Newcastle, 10 April
20,000 join demo against poverty wages
Over 20,000 people marched through Newcastle upon Tyne on April 10, demanding a living wage for all.
Although supported by 14 national trade unions, only UNISON made any real attempt to mobilise its membership.
Even within Unison, it was overwhelmingly the left of the union who where actively trying to mobilise. Given these limitations, the demonstration was an outstanding success, proving that there is a real basis amongst rank and file trade unionists for campaigning against low wages.
UNISON’s NEC tried to keep politics off the march: sending out instructions that no political literature would not be allowed, and refusing to organise any speakers before during or after the demo.
Not only could they not in the end keep left placards and newspapers off the march, but Bickerstaffe was mightily embarrassed by the behaviour of the lead contingent of young people who rightly insisted on chanting more militant slogans than those of the official stewards.
The fact that the rally organised by the Campaign for a Fighting and Democratic Unison and the SWP was attended by over 2,000 people, with many more turned away clearly showed that people attended the demonstration because they were interested in the politics.
This demo must be seen as just the beginning of an ongoing campaign to mobilise all trade unionist to demand a decent wage for all.