Last week saw a huge array of anti-cuts actions beginning on Saturday 19th March with a UK Uncut action which saw Barclays Bank and a number of shops targetted. On Tuesday UCU members went on strike in defence of pensions. On Wednesday a protest was held in the Market Square against the budget. Thursday saw a second day of UCU strike action, this time around pay and conditions with a rally in the city centre. This was followed by a defend ESOL demonstration. The week was rounded off by the huge anti-cuts demonstration in London which drew anything up to half a million people.

On the newswire: After March 26th–a good day out & a lot more to do | English for speakers of other languages ESOL Rally | University and College Union Strike & Rally | Interview with a striking lecturer | The Lecturers Strike Back | Notts SOS Newsletter #4 March/April 2011 | University staff picket line support from students | Cuts Protest @ Vodafone, BHS, NatWest, TopShop etc | Barclays Bank visited by anti-cuts protesters | ESOL Cuts Will Devastate Language Education

Previous features: Notts Joins March Against Cuts | Resistance to Nottingham City Cuts | No Cuts in Nottingham! | Notts Uncut campaigners shut Natwest Bank | Notts County Council workers strike against cuts | Notts students protest EMA cuts | Notts Occupation Ends; Resistance Continues | Uni of Nottingham occupied in anti-fees protest | Nottingham students protest cuts | Action against cuts continues in Notts | Week of action against cuts in Nottingham | Notts County Council announce £72m cuts | Notttingham mobilises to save services

Despite the sheer scale of the TUC organised march, Vince Cable was wheeled out to confirm that the government intended to ignore it: “We’re not going to change the basic economic strategy… No government – coalition, Labour or any other – would change its fundamental economic policy simply in response to a demonstration of that kind.” This should not come as a great surprise, nobody seriously expected the government to crumble after one demonstration, but anger about the cuts is not going away. Nor can it be contained by trade union bureaucrats, as the clashes and widespread property damage which followed the main march demonstrate.

TUC general secretary Brendan Barber has described this as the end of the “phoney war” and anti-cuts, locally and nationally, campaigners have no intention of giving up. Strike action is planned by the PCS with Nottingham City Unison planning to ballot its members and further protests are inevitable. This struggle is only just beginning.