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Join #M21 Stand Up To Racism demonstrations this Saturday...

AS POLITICIANS PROMISE CUTS,

DONT LET THE RACISTS DIVIDE US
T
HIS SATURDAY THOUSANDS
will be joining the Stand
Up To Racism national
demonstrations in London, Glasgow
and Cardiff (standuptoracism.org.uk).
Activists from workplaces around the
country, and from across the unions,
will march together alongside students,
community campaigners and others to
challenge attempts by politicians and
the mainstream media to divide us using
racist scapegoating.
We are drawing ever nearer to a
highly charged general election, in the
midst of widespread and deep bitterness
at the political establishment.
Millions of working class people are
enraged at the continuing onslaught of
austerity attacks that have slashed our
services and jobs and seen the most
sustained pay squeeze since the 1860s.
Racist UKIP have posed as a party
outside the mainstream that is standing
up for working people. It is a lie.
They have dragged the whole poltical
agenda to the right through their vicious
scapegoating of migrants.
Firstly UKIP do not represent
working people. Leader Nigel Farage
is a banker who wants to privatise the
NHS and hit workers even harder than
the Tories!
Secondly, migrants are not to blame.

Blame

Ukip are now driving forwards a frenzy

of lies about migrants which is being
echoed by the Tories, and sadly Labour
too. It is merely an attempt to divide
workers to stop us uniting and putting
the blame where it really lieswith the
rich who are profiting from a crisis they
caused while attacking the poor.
The reality is that only 7.4 percent of
working age benefit claimants in Britain
have a non-British nationality.
But 40 percent of nurses were born
abroadpeople who keep our NHS
going, despite devestating cuts to
funding and savage attacks on their pay
and conditions.
We need to stand together against
the whipping up of racism designed to
distract us from the real culprits. MPs
gave themselves a 10 percent pay rise.

NHS workers organising for the 21 March anti-racism demo

Lecturers and students uniting against adult education cuts

Top bankers continue to grab obscene

bonuses after the banks were bailed
out with our money. Top CEO pay
has risen dramatically while workers
pay is frozen or cut. Weve seen MPs
expenses scandals, and masses of tax
goes avoided and evaded by the rich.
Its clear workers in Britain have
far more in common with each other,
whether born here or elsewhere, than
they do with British politicians, bosses
and the rich.
Regardless of what government
we end up with, we will need to put
pressure on our union leaders to
organise a serious fightback for a real
alternative.
Many feel it was a mistake for union
leaders to break the momentum and
call off strikes that had the potential to
mobilise up to a million public sector
workers and take on austerity.

The desire for real change was

reflected in the momentus YES
campaign in Scotland, but that mood
exists elsewhere in Britain too.
Our unions must play the role of
focussing that mood into a serious
fightback to defend working class
people.
With the scale of anger at the attacks
on the NHS, continuing strikes could
have focussed resistance to the Tories
and ratcheted up pressure on Labour,
who are failing to offer any real
alternative.
They promise to continue with
austerity that forces working class
people pay for the crisis caused by the
rich.
We urgently need a real alternative in
the face of UKIPs racist and divisive
lies.
We have to stand firmly against
racism.
Thats why everyone should get
onto their nearest Stand Up to Racism
demonstration on Saturday, and organise
a delegation from their workplace to it.

Strengthen

We need to get organised, and develop

links at the base of our unions.
These networks are vital in delivering
solidarity for anyone fighting back, such
as the current campaign by National
Gallery workers against privatisation
and victimisation.
But we also need to strengthen our
unions and put pressure on union
leaders. Whoever wins the election, the
fight against austerity, racism, and to
defend workers rights must continue.

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