Rube Tube: Cut Protests

Our new political reporter/columnist, Rubie May Simpson, presents the first edition of ‘Rube Tube’ with a look at the protests, that took place last weekend, against the budget cuts.

Over 600 public sector workers took to the streets of Cambridge to take protest over the number of planned job cuts. Members of the Trade Union Congress (TUC) including Librarians, teachers, printers and Firemen went on a mile and a half march from Parkers Piece to the Guildhall via the very busy Grafton centre. At the Guildhall there was a rally inside which had 10 guest speakers. Amongst them was Jerry Hicks who is currently campaigning to become the general secretary for Unite, the biggest union in the country.

There was pickets, banners and angry chants about David Cameron, Nick Clegg and Julian Huppert, who is the Liberal democrat MP for Cambridge. There was support for the protesters, passer-bys joining in and motorists beeping in support. The march itself is in protest to George Osborne plans to cut the nations deficit by cutting billion of pounds from the public sector which will result in over 500,000 public sector workers losing their jobs including 17,000 policing jobs being cut.

Sarah Benson, who is the chairwoman of Cambridge University said that ‘ during the last year, the 10% workforce which were mainly printers was threatened with job losing. She also commenting that ‘the proposed cuts will destroy the fabric of society.’ Julie Sprunt, who is a teacher at a Further Education college believes that the job cuts ‘will be worse than the 1980’s as there are half a million job losses in the public sector which will have a knock on effect in the private sector, it’s a ripple effect.’

At the rally in the Guildhall there were calls from some Unions who wanted to follow the French example and call a General Strike as soon as possible. There were also calls to move forward a planned demonstration in London to this year instead of next March – as people will have already been effected by the cuts by next year. The calls for a General Strike won much support from the protestors who applauded the demands.