Tory council leaders in Birmingham are trying to stop any effective protest outside the Conservative Party conference.
Anti-Tory protesters are being prevented from marching past the Tory party conference. At a meeting on Friday, 10 September, Birmingham council officials ruled out any route that gets near the conference.
Organisers of the demonstration believed they had secured agreement with the police and the local authority to march past the conference. But this has now been refused on the grounds of “security considerations”. The council also claims that some routes are “too expensive”, meaning that the right to protest will be allocated on cost grounds.
The Right to Work campaign has been building the 3 October demonstration for several months. “We expect thousands of people—trade unionists, students, unemployed, disabled people, pensioners, anti-war activists, campaigners of all sorts—to take part,” says Michael Bradley from the Right to Work steering committee.
The statement to defend our democratic right to protest where our voices will be heard has gathered widespread support, with latest backers including Ken Loach, the internationally acclaimed film director, Billy Hayes CWU general secretary along with 4 other national trade union general secretaries, and a number of MPS.
We must all continue to gather signatures for the statement. The Con-Dem government do not have a mandate for these cuts and the privatisation of our services. Particularly in this context, it is a worrying development if our democratic right to protest against our government’s policy is supressed.
Representatives of Right to Work will meet again with West Midlands Police and the Birmingham Council Representative on thursday.
To sign the statement online, and for a full list of support, https://sites.google.com/site/righttowo ... testletter
An updated version of the PDF statement with the most up to date signatories is attached so you can approach others to sign. You can update any signatories you collect via the below links, or encourage others to sign online. Or you can let us know by responding to this email.
The protest now has the backing of 4 national unions, as the CWU pledged its support this week. With Vince Cables’ announcement that Royal Mail is to be privatised, there is a real opportunity to start building for big delegations of postal workers joining thousands on the day to link their fight against the Tories to all the other struggles of workers and service users who are also facing the Con-Dem’s offensive on public services and jobs.
Please continue to send in reports, photos and videos for the national website from local Right to Work groups, or from any campaigns or events that are happening where you are against the austerity attacks.
Right to Work Campaign
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