SCOTLAND was last night urged to unite against austerity with thousands of people expected to take part in tomorrow’s mass demonstration against government cuts.

The rally in George Square, Glasgow, is among events being held throughout Britain as organisations opposed to the Conservative Government’s attack on the poor and on frontline public services step up their campaign.

More than 2000 supporters are expected in Glasgow which is expected to host the biggest demonstration outside London where campaigners, including the singer Charlotte Church, below, will march from the Bank of England to Westminster.



Leaders from the trade union movement, as well as political parties, women’s organisations and those against the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) will be among those speaking at the Glasgow rally, called Scotland United Against Austerity, which is being organised by the STUC and the anti-cuts organisation the People’s Assembly.


Pat Rafferty, right, Scottish Secretary of the Britain’s biggest trade union Unite, who will attend the rally, said people need to come together to fight the Tories’ austerity agenda.

“The stakes are so high because this generation must not only resist austerity, it must also succeed in delivering the alternative – a fair, just and prosperous country,” he said.

Larry Flanagan, general secretary of the teachers’ union the Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS), who will also speak at the demonstration, said “the divisive age of austerity” should come to an end.

“Following more than five years of pain, inflicted both on workers and on some of the most disadvantaged in society, it is time for the Government to take a different, fairer, approach to public finances. In the view of the EIS, the only way to achieve this aim is to invest in our public services and our people to build a better, fairer and more equal country for us all.”

Global Justice Now, the campaign group which has taken a lead role in opposing TTIP, will also send representatives to tomorrow’s rally.

Polly Jones, head of campaigns and policy at the organisation, added: “Thousands of people across Scotland are demanding an end to TTIP negotiations. Global Justice Now is proud to stand with others at the People’s Assembly Against Austerity.”

A series of reports has shown the apparent impact of welfare reform brought in by the last Coalition Government and the pressures the controversial benefit sanctions have put on pregnant women, single mothers, survivors of domestic abuse, disabled women and refugees.

Food banks and churches have also highlighted the increasing number of people turning to emergency food supplies to feed themselves and their families.

Yet, Chancellor George Osborne is expected to deepen the cuts when he unveils his budget next month.

At his Mansion House speech to the City last week he revealed plans to push ahead with new fiscal rules forcing government departments to cut spending in a bid to run at a surplus. A leading think-tank has warned the move would see Britain pursue an economic policy not seen since Victorian times.

The SNP has previously warned that the Tories’ £12 billion of cuts planned for the welfare budget will push 100,000 more Scottish children into poverty.

The party is opposed to the economic policy and wants Westminster to implement an “immediate review” of benefit sanctions and for full welfare powers to be handed over to the Scottish Parliament.

Kirsteen Fraser, acting head of the SNP TUG group, who will be speaking at the demonstration, said: “The SNP supports the aims of the STUC’s march and we are totally committed to bringing about an end to the austerity cuts being imposed by the UK Tory Government which are harming the most vulnerable in society.”

Sarah Beattie-Smith, a Scottish Green Party candidate, who will also be at tomorrow’s rally, urged those opposed to cuts to come together in a strong social movement in order to fight austerity and take power into their own hands.

“It’s so important that people come out to George Square for tomorrow’s rally. We need to show the Conservative Government that Scotland will not stand for its savage austerity regime, a regime that is already forcing the most vulnerable in our society into foodbanks and on to the streets,” she said.

“More than ever, we need to unite across political and social divides in defence of each other and of the most vulnerable against this ideologically-driven attack.

“As Greens we stand for equality, not poverty, and for public services in public hands. Yet this Tory Government wants to do away with our human rights, abandon any drive for equality and hold a fire sale for as many public services as it can. This weekend represents the start of the fightback against austerity and the uniting of a movement determined to take power back. We must learn from history and from one another, finding new ways to fight back against austerity and against those who would take away our human rights, our jobs and our opportunities to defend them.”