ACTION POINTS
• Promote March 26 the demo
• Book transport for March 26 the demo
• Recruit stewards for TUC stewarding course
• Publicise False Economy website
• Encourage local groups --- particularly in target MP constituencies
• Encourage attendance at youth event and community conference
• Pass this bulletin on to campaigners. Give us more names for our email list to amthewson@tuc.org.uk
Mobilising for the March for the Alternative
As we hope everyone now knows, the TUC's national demonstration will be on Saturday March 26th next year. Our task now is to ensure that this is the biggest event in the TUC's recent history. Promotional material is now available. Leaflets and posters can be ordered from the TUC and an order form is appended to this bulletin. Alternatively pdfs can be downloaded from www.tuc.org.uk/alltogether or if you want to produce union specific versions you can contact Rob Sanders (rsanders@tuc.org.uk).
We will shortly have a web widget some code that can be easily inserted in a web site - asking people to pledge their attendance at the event. We will email round when this is available and queries about this should be directed to jwood@tuc.org.uk.
Transport
As we expect this demonstration to be huge we are asking people to assemble at 11am on the Embankment, so people organising transport from outside London may well need an early start. We are already hearing reports of people booking trains, and there will be countless coaches. TUC regional offices stand ready to help co-ordinate and publicise transport, and we will also advertise coaches or transport with spare seats on the website.
Stewarding
A demonstration of this size will need a large number of good confident stewards.
Our plan is to have three types of steward:
• 200-300 senior stewards: we would expect these to attend one of two training events in advance. We are asking TUC unions at a national level to nominate these, and will shortly be writing to unions about this.
• 500+ stewards: we would expect these to attend a regional briefing event. We will be recruiting these through TUC regional offices.
• Transport stewards we will ask each coach or group of people travelling to London to nominate a steward in advance, via the TUC website. We will provide written briefing in advance and ask them to provide a mobile number so we can keep them in touch by text with any developments.
Keith Faulkner RIP
Many people in the trade union movement will have known Keith Faulkner, the TUC's senior events officer and the lead official organising the march. Sadly, Keith died suddenly earlier in December. Keith is a great loss to the TUC, and the wider movement. We are picking up the organisation of the march as best we can in the meantime, the interim lead contact for the event is Nigel Stanley. (nstanley@tuc.org.uk).
The Cuts are not the Cure
In response to requests for a publication that sets out the economic case against the cuts and explains the alternative we have produced a 12 page pamphlet called Cuts are not the Cure. We are producing hard copies of this for sale (at cost price). It can be ordered using the order form for the march mobilisation materials.
You can also download a pdf at http://www.tuc.org.uk/extras/CUTS_ARE_NOT_TH
E_CURE.pdf or http://bit.ly/cutsnotcure.
False Economy website
The False Economy website at www.falseeconomy.org.uk is an important part of the TUC's campaign strategy. It will receive a formal launch in the New Year, but has now been live for a few weeks.
The site is not a TUC or union site exclusively, but is a resource hub for the wider anti-cuts movement that has been built by a coalition of unions, on-line campaigners and some people active in local anti-cuts groups.
It has four purposes:
• Making the case for the alternative with a set of pages on the economics of the cuts and the alternatives, but more importantly a fabulous video fronted by actor Samuel West.
• Gathering information about cuts with an "add a cut" feature that allows people to report cuts whether small and local, or big and national. Already we have a great deal of information.
• Gathering testimonials about the effects of the cuts by allowing people to tell their stories about the impact of the cuts on their lives or communities.
• Building campaigns by gathering information about local, sectoral and national anti-cuts groups and allowing them to publicise events.
Where appropriate, cuts, events and testimonials can be linked to postcodes with the information available via an interactive map. This is designed to be a useful tool for cuts campaigners and a way of drawing people into the arguments for the alternative and activity.
Keeping Up Local Pressure
An important part of the campaign is keeping up pressure on coalition MPs, particularly those with small majorities or who stood on a platform of opposing early cuts. We have identified 152 target MPs. A majority were lobbied at, or near to, the TUC rally in October on the eve of the Government's Spending Review.
The list of target MPs is available at www.bitly.com/targetMPs, but you need to be a member of the TUC's Google group email list to have access to this. We have limited its availability to those who get this bulletin as we are now adding slightly more sensitive info.
If you do not have one, you will need to set up a Google log-in using the email address that we use to send this bulletin to you. That's easy to do. If you already have a Google log-in with another email address it's easy to link the email address the TUC is using to this from first the settings link on the top right of a Google screen and then the account details.
We are also happy to add any bona-fide union campaigners to the Google group, so if you have been forwarding emails on to colleagues, feel free to send their email addresses to Alen Mathewson at the TUC amathewson@tuc.org.uk
Netroots UK
Netroots Nation is a major US conference that periodically brings together progressive campaigners, bloggers, unions and others to share and build experience about on-line activism.
The TUC is delighted to be able to host the first Netroots UK event on Saturday January 8th. While this is not formally part of the All Together campaign, the campaign against the cuts is clearly a dominant issue, and is bound to heavily feature.
This is also an important way to build the alliances and coalitions that we have identified as an important part of the campaign. A big range of campaign groups are backing the event.
More details at http://www.netrootsuk.org/
Women and the cuts
A new TUC briefing explains the impact of the cuts on women. Here is a link to the press release and report:
• Cuts will reduce women's income and widen the gender pay gap, says TUC
Public sector job losses will be felt particularly hard by women working part-time as the average pay for part-time jobs in the private sector is just £6.78 an hour (compared to £9.34 in the public sector).
Lone parents, 90 per cent of whom are female, will be hit hardest by the spending cuts, losing 18.5 per cent of their net household income, or £3,121). Single female pensioners are next hardest hit, losing 11.7 per cent of their net income, or £1,326.
The TUC report also cites the gender audit of the emergency budget in June carried out by the House of Commons library, which found that 72 per cent of the changes in taxes, benefits and tax credits will hit women.
Voluntary sector conference
Community and voluntary sector groups will be joining the TUC at a special event on 8th February to look at ‘the future for civil society’. The event will bring unions and community and voluntary organisations together to assess the impacts of the government’s package of spending cuts, public service and welfare reform, providing a key opportunity to promote the All Together campaign to a broad range of civil society organisations.
A future that works
A national TUC rally for young people will be held in Manchester on Saturday January 29th 2011. The aim of the rally is to highlight the impact of the recession and the coalition cuts on young workers and young people in general.
Regional events
A series of regional TUC All Together Campaign briefings is being run throughout January and February. These practical sessions will provide an opportunity for reps, activists, officers and organisers to:
• Get an update on the campaign both nationally and regionally
• Get some practical advice on how to build the campaign in the workplace and beyond
• Prepare to mobilise for the March for the Alternative in London on March 26th
Each half-day session will be delivered by regional and national TUC staff and will feature sessions on improving campaign communication, building community based alliances against the cuts and using the campaign to build stronger unions.
The dates of the briefings are in the ‘diary dates’ section below. If you would like to attend one of the sessions please contact your regional TUC office.
There is also a whole host of other activity planned for the coming weeks, with a series of major regional events in the lead-up to the March for the Alternative including rallies, conferences and local campaigning. See below for some key dates and contact your regional TUC for more information.
Diary Dates
7 Jan --- Campaign briefing, Cardiff
8 Jan --- Netroots UK, London
8 Jan --- South West TUC Regional Council with anti-cuts theme
10 Jan--- Campaign briefing, Wrexham
11 Jan--- Campaign briefing, Wigan
12 Jan--- Campaign briefing, Birmingham
15 Jan --- SERTUC local campaigns day
22 Jan --- Northern TUC rally, Carlisle
29 Jan--- A Future that Works: TUC national rally for young people, Manchester
3 Feb --- Campaign briefing, Weston-Super-Mare
5 Feb --- Northern TUC public services conference, Newcastle
8 Feb --- Campaign briefing, Kendal
8 Feb --- Voluntary sector conference, London
19 Feb --- Midlands TUC supported march & rally, Nottingham
5/6 March --- Yorkshire & Humber TUC AGM with focus on the campaign
8 March --- International Women’s Day, activity in various regions including South West TUC ‘Women against the cuts’ event.
TUC regional contacts
To find out which is your TUC region and its contact details visit: http://www.tuc.org.uk/tuc/regions_main.cfm.
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