Saturday 10 July saw the celebration of the 140th Durham Miners Gala. With several thousands marching through Durham the display of trade union banners escorted by Brass Bands demonstrated the importance of the Miners Gala in the calendar of the trade union movement. This year saw the streets filled to over bursting yet again in the context of the most Right Wing Coalition Governments since Thatcher. Mining communities still remember vividly the impact of Thatcher on working class communities, and can see the link to the current austerity measures being imposed by a Government with no democratic mandate for them.
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A region with 340,000 public sector workers will bear a disproportionate impact of these slash and burn attacks on public sector workers and the services they provide. A region still suffering from the decimation of its manufacturing base in the 80s, and one which has one of the highest levels of child poverty in the UK. The consequences for working people to see thousands of public sector workers subjected to pay freezes, pension attacks and job losses cannot be underestimated. The consequences for the people of the North East who need those vital public services cannot be understated.
There are economic and political alternatives to this Coalition Government's policies, and trade unions in the Region have launched a Public Services Alliance to promote these, and to build alliances with communities, user groups, and politicians who share our vision. We don't want to see ordinary people paying the price for a recession not of their making. There was massive support for the trade union message at the Gala which shows there is a real opportunity for us to build alliances to challenge this Government's pernicious policies, and to bring this Coalition to its knees.
Clare Williams
