People’s Assembly: Missed opportunity to fight Labour austerity

by Sofia Pandolfi, South West London Socialist Party

Socialist Party and Socialist Students members participated in the People’s Assembly Against Austerity demonstration in London on 7 June.

Socialist Party placards

The march opposed cuts and austerity implemented by the Labour government. It advocated for greater funding of public services, calling for “welfare, not warfare”.

Trump walkout

Socialist Students urged a response to Donald Trump’s future visit to Britain. We’re calling for walkouts from schools, colleges, and universities, as a way to stand in solidarity with young people and workers internationally.

The small turnout for the demonstration highlighted that the organisers of People’s Assembly lack the ability to mobilise, despite being backed by several trade unions. It shows that the fight against Labour austerity must be led by the unions themselves. A weekend demonstration, organised by the trade union movement in its own name, would be a step forward.

New workers’ party

The official organisers of the demo did not call for the urgent need for political representation of the working class. Regardless, the Socialist Party received a positive response calling for this during the protest.

Many people agreed that Labour has proved it does not care for the needs of the majority of society. Through our petition, we called for the need for a new mass workers’ party, and the trade unions to take the lead in creating an alternative to the capitalist interests of the main parties.