Letters to The Guardian
Austerity is not working. The deficit is growing and the economy flailing. The coalition government remains hopelessly committed to cuts on a scale not seen since the Great Depression of the 1930s.
The impact is grotesquely unequal. The rich are getting richer even as the living standards of the majority are cut, and the public services on which they rely are shut down or sold off.
Europe suffers. Greece shows us the future: the European Union, ECB and IMF austerity measures have shrunk the economy by more than 20% in just three years, with a quarter of Greeks now unemployed.
Austerity is an economic catastrophe. The government must be forced off its current course. Hundreds of thousands are set to join the TUC march on 20 October. To coincide with this, we are launching a People’s Petition for an Alternative to Austerity. The petition will be handed in to 10 Downing Street in June 2013, when we will be holding a People’s Assembly in London to bring together all those opposed to cuts and debate a strategy for opposing them.
Everyone who wants to save the welfare state and resist spending cuts should sign and support the petition and the People’s Assembly as a step towards creating a mass movement against austerity.
Please sign the petition at www.coalitionofresistance.org.uk
Tony Benn, Len McCluskey General secretary Unite, Iain Banks Author, Caroline Lucas MP, Jeremy Corbyn MP, Owen Jones Author and journalist, Sam Fairbairn National secretary, Coalition of Resistance, Christine Blower General secretary, NUT, John McDonnell MP, Ken Loach Film director, Mark Serwotka General secretary, PCS, Josie Long Comedian, Lindsey German Stop the War Coalition, Roger Lloyd-Pack Actor, Kate Hudson CND, Katy Clark MP, Costas Lapavitsas Professor of economics, Soas, Manuel Cortes, General secretary, TSSA, Natalie Bennett Leader, Green party, Romayne Phoenix Chair, Coalition of Resistance, Paul MackneyFormer general secretary of UCU; vice-chair, Coalition of Resistance,Clare Solomon Vice-chair, Coalition of Resistance, James MeadwaySenior economist, New Economics Foundation
All signatures in personal capacity
3 Responses
“Austerity is an economic catastrophe”…which is creating a catastrophe for thousands of individuals and destroying lives.
where have all these celebs been until now? – let’s sign another bleedin’ petition – i’d rather burn their houses down
‘The People’s Petition’ – by what definition is this anything other than a top-down mandate by the guilty for the guilty? (themselves)