Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

Two Hundred March Against Wirral Cuts

Neon Black | 12.01.2009 21:31 | Social Struggles | Workers' Movements | Liverpool

As hundreds of thousands in London, Edinburgh and around the world demonstrated against Israel's genocidal attacks on Gaza, a much smaller protest took place in Wallasey, Merseyside. While it would be inappropriate to draw many parallels between the two, it can be said the struggle for life and freedom in Palestine and for decent public services in this country have one thing in common: they represent squares in the global chess match between the profit system and the rest of humanity.



Fate prevented there being a high turnout: apart from the fact of the Palestine demo, it was a bitterly cold Saturday morning, and publicity had been in very short supply. Despite all this, about two hundred people braved the conditions, and marched the two miles from Wallasey Town Hall to the threatened Wirral Museum in Birkenhead.

The event was a slightly odd one, and proved the old saying that 'politics makes for strange bedfellows'. Anarchists marched behind Conservatives, who clapped a Socialist Workers Party speaker (prospective Wallasey and Moreton Tory MP Leah Fraser even briefly held a Unite placard, before presumably thinking better of it). Workers who jobs are faced with the axe were present, along with trade unionists and people from smaller socialist parties. Quite a few children also marched.

At the Birkenhead rally, several speeches were made, and everyone condemned Wirral Council's plan to close twelve libraries - Birkenhead Central Library and many local branches - plus two leisure centres (including Guinea Gap Baths, right next to the Town Hall), Pacific Road Theatre and the Wirral Museum at Birkenhead Town Hall. Labour Council leader Steve Foulkes has pledged "better but fewer" services, and has the support of Lib Dems within his coalition.

During the last week, more than two thousand people have attended the Council's sham 'consultation' meetings, and have overwhelmingly shown their hostility to the cuts. The 'Save Wirral's Services' Facebook group has over three thousand members. Many letters have been written to local papers. In the end however, the decision rests with the Wirral Cabinet, when they meet on Thursday, 15th January.

Nationally, the Conservative Party openly wants to "shrink" the public sector, yet for now the local Tories continue to speak left of Wirral Labour and Lib Dems over the proposed cuts. For their part, the trade union leaders did not propose any industrial action yesterday.

Politics only makes for strange bedfellows so long as each person thinks it's in their interests to snuggle up. After the official political process runs its course, we'll see who's in a committed relationship with who.

For videos of the event, visit:  http://uk.youtube.com/user/adnauseam81

Neon Black
- Homepage: http://dreaming-neon-black.blogspot.com

Comments

Display the following comment

  1. mtobrien100@hotmail.com — Mark O'Brien
Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech