Why you’re marching: Part 2

Since we’ve been running our “Pledge to March for the Alernative” action on the site, we’ve had over 3,000 pledges to march, and loads of great messages, telling us why you’re coming on the march.

We wanted to share a few more of the messages we’ve been getting, to highlight the many different reasons why so many are planning to join us on 26 March:

I’m marching on 26 March because…

Public services are essential – bankers’ bonuses are not. Adrian Dolby
It is time for the people to stand up and be counted before there is nothing left to stand up for anymore. Alan Ryan
I am getting sacked as the service I work for is shutting down. We work with the most vulnerable people in our area – people with serious metal health problems, asylum seekers and migrant workers suffering terrible exploitation–to get their basic rights. Without this service people will suffer badly. The coalitionare going to break society unless we break them. Elane Heffernan
I’d like to keep my job. Joanne Mcginity
I’m disabled so have a bit of an idea what it’s like for those near the bottom rung of society. I believe the most needy will be affected the most by the cuts so want to add my voice to those without a voice. Daniel Cooper
I am a parent of a disabled child with an incurable muscle wasting disease called Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy which will rob me of my son before he is an adult. It is disabled children like my gregarious beautiful son who are in the front line of these cuts, they are already having treatment withdrawn such as hydrotherapy. I will be there next month wheeling my little man along the streets of London. Shame on you Cameron and Clegg. Oh to have enough money to employ private respite care and nurses for my son! Johanna Jones
As a Senior Nurse with 20 years experience I am already seeing frontline jobs being lost in my NHS Trust, another broken promise of the ConDems. My husband is a teacher and his school has just annouced jobs will be lost because of budget cuts. Kerry Higham
Let march and show the country we are not prepared to just sit back and accept the cut imposed upon local government and its employees. The more people who march the louder our voice will be. David Glew
My son was one of the 1,500 killed at work every single year but his negligent employer walked away smiling having paid a piddly wee fine to the government. 50,000 die from work related diseases every year, but the Government has cut the HSE budget by 35% saying protecting workers’ health and lives is a ‘burden’ on business They are selling our families’ lives for corporate gold We didn’t vote to die at work. Dorothy Wright
I am the product of a single parent- headed home and the cuts to public spending have meant that my mother works 12 hr days just to support my brother and I. I am matching for the people David Cameron never fought for, and probably doesn’t care they exist! Bonolo Lekota
3 generations a of my family will be there, my son has got active. This affects everyone of us, its the biggest fight of a generation. Beth Morris
As a public sector employee with one child at University and another just about to start A levels I feel very strongly that I have to let this government know the financial impact/hardship these cut backs are making on ordinary working families. Julie Greenwell
I will be there, come hell or high water, we need to stand up to these ideologically driven cuts and show the libdems that supporting conversative policy is not progressive however they try to dress it up. Geoff Fletcher
It’s time for a change. Close the gap between the super-rich and the rest of the world. Iain Murdoch
Public services are part of the solution not part of the problem. The cuts will disproportionately affect disabled people, sick people and poor people. Jane Bernal
I think that the cuts are going to affect the most vulnerable in our communities and that the “Big Society” is not being resourced sufficiently to enable it to fill in the gaps. Becky Payne
The global economic crisis has highlighted just how much the majority middle and working class of Britain are subject to the whims of the super-rich. It’s time to say no – No to public sector privatisation, no to bankers bonuses, no to the majority paying the price for the minority’s greed. There is an alternative to global capitalism. We need to make it happen. James   Bartholomeusz
It’s been in the diary since first announced. Eleanor Halsall
I think that quick and deep cuts in public spending causes unemployment, this in turn leads to more economic depression and causes wide spread misery for 90% of the UK population. The bankers and their friends in the city should be paying the price instead of rewarding themselves huge bonuses for causing recession. Eamon Wadley
I cannot sit back and let this government destroy our public services, sell off our forests, and push more and more people into poverty and misery. It’s time to stand up and be counted. We can’t go on being apathetic and hoping it will all go away. Janet   Welch
The cake is a lie! Alexander Craig
I have seen what long term unemployment does to families and to people. This government has no idea of the financial and pyschological damage that is done. And those people on obscene salaries are living in another world. John Leahy
The children I teach, my children, and all the children in Britain, deserve an education that is better resourced than that I received in the 1980s. Kay Bowen
Let’s make this massive and turn it into the start of a united fightback! Julie Weekes
I could not look my children in the eye if I didn’t! Their future looks much bleaker than mine did at their age. Kathy Felton
I cannot stand by and do nothing, therefore allowing these cuts to go through as if no one cares. The cuts will change society as we know it, enhancing the gap between the haves and the have-nots in our society beyond recognition. They will be felt by generations to come if allowed to go through as proposed. Alex Ward
I need a good walk and some company. Chris Lindsay
We live in a small rural community, our Library is being cut, my son will not receive EMA despite having a 60 mile round trip to college and back. We abhor what the Govt is doing to the vulnerable – cutting Disabled Adults Transport allowance. We need to stand up and let them know how wrong they are. Lucinda and Harry Cliff
The debt problem has been created by governments failing to regulate banks, failing to curb irresponsible private borrowing, spending money on illegal wars and failing to collect over £100 billion in tax from big business and millionaires. Why should we bail out the perpetrators, let them award themselves obscene bonuses and then pay again in jobs and services? Angry isn’t the word for what I feel! Keith Rowley
Thatcherism is returning and it’s not a pretty sight. Jeff Hodge
This is a national issue. The cuts are going to affect everyone in the country, whether they realise it yet or not. I am marching to support a fairer alternative. Elspeth Hart
Thanks to our NHS, free at point of need, I have two lovely new hips and so CAN mobilise to fight against the ConDems’ savage & unnecessary dismantling of our welfare state & other precious national assets. Jools Payne
I’m bringing my children too its their future that is being ruined. Bernadette Keaveney
I’m marching because I want to be connected with everyone else who is prepared to stand up to this government. Working people fighting the failures of capitalism! John Larkham
I’m marching because once again the public is suffering while the rich hardly feel a thing. The government rightly said we need to be “all in this together”, and right now, it’s simply not the case. Christopher Makin
We owe it to our kids to protect the things our parents fought for Jeanette   M
Enough is enough. Bryan Lipscombe
I am a trade union activist who is going to see privitisation in my industry (Royal Mail) but also want to protect my comrades in other public service industries who face pay cuts job losses and also the public who will face a diminishing service.  Allan Matusevics
I want us to learn from history! The NHS was born from a time of great austerity, and became the envy of the world. It lead to one of the most prosperous times. Let’s invest in public services, people are our best investment. Lindsay Chapman
The current level of cuts is nothing short of vandalism. Jen Stimson
When times are hard, it’s more important to look after the poorest and most vulnerable – not less. I don’t believe it has to be like this: we can and should ask those who have too much already to shoulder a fairer share of the burden so those who have too little suffer less. Douglas Dowell
1 reason – we’ve been fleeced in the biggest scam of modern times. The bankers have got away with it scot-free. I see no evidence of them suffering (by that I mean the speculators and merchant bankers, not branch workers who are paying as much as the rest of us). John G McKenna
I’m disabled through a rare condition and i’m scared about the cuts to DLA and domicilary care. Hannah Kingsland
Everything I have worked for in 30 years teaching is being eroded in minutes and the children with additional needs will be the ones to suffer most. Alison Shirreff
It will be my Granddaughter’s Birthday. What better Birthday Present than a safe & secure Future, for all our children and Grandchildren” Jackie Moore

Why are you coming? Add your own message by pledging to march now!

You can see these messages in dozens of places around the web, thanks to the sites that have taken copies of our pledge widget (get yours here).

The range of reasons for marching and the many different places people will be travelling from mean that this march will not only be huge, but will be representative of a huge range of people – all clearly and loudly making the case that the government are following the wrong track.

15 Responses to “Why you’re marching: Part 2”

  1. Magic Phil says:

    Because it is the closest to revolution we got.

  2. Les Crompton says:

    I;m marching to keep a not for profit health service in the UK,not to be policed by EU competition laws.Profit = greed.People before profit.

  3. I’ve been a single parent for 12 years, my eldest daughter is on the autism spectrum and my youngest is just about to try and sit her GCSE’s (despite the best efforts of life to de-rail that).
    I’m trying to study for a degree so I can go back to work after looking after my daughter for 10 years due to the inability of the (tory run) local authority to provide her with an appropriate education. That’s if I can still afford to feed us and keep a roof over our heads, having lost my home twice now due to the appalling benefits and social ‘care’systems and the gross inequality of this so called civilised, fair and progressive country.
    People with autism are very poorly served in our society; young people are being thrown to the wall by the government and councils; public services, families, jobs and homes are being destroyed – and the environment and our planet home is a casualty of the capitalist agenda that is causing it all.
    I want to be there – I want to show I care and raise my voice – unlike in the ‘democratic’ voting system we are subjected to in this country. (Vote YES on 5th May)

  4. Boswell says:

    I agree wtih most of the points above. And, I will be there for the march. Without using expletives, I am bl***y against these cuts, especially in London, where I live.

    I just hope and prey we all realise what is going on. Also, hats off to that woman Caroline – Jesus is a great example of how we should run society, and I don’t only claim him as a socialist!

    Boswell

  5. Simon says:

    Look.

    There are cuts coming ahead, we need to be careful though. Even if they are waranted- we need to ask ourselves – who is losing out here, and if so, is it worth it?

    Many in this country are addicted to bisturbile drugs – will they have to forfit their treatment to get off addiction. There are costs associated with addiction, such as crimes e.g. muggery, murder and rape – society pays for these in the end – so why make the cuts?

  6. Tamas says:

    Look, we will protest this, then we will win.

  7. James says:

    Time to fight these guys by hell or by high water

  8. I plead, as a mother of five. Please restrict the cuts to those that can bear them! My son, 5, is severly disabled, and has no father. But he is a good boy, but will stand to lose a lot from these cuts.

    No longer will he got to scouts. No longer will he go to Church. Or to the RAF nagiveers for that matter.

    Surely, there are better ways to save money. For example, many have suggested cuts to bankers pay, or even taxin bonuses. I do realise this is slightly unfair, as some bankers are also disabled, but no surely as much as my boy.

    I hope this march is successful, for the whole of the country.

    Best,

    An immigrant.

  9. Caroline Zvegintzov says:

    I am marching because I am an optimist, and dare to believe that peaceful protest from mega numbers of citizens may bring this appalling and heartless coalition Government to see what harm they are doing to millions of vulnerable people and, indeed,to the whole fabric of our society. They are behaving like bullies, and singularly unintelligent ones at that – an instance being trying to force GP’s to take on management roles they are not necessarily suited for an have no wish for. I marched in the mindblowing rally against war in Iraq. To Tony Blair’s undying shame, that had no effect. But, as I said, I am an ooptimist, and dare to hope that our display of indignant solidarity on March 26th may cause the Government to think again about their massively undermining, destructive and inhuman proposals. There are other ways of approaching our financial crisis which are not only more human but infinitely more practical. I am marching as a Christian who loves her fellow men and women and who longs for a world which, like Jesus, shows compassion for the weakest and greatest sufferers in our society and which scorns the fat cats – loving Lazarus and looking down on Dives.

  10. Sally M says:

    Solidarity is the key! Come one, come all on the 26th March – you are not just fighting for your jobs and your local services but for your community, for the most volunerable within your community, for the services many of us have, do and will continue to need in the future along with fighting for the welfare state that millions have fought for, millions more have dedicated their lives to working for and for the very society we have come to know and depend on.

    Join together, march together, fight back together in order to remain together – in sickness, health and solidarity! Chant with me on the 26th: they say cut backs, we say FIGHT BACK. Cut backs, FIGHT BACK, cut backs, FIGHT BACK. Cut, cut, cut back, FIGHT, FIGHT, FIGHT BACK!

  11. Nicola Jones says:

    Sadly im away in the Shire that day but I shall be cheering you on. Good luck to all its the right thing to do! Fight the cut backs!

    • Angela Boyle says:

      Oh Nicola!

      Can the hobbits not release you from the Shire for one day? Can Gandalf not work some magic and create two of you – one to march and one to gambol in the Shire?

      I will take your good wishes with me.

  12. Warren White says:

    my colleagues and I are worried about cut backs but we will all be fighting back!!

  13. Touraj says:

    I am marching because even though I am not British I am upset about the cuts being made, as it is of great value for any society, whether British or from elsewhere. England should be proud of its great universities, who attract people from all over the world.

    Also, the cuts being made in other domains such as the public sector are extremely illegitimate seeing as though these people are suffering from the mistakes of the global financial system. Neoliberalism seems to have taken its toll on the working and middle classes but is not affecting the upper classes, the bankers with the same bonuses and high revenues, the shareholders who are quite quickly recovering and the corporations who are obviously protected whereas small businesses are forced to declare bankruptcy or completely destructure.

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