"Is Ian Stewart here?" enquired Salford Pensioners Association speaker, Alice Searle, to a tumbleweed silence…
"Are any councillors here?" she asked "Please come forward we want to talk to you…"
Laughter rippled around Bexley Square, where trade unionists, campaigners and the wider community had gathered for the annual May Day Rally and a march into Manchester.
"Isn't that interesting, we're in a Labour city but the councillors can't get themselves out of their beds to come and listen…"
Just one Salford Labour Councillor, Gina Reynolds from Langworthy, stepped forward, together with another councillor from Tameside. They got a round of applause as Alice continued…
"I'm representing you" Alice said "because one day you will all be pensioners. Time goes very fast but what it is important is that when you are pensioners you are dependent on the people who aren't pensioners to make the services work for you. Something very insidious and very sinister is happening, so be wary…
"We all know what OAP stands for but do you know AQP - Any Qualified Provider?" she asked "because what is happening to the NHS is that anybody who is qualified from this country or another can provide the services previously supplied by the NHS…"
She gave examples of two private firms that have taken over health services, and the problems she, personally, had experienced with one of them…
"It's up to young people now to start protesting and saying something to the commissioning groups which decide the companies that will take over our services" she concluded "If we don't, we'll end up with an NHS that takes long term sick people, and the short term sick will go to private companies which exist for profit and their shareholders. My message is `Be wary' because something really nasty is happening and we need to defend against it."
With Salford City Council now centre stage in providing health care in the city, only one Labour councillor, out of 52, was present to hear Alice's message, despite the Labour Party being invited to attend.
Earlier, they would also have heard Salford City UNISON branch secretary, Steven North, talk about the history of Bexley Square and its infamous `Battle' of 1931 when unemployed Salford people attempted to hand in a petition against benefit cuts to Salford Council at what was then Salford Town Hall…
"When they attempted to enter the Square they were met by police on horseback who brutally proceeded to go amongst the marchers and attack them" he recalled "There were some famous people present that day - Jimmy Miller, also known as Ewan MacColl was injured, and Eddie Frow, founder of the Working Class Movement Library was imprisoned.
"Every time we come to Bexley Square we need to remember the struggles and sacrifices of those who came before us to fight for the things that we now have and the things this Coalition Government are attacking" Steven concluded, as he introduced Ian Hodson, National President of the Bakers Food and Allied Workers Union, who gave a rousing speech against to erosion of workers' rights…to the point where the Government is even trying to eradicate May Day itself…
"It speaks volumes about the type of government that's currently running this country" he said "We all recognise the issues around austerity but isn't it amazing that workers take pay cuts while millionaires get tax cuts. We have to make workers understand that the spin that this Government puts on is contrary to what they are doing."
Ian added that if you get dismissed unfairly at work, it now costs £1200 to fight your case for justice. If your employer doesn't pay you there's now a charge of £390 just to get what you are owed…
"That is not a government on the side of the workers, that is a government that's attacking workers' rights and making it easier for employers to exploit us" he explained "What we have to do today is to get the message to people how important it is to stand up and fight. This is it. This is the final end game."
Calling for a General Strike, he added that "if we don't take this Government on, what we will see is further exploitation, further tax cuts for them and more poverty for us."
Citing the Anti Poll Tax campaign, the Justice for the 96 campaign, and even the defeat of the Pasty Tax, Ian explained that campaigns and marches can and do work… "We've got to fight and keep fighting because I'll tell you what, there's six and half million of us, and they can't put us all in prison" he insisted "Let's make sure when we march through the streets of Salford today people hear us and people understand that the trade union movement and the socialist movement hasn't gone away."
The one campaign that might be Cameron's Poll Tax is the increasing anti-Bedroom Tax protests, and the crowd gathered in Bexley Square heard from Terry Simmons of Little Hulton and Walkden Against The Bedroom Tax…
"The stories I hear every day about the Bedroom Tax are a disgrace" he said "One woman came to me and said `I'm on £67 a week in benefits and with Council Tax and Bedroom Tax I'm expected to pay nearly £30 out of that'. I'm hearing stories like that every day. We must oppose it."
With vital messages against the privatisation of the NHS and attacks on workers rights, and the horror stories around the Bedroom Tax, it would have been fitting for Labour councillors and the Labour Mayor and his 13 Assistants to be present to at least acknowledge publicly what is going on in the city and beyond in 2013.
That every single one of them, bar the Labour Councillor for Langworthy, ignored this year's Salford May Day Rally speaks volumes about them all…
* Following the Bexley Square Rally, there was a march into Manchester where a further rally took place at Friends Meeting House.
Main photo shows Langworthy Councillor Gina Reynolds, and a Tameside Councillor listening to Alice Searle
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