Wherever I go, I meet people who are frightened about their future. They worry about their job, about making ends meet, about debt and about whether they will have enough to live on in retirement. They worry about their children and whether they will ever get a job and they worry about their elderly parents. And they worry about the people they look after and the services they deliver.
Some are Unison members, some are not. But not one of them caused the financial crisis, yet it is now their burden. The greedy speculators gifted the Tories their excuse for pursuing an ideological agenda of “shrinking the state” under the guise of the “there is no alternative” mantra.
Hundreds of thousands of public sector workers face the dole, along with the services they deliver. They are the people who keep our schools, hospitals, libraries, care homes and other vital services running. They are not privileged bureaucrats. Many are low-paid women. And their pay has been frozen while inflation runs at 5 per cent.
The knock-on impact on local economies and communities will be devastating. No part of the United Kingdom will be unharmed, but those towns that rely heavily on the public sector for jobs may go the same way as the old pit villages that Margaret Thatcher destroyed.
We know the country faces tough choices, but that means getting tough on those who have had it easy for too long and not the elderly, the sick, the children or the vulnerable. Investment in public services will speed recovery, tens of billions could be raised each year through a fairer tax system and by tackling tax avoidance by the rich.
And, if we are all in this together, as the coalition claims, why are the poorest households being hit 15 times harder than the richest in this cuts programme?
There is an alternative that we in the trade union and labour movement have been pushing that is gradually cutting through the Tory rhetoric. People are waking up to the reality of harsh, deep cuts and they don’t like it. They can see the unfairness of low paid workers being axed and services and benefits cut while bonanza bank bonuses spiral. They recognise broken pledges when they see them. And they are looking to us for a lead – for a way that they can say: we want an alternative.
That’s why I believe the TUC-organised march on Saturday for jobs, justice and growth, will be massive. It will give people a chance to express their disgust, their anger and their fears. It will give them a voice. Tens of thousands of Unison members, other trade unionists and their families will march alongside students, pensioners, community and faith groups. We are all in this together.
The march will be the culmination of months of planning and organising, but it won’t be the end. I believe it will be the beginning of a mass movement to change the political ideology that is driving this Con-Dem Government that will end when it is turfed out of office. It may be a long haul, but it will be worth it.
Dave Prentis is general secretary of Unison
