Massive anti-cuts demo set for October
Wednesday, 4 August 2010 12:00 AM
By politics.co.uk staff
Large-scale protests are being planned for this October as unions prepare their response to the public spending cuts to be announced in the comprehensive spending review.
The Public and Commercial Services union (PCS) wants a day of action on October 20th, when the chancellor will unveil the full scale of the reductions.
Most Whitehall departments will have to cut their spending by a quarter, with only the NHS and international development budgets protected.
The PCS wants the Trades Union Congress to organise a "huge demonstration" in London on October 20th.
It said in a statement on its website: "The union is calling on the TUC to support and co-ordinate campaigning and joint union industrial action, nationally and locally, in opposition to the cuts.
"The union will immediately begin to organise and build for action to stop job losses and cuts."
It plans a campaign of persuasion, while the spending review continues, that public expenditure cuts are "neither inevitable nor necessary".
After October 20th the emphasis will then shift to protest.
"It is likely that in order to defend our jobs and services there will need to be industrial action, including joint union action," the PCS added.
"In September the national executive committee will consider our industrial action tactics and strategy, including the timing of any national action and the potential for action with other unions."
The PCS will also protest outside the Conservative party conference in Bournemouth this autumn.
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