Messages of support

Here are some of the messages of support for the March that we’ve been getting in from organisations and public figures.

They show what a broad level of support there is in society for an alternative to the current policies of fast, deep spending cuts.

“I strongly support the TUC demonstration against the cuts. The government needs to be loudly and firmly told that undermining the very foundations of public service is not what it was elected to do.”
Philip Pullman, Author

Carer Watch fully support the TUC demonstration on 26 March 2011. The program of welfare reform and cuts is proceeding with alarming momentum and the needs of carers and disabled people are being lost in the fiscal crisis. They feel that for them the covenant on welfare seems to have been broken. Many of our members are attending the March and those unable to do so have shown support by joining online protests.”
Carer Watch

Child Poverty Action Group support the TUC March for the Alternative as the £18bn of welfare benefits cuts cannot be  socially or economically justified. They will visit untold hardship and misery on people who had nothing to do with causing the deficit. The cuts are unfair and hit the poorest children and families the hardest – there are alternatives, so the Government needs to think again and fast.”
Alison Garnham, Chief Executive, Child Poverty Action Group

CGIL and Italian workers send our greetings and solidarity to all those taking part to this day of union action. CGIL and TUC have long maintained that the crisis should not be paid by those that have not caused it and instead suffer from it.”
Confederazione Generale Italiana del Lavoro

“The children, young people and families that Community Links supports are facing an undeniably tougher future because of the scale and the speed of the cuts to public funding.   We know that communities can overcome huge challenges when they come together to tackle them, but this takes time, commitment and resources.  We support the TUC’s call for an alternative – and it’s essential that we find one.”
Geraldine Blake, Chief Executive, Community Links

“The Government is creating a perfect storm for poor, vulnerable and homeless people who had no hand in creating this financial crisis and recession. Housing benefit cuts that could leave a million households struggling to pay the rent kick in next month. Local councils are already decimating hostel funding, day centres and other vital homelessness projects.  Budgets for new social housing have been halved and rents for new tenants are set to rise with tenancies less secure. David Cameron must rethink his plans, otherwise Crisis fears homelessness will surge across the country.”
Leslie Morphy, Chief Executive, Crisis

Daycare Trust, the national childcare campaign is proud to lend our support to the march. We believe it is imperative that children are protected from the spending cuts. All children deserve the best start in life, and cuts to childcare provision mean that this is under threat. Our recent research with 4Children found 250 Sure Start Children’s Centres face closure over the next year. These hugely valued centres provide a lifeline to so many parents and we know that they have a positive impact on children’s development, especially those from disadvantaged backgrounds.   Families across the country are devastated at the prospect of losing one of their most important local services. We reaffirm our call for Sure Start Children’s Centres to be protected as we join others to March for the Alternative.”
Anand Shukla, Acting Chief Executive, Daycare Trust

Disability Alliance will be marching on 26 March as disabled people require additional support from public services and will be disproportionately affected by almost all Government cuts. Disabled people will lose £4.1 billion in essential welfare support alone, despite the banking levy contributing £2.5 billion to tackling the national deficit. This cannot be fair when disabled people are already twice as likely to live in poverty as other citizens.”
Neil Coyle, Disability Alliance

“On behalf of the Federation of Independent Trade Unions and NGOs (FITUN) of Trinidad and Tobago, I wish to express solidarity with the Trades Union Congress and the working people, youth and students in the United Kingdom who are today engaged in a historic struggle ‘For the Alternative – Jobs, Growth and Justice’.”
David Abdulah,  General Secretary of Oilfields Workers’ Trade Union and President of FITUN, Trinidad and Tobago

“The GFIW executive committee and working people of Iraq send you solidarity and support on your legitimate day of action for jobs and economic growth and against public cut adopted by the British Coalition Government. We wish success in your struggle for jobs, economic growth and public services.”
Hadi Ali, General Secretary, General Federation of Iraqi Workers

“Your government talks of the “big society” but these cuts, driven by ideology alone, will fracture your society as never before.  Working people from every corner of the world stand in solidarity with you in opposing these radical plans, which will deepen inequality, hit hardest on the most vulnerable, and risk sending your economy into a tailspin from which it could take a decade or more to recover. Congratulations to the TUC and all workers and their unions standing up for fairness, dignity and jobs in their communities. ”
Sharan Burrow, General Secretary, International Trade Union Confederation

“We want your members and all British people to know that they have the support and solidarity of 20 million union members across the world, trade unionists that the ICEM is proud to represent. We will make it known to all that under the argument of reducing the public financial deficit within four years, the right-wing Cameron government is using the cuts as a cover to fundamentally weaken the active state system of fairness and equality. Best wishes in London on 26 March for a resounding and meaningful demonstration that echoes across all of the UK!”
Manfred Warda, General Secretary, International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers’ Unions

Many of us in the arts deplore the Tory obsession with cuts.  The effect of this short sighted and doctrinaire policy is devastating on culture and creativity in this country.  The very small amounts of money involved make it especially ridiculous given that the arts in the UK are so successful and bring in such huge rewards.  Visitors from abroad come here for our museums – amazingly 8 out of our top ten tourist attraction are museums. Our theatre is acknowledged to be the best in the world.  The arts give Britain an international edge as an exciting and creative place to live, work and do business. Let us not forget that the arts give us all a sense of belonging and citizenship.  They generate jobs and are one of the fastest growing parts of the economy with a commendable track record of regenerating cities and contributing to communities. But all this is in jeopardy if the Tories are allowed to do what they plan.  Art schools and the arts and humanities departments of our universities will be set back at least 50 years. I condemn this short sighted policy which will take us backwards as a nation.
Anish Kapoor, Artist

“We’re marching for justice for all – to support over 700,000 vulnerable people who will be denied justice if cuts to legal aid to defend the UK’s poorest families against unfair dismissal, destitution, unscrupulous landlords, exclusion from school, and violent partners, go ahead. Those people will be silenced. Every year Law Centres across the UK provide free legal services to 120,000 desperate people in their communities.”
Justice For All and Law Centres Federation

“From Nicaragua, we the public sector trade unions affiliated to the UNE-FNT, express our solidarity with you and support your struggles. Savage capitalism, expressed through the corrupt governments of the Right, cannot destroy the social benefits achieved through centuries of labour and trade union struggle. We are with you all as your brother workers who have also lived similar neoliberal policies of the deregulation of labour, and we have fought against them in the streets. We will always be united and in solidarity with you, our brothers and sisters in the UK.”
Domingo Fco. Pérez, General Secretary, National Union of Employees, Nicaragua

Refugee Council fully support the March for the Alternative, and am proud to join others today in opposing the government’s savage cuts. We’re marching for the most vulnerable people in our communities who will be unduly affected by the speed and scale of the cuts, including many of our refugee clients who will be left adrift with no support. Marching together today we are showing the government how vital it is to rethink the depth of these cuts.”
Donna Covey, Chief Executive of the Refugee Council

“Community is a partnership between government and the people and it is depressing to hear the language of community – the so-called ‘Big Society’ – being used to disguise the low motives of one side of that partnership as it attempts to worm out of the deal. What could be better, they suggest, then handing people back the power so they might build their own schools, their own libraries? Better to leave people to the already onerous tasks of building their lives and paying their taxes. Leave the building of infrastructure to government, and the protection of public services to government, that being government’s mandate, and the only possible justification for its power. That the grotesque losses of the private sector are to be nationalized, cut from our schools and our libraries, our social services and our health service – in short, from our national heritage – represents a policy so shameful I doubt this government will ever live it down.”
Zadie Smith, Author

War on Want fully supports the March for the Alternative as part of a broad-based campaign of resistance to the government’s cuts agenda. Together with our sisters and brothers in social movements across the world, we will continue the long fight for decency, social justice and a future free from poverty. This is a battle we cannot afford to lose.”
John Hilary, Executive Director, War on Want

Woodcraft Folk, the co-operative educational charity, is proud to be supporting young people in making their voice heard in this vital debate about the choices facing us as a society.”
Jon Nott, General Secretary, Woodcraft Folk