UPDATE 16TH OCTOBER: THIS EVENT HAS BEEN POSTPONED BY ORGANISERS
This Saturday, people in Cardiff will gather to protest against what they’ve called the government’s catastrophic mishandling of the Covid crisis.. Various groups are coming together to put forward a set of urgent demands aimed at protecting workers, renters and the poorest in society. The demands include: an extension of the furlough scheme; decent wages for the unemployed; a further eviction ban; proper sick pay; a functioning track and trace system and safety first in schools and universities.
Entitled ‘We Won’t Pay For The Crisis,’ it is being organised jointly by Cardiff People’s Assembly, Cardiff & Vale Momentum and Unite Community and is part of a series of protests taking place across Britain in a day of action coordinated by The People’s Assembly Against Austerity. Organisers say the event will be run in a Covid safe way with participants wearing masks and socially distancing.
In Cardiff, protesters will gather outside City Hall at 1 pm on Saturday 17 October for an hour long rally with speakers from local community, housing, trade union and anti-poverty groups that will be live streamed on social media. Elsewhere in Wales banner drops, stunts and online activities are also planned.
Adam Johannes from Cardiff People’s Assembly said the ‘hottest’ political question today was “who picks up the bill for Covid-19 and the economic recession?”
“Do people like us pay in terms of rising job losses, evictions, a further pushing down of our living standards, another decade lost to austerity, and enduring the highest death rate from the pandemic in Europe?” he said. “Or do we take action to make the government intervene to protect lives and livelihoods, and reshape society in a more progressive direction. And make the billionaire class foot the bill?”
Sue Leader, secretary of Cardiff & Vale Unite Community who helped call the protest and who organise among the unwaged, said that the pandemic has shown up how inadequate Britain’s social security system really is.
“Since the Spring demand on local food banks has more than trebled, while nationally there’s around a million more children who have registered for free school meals, as the Covid-19 crisis plays havoc with family incomes,” she said.
“Millions of our poorest households could see their incomes slashed by £20 a week from April, when a temporary rise in Universal Credit is set to end: If this government does slash Universal Credit then we will really know who the Tories have decided will pay for this crisis.”
Sue Leader went on to criticise the government’s resumption of ‘benefit sanctions’ – temporarily halted during the pandemic – where claimants can be financially penalised by losing at least four weeks’ benefit income if they fail to attend a job centre interview or spend enough time searching for jobs.
“It is morally wrong to threaten to reduce people’s financial support for not doing enough to look for work when unemployment is soaring and job vacancies drying up, and rates of deaths from the pandemic are rising again. Unite Community campaigns for benefit sanctions to be scrapped completely.”
Lyn Eynon, from Cardiff and Vale Momentum said that the day of action was vital. “After months of failure, government must deliver effective track and trace to suppress Coronavirus. Any attempt to “balance the books” would plunge the economy into crisis. Economic justice demands that the wealthy pay,” he said.
The protest is also being supported by renters unions ACORN, who recently launched in Cardiff and have already had a number of victories helping tenants.
A spokesperson for the group said that society was facing an historic wave of unemployment, and with it, an enormous number of people vulnerable to debt, poverty and homelessness.
“ACORN will be doing all we can to ensure that renters in Cardiff can stay in their homes; we have a growing swell of members ready to defend their communities from exploitative landlords and the threat of eviction.” They said, calling on the Welsh Government to “exercise its devolved powers to protect its people.”
“We call for a total ban on Section 21 ‘no fault evictions’; for the ‘Tenant Saver’ loan scheme to be scrapped and replaced with rent cancellation and means-tested support for smaller landlords; for increased RentSmart regulatory powers, and for rent caps in the private rented sector that ensure rents are genuinely affordable.”
Katrine Williams, President, Cardiff Trades Union Council who are also supporting the protest said that “workers everywhere were facing an uncertain future.”
“As a trade union movement in Cardiff we are preparing for the fight of our lives – and for our lives…” she said: “Our message is that desperate times require desperate measures and that means the government must step in to take over firms threatening large scale redundancies.”
For more information see: https://www.facebook.com/events/741947109688924/
