The Olympics is an obscene neoliberal corporate propaganda exercise and lavish spending on the jubilee is an insult to millions of our suffering people who are their victims!
OUR PEOPLE COME FIRST!
We are NOT your slaves!
WE’RE WITH UK UNCUT ALL THE WAY!
SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC JUSTICE NOW!!!
Anti-cuts campaigners are planning to stage a series of alternative street parties before the Queen’s diamond jubilee celebrations and the Olympics to highlight opposition to the government’s austerity programme.
They are calling on supporters to close roads and occupy public spaces as part of a nationwide anti-cuts campaign this summer.
The group says it has no plans to directly disrupt either the jubilee celebrations in June or the Olympics, which begin on 27 July, but wants supporters to stage “street parties with a twist” on its first day of action on 26 May.
“We want people to stand up and demand that we keep our public services, our rights and our welfare system and to celebrate a new future that isn’t dictated to us by a handful of millionaires but decided by us all – together,” said Anna Walker of UK Uncut.
The protests will focus on Britain in 1948, the year the National Health Service was founded and the last time the Olympics was held in London.
“Britain was emerging from a world war and had a huge national debt. Much bigger than the one we face today. Did we see painful cutbacks and austerity measures?” the UK Uncut website said.
“No, quite the opposite. We saw the birth of our National Health Service and the welfare state … 1948 saw the launch of groundbreaking new laws designed to protect and care for everybody in our society, including universal unemployment benefits, universal child benefits, disability benefits, rights to housing and the signing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.”
The group, which has staged a series of protests over the past two years against tax avoidance and government cuts, said volunteers would be touring the country to help organise the street parties and other protests.
“We want people to work with their friends, family and neighbours to pull off a massive street party that inspires everyone in your region to resist the cuts and celebrate our future,” said Walker.
UK Uncut started in October 2010 when a group of friends decided to target Vodafone, claiming it had avoided £6bn in tax – an allegation denied by the mobile phone company.
The protest, organised through Twitter, went viral and hundreds of protests have taken place since, targeting companies that avoid tax and the wider government cuts agenda.
The group’s success has inspired the creation of similar organisations in other countries, including the US, Portugal, France and Ireland.
Rachel Woodhead, a supporter of UK Uncut, said: “We can let the government and corporations control our future. Or we can fight, taking our future out of the hands of a tiny group of millionaires to instead create a future which benefits everyone.”
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