The People's Republic of South Devon

March for the Altnerative: More than 350,000 took part in a peaceful protest against the government’s cuts – they believe there are altneratives that have not been explored

You’d be forgiven for thinking Saturday’s (March 26) TUC rally was only attended by hardcore militants considering the media coverage. Paint bombs, fires and hoodies and masks dominate our papers and rolling media. There’s very little focus on the reasons why the other 349,800 people gave up a Saturday to march though.

Like over 350,000 people I didn’t throw any paint bombs at Starbucks. Nor did I, like any of the 350,000, throw tables and sticks at the Ritz. I didn’t start any fires and neither did nearly 350,000 other people.

The woman with her children who I started the march alongside didn’t seem to be a militant. She had a child in a pushchair and together with some of her friends and their children she had travelled to London with her homemade placards to protest at cuts to her local SureStart. She was someone who felt so strongly about the cuts that she wanted to march. She wasn’t a militant. She’s not in the papers today.

Neither was the train enthusiast I met near Embankment tube who was marching with ASLEF. He was there because he feared rural train services would be cut and rural communities cut off. He wasn’t a radical, he was just motivated and concerned sufficiently that he took action to do something about his concerns. Neither of these people are radicals but none of them feature in the papers today.

Is the sad truth of things that unless someone breaks something, starts a fight or throws some paint at something having nearly half a million people march isn’t newsworthy enough? I know the old adage ‘if it bleeds, it leads’ may well be a joke, but to an extent it’s true.

The people I spoke to on the march were there to protest against an injustice. The media coverage today may seek to ignore the mass movement that the 350,000 people in the march represent but my ignoring their contribution it only compounds the injustice on behalf of those who marched. Indeed, the Tory media would have been better ignoring the march rather than highlighting the actions of a few as it has brought a spotlight on their coverage and with it the question of whether the media is biased in favour of the Tories. This doesn’t do the government any favours in the long run.

On Friday, I posted about why I marched and today I am even more certain that the reasons I marched are the right ones. I can now add saving SureStart and rural rail services to the list from my conversations with people on the march. Alone I have one voice, but together we had nearly half a million. That’s volume and a reason for the Tories and Lib Dems plotting the devastating cuts to pay attention. We are voters, afterall.

I neither expected a knee-jerk reaction or sudden U-turn in policy from the Tories and the Lib Dems. What the TUC march represented was a sign that the silent majority is unhappy with the government and its policies. Pensioners, fire-fighters, doctors, nurses, teachers, train drivers, parents, students, the rich and the poor, the middle, children and teenagers, the unemployed, the soon to be redundant, the ladies who lunch, the men who play darts, the rural farm workers to the (rather brave) banker I met were there to tell government that there is an alternative to their cuts.

The biggest lie that this government has peddled is that there is no alternative. Their plan to wipeout the deficit by the end of this Parliament is presented as the only option, an unalterable truth, a directive that must be obeyed and never deviated from. There are alternatives, there are lots of them. Just as we saw when the Tories were forced to cancel the forest sales. Their plan is alterable. It takes volume and political determination to alter but it can be changed. That’s why protest marches like yesterday’s are so important – to highlight that there are alternatives and that the Government is ignoring them.

Plymouth and much of England will go to the polls on May 5 to elect a new set of councillors. The Liberal Democrats will likely be punished the hardest at the polls and perhaps rightly so. The Tories have shown over generations that the market and economics come first, but the Liberal Democrats have a history of offering alternatives. Sure, some of them were crazy, unworkable and politically expedient – but their ability to offer challenge was ever-present. It seems they’ve left this skill in the same place as their tuition

and VAT policies

So, come on, let’s start talking about alternatives. This isn’t just the big picture strategy such as the Tories’ 100% deficit reduction in five years or Labour’s plan to halve the deficit over the same time to encourage growth. It is also about how services can be delivered better on the ground, how cuts and taxes can be altered and what type of society we are building.

Saturday showed me that the opposition to this Coalition is not just from a politically motivated few, it is from a widespread cross-section of society from every part of the United Kingdom. I applaud those who peacefully demonstrated yesterday, especially those from the south west who travelled hours to attend the march. You did not march in vain. The success of the march must not be viewed soley through the prism of what the Daily Mail or Sky News reports.

We marched, we raised our voices – now let’s return home and organise for the May 5 elections where we will be able to use our vote not just our feet to force changes.

(image: March for the Alternative – Banner Some rights reserved by Dominic’s pics)

© People's Republic of South Devon, 2011. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh