On Saturday 20th October I was just one of over 150,000 people who had gathered in London to march against the austerity agenda being pushed through by the ruling classes. The march took place just a day after Andrew Mitchell was forced to resign for calling the policeman guarding Thatcher's gates at the end of Downing Street a "pleb".
The march was the "Plebs on Parade". We sent a message to the Tory Party and the Lib-Dems that we would not accept cuts in services and benefits at the same time as tax cuts for the rich.
The march was organised by the TUC and in his speech to the rally at Hyde Park, the general secretary of the public sector union PCS, Mark Serwotka, spoke passionately about how the taxes which have gone uncollected are sufficient to eradicate the need for cuts.
Unfortunately the TUC had also invited the Labour Party leader Ed Miliband to speak. In his speech Miliband spoke about how he would impose cuts if he was elected Prime Minister in the next election. The inevitable outcome was that those who were present greeted Miliband with a chorus of boos. I was just arriving at the rally when he finished speaking, but if I had arrived earlier my voice would have joined the chorus.
Miliband may be the leader of the Labour Party, but his party cares not one iota for the working classes that Labour are supposed to represent. He has supported the con trick that the poorest in society should pay the gambling debts of the bankers. The old saying goes that actions speak louder than words. Miliband pays lip service to being leader of the Labour Party, which was founded by the trades union movement, but acts like a Tory.
I have always believed that the Tories and their fellow travellers are worthy of nothing but contempt. When a so-called Labour leader joins the Tory Party in their agenda of penalising the poor then I will criticise that Labour Party leader.
Labour in government didn't exactly have a stellar record and, frankly, deserved to be defeated at the last election. Their record was that of being Tory-lite. It was the Labour government which introduced tuition fees for university courses. It was the Labour government which started the process towards stealing the pensions of public sector workers. It was the Labour government which introduced work assessments for disabled people. It was the Labour government which subsidised bankers while cutting benefits for the poorest in society. These aren't the actions of a party which bears the name Labour - meaning they are the party of the workers and poor. These are the action of a party for the rich.
Labour do not deserve the support of the working classes and the Trades Union movement. Unions established Labour and unions should withdraw funding from Labour and start a new party to represent the workers and those who are unable to work because of disability. Miliband and his party are selling us out big time. They deserve our full contempt.
