should think most is at least factually accurate’. His post was approvingly shared by other People’s Assembly leaders including Fairbarn, Nineham and John Rees. Such people are coppers’ narks who should have no place in the movement.
Following the Sunday Mail article, police arbitrarily imposed bail conditions on five activists on the day before the march, prohibiting them from joining the protest or entering the areas around Whitehall or Parliament. Three were arrested. The purpose was to ensure that the demonstration was kept within the limits set by the People’s Assembly organisers, ones which would not disrupt their alliance with the Labour Party or prevent any challenge to their platform of pre-approved speakers. There was no room for representatives from real campaigns against austerity such as Focus E15 or Fight4Aylesbury which have been at the forefront of fighting austerity in London. The reason is obvious: their principal enemies have been local Labour councils in Newham and Southwark which have been evicting tenants and selling off council housing stock to private developers.
To provide an alternative to this anti-democratic charade, the RCG contingent held an open microphone as part of the housing bloc, giving everybody the opportunity to speak. Many took advantage of this, and were free to express their anger at those implementing austerity, whether from the Conservative or Labour Parties.
The promotion of Corbyn by the People’s Assembly represents a desperate attempt by social democratic, opportunist forces to protect the reactionary Labour Party. Corbyn’s leadership campaign is the last refuge for those who insist on deceiving us that the Labour Party can be part of a fight against austerity. Across Britain a new movement is beginning to take shape – it is time to bury the Labour Party and its apologists and build a movement against austerity that is independent, democratic, and uncompromising.
