People's Assembly Against Austerity

The People's Assembly Against Austerity

Formation	2013
Type	Pressure group
Headquarters	London
Key people	Clare Solomon, Steve Turner, Romayne Phoenix, Sam Fairbairn, Nick McCarthy, David Steel, Owen Jones, John Rees,[1]
Website	http://thepeoplesassembly.org.uk/

The People’s Assembly Against Austerity is a political initiative in the United Kingdom, launched in 2013.

It is a movement to "push the arguments against austerity" it sees as missing from British politics and to fight for all those people it sees as being hit by Government policies, including low-paid workers, disabled people, unemployed people, the young, black, minority and ethnic groups and women.^[2]

Launch

It was launched with an open letter published in The Guardian in February 2013, backed by public figures such as Tony Benn, Len McCluskey and Jeremy Corbyn MP.^[3]

A press conference was held on 26 March 2013 in London where speakers included Caroline Lucas MP, journalist Owen Jones,^[4][5] comedian Mark Steel,^[6] then Labour MP Katy Clark, comedian and disabled activist Francesca Martinez, Steve Turner of Unite and Zita Holbourne representing Black Activists Rising Against the Cuts.

Backing

The initiative has been backed by major trade unions such as Unite, UNISON, NUT, NUJ, PCS and RMT. It has also received support from numerous campaigning groups, individuals and poitical parties. These include: the Green Party, the Communist Party of Britain, the Coalition of Resistance, Left Unity, Labour MPs, Tariq Ali, Imran Khan, John Pilger and Ken Loach.^[7]

Activities and initiatives

Demonstration organised by the Assembly, June 20, 2015

On 22 June 2013, over 4,000 people attended a conference at Westminster Central Hall in London.^[8] This followed meetings and rallies across the country including Glasgow, Nottingham, Newcastle,^[9] Manchester,^[10] Sheffield, Bristol,^[11] Brighton & Hove,^[12] Southend, Derby, Leicester, North London and South East London.

Following localized group discussions held at the London conference in 2013, local activist groups have been forming and holding meetings across the UK,^[13] with the aim of uniting and strengthening existing campaign groups in local areas with the People's Assembly movement. Delegations from the regional groups were expected to join a national mass protest outside the Conservative Party conference in Manchester on 29 September 2013 and an organised day of civil disobedience across the UK on 5 November 2013.^[14]

The People's Assembly organized a demonstration which took place on 21 June 2014, marching from outside the BBC Trust's Portland Place offices to Parliament Square.^[15] Organizers claimed up to 50,000 demonstrated in central London. Speakers included, among others, comedians Russell Brand, Kate Smurthwaite, Mark Steel and Francesca Martinez, Labour MPs Diane Abbott and Jeremy Corbyn, Green Party MP Caroline Lucas, Lindsey German of the Stop the War Coalition, Kate Hudson from CND, and, then mayor of Tower Hamlets, Lutfur Rahman.^[16]

As well as putting on national events, the majority of work is carried out by the local People's Assemblies, that were either founded after the founding People's Assembly, or incorporate pre-existing local anti-cuts groups. These have ranged from People's Question Times, on anti-austerity issues and usually with well known public figures; local demonstrations, regular leafleting, and support for all anti-austerity campaigns in local areas.

In 2015 the first edition of the People's Manifesto was published, articulating anti-austerity policies.

One of the key goals of the People's Assembly movement as published in the Draft Statement is "To make government abandon its austerity programme. If it will not it must be replaced with one that will."^[17]

On 16 April, the National People's Assembly led a further national demonstration labelled the "March for Health, Homes, Jobs, Education".^[18]

The demonstration was organised to protest for the following causes:

• Health
  • Fully funded and publicly owned NHS - end privatisation
  • Invest in health workers - end the staffing crisis
  • No cuts or closures
• Homes
  • Hands off social housing
  • Secure homes for all
  • Control rents
• Jobs
  • Scrap the Trade Union Reform Bill
  • Stop insecure contracts
  • End the pay freeze, living wage for all
• Education
  • Scrap Tuition Fees
  • Invest in our futures - stop cuts to education
  • End the marketisation of education

It has been reported that the march was attended by 50,000 to 150,000^[19] protesters, who marched from London's Euston Road to Trafalgar Square

References

External links

• Official website