Star date: 4th October 2015

FROM SALFORD AND ALL OVER THE COUNTRY 100,000 MARCH AGAINST TORIES

The cheek and arrogance of the Conservative Party holding its annual Conference in Manchester, while its cuts for working people and attacks on trade unions are making life hell, was underlined when over 100,000 people took to the city centre streets today.

While the banners, placards and pig masks said it all, Kevin Courtney, Deputy General secretary of the NUT, underlined the point when he talked of "The joy of working class people standing up for their rights in a working class city that the Tories have come to; a city that's proud of its traditions and proud of the people who stood at Peterloo to defend working people..."

Full details and loads of photos here...

One placard, with a blow up pig on top, seemed to sum up the mood of today's march of over 100,000 people showing their anger that the Conservative Party had dared to hold its Conference in a city that's being brutally attacked by its policies - `Pig Sick of Austerity'...

The day started with a feeder march from Salford Museum and Art Gallery, led by the The Wirral People's March Against Austerity, and augmented by the anti-fracking bloc with their bright yellow t-shirt and banners, plus a Greenpeace polar bear.

The Salford march winded its way down Chapel Street and through Manchester town centre before joining the main demonstration on Oxford Road. Here, the legions of trade union blocs, anti-cuts and anti-bomb protesters, anarchists, socialists and pig purveyors set off, poignantly past The Ark homeless camp, towards the Central Conference Centre (GMex).

At the first corner stood some young Tory toffs, goading marchers behind police lines, before one got an egg splattered on his head as he and his friends slunk off back to the safety of the steel cordon that had been set up around the Conference Centre.

For the most part, however, the day was family friendly, the only anger saved for when the march went past one of the entrances to the Conference. Here, organisers had set up a sound system for speakers, who left the Tories and the marchers in no doubt that this was a massive show against Government policies, and in particular, as the demonstration's titled announced `No To Austerity - Yes To Workers Rights'...

Addressing the march from here, Kevin Courtney, Deputy General Secretary of the National Union of Teachers spoke of "The joy of working class people standing up for their rights in a working class city that the Tories have come to; a city that's proud of its traditions and proud of the people who stood at Peterloo to defend working people..."

Courtney's speech centred on the attack on trade union rights, via the Tories' new Trade Union Bill...

"The very purpose behind these attacks on our unions is to make it harder for us to fight against the cuts" he explained "They know that we have to fight them. The 12% cuts in schools are only the start of huge cuts in other public services and this is a pre-emptive attack by the Tories on our movement, worse even than under Margaret Thatcher...

"What sort of country is it where they say you have to wear an armband if you're a dissident? That's what this Bill says, that if you are a picket line captain you have to wear an armband – what sort of country is that?" he asked "What sort of country is it where you have to give two week's notice of what you are going to write on a blog, what you're going to say on social media – on facebook or twitter...how illiberal is that?

"What sort of country is it where a Government party can use online balloting to decide its candidate for mayor but they won't let our organisations use that online balloting?" he added "It's like MP David Davis says, it reminds you of fascist Spain. This idea that they can trample on our civil liberties in that way – it's a complete attack not just on working people but on civil liberties as a whole...

"This is an attack on the right to strike, a right that our ancestors fought for; the right to strike that that won us the eight hour day; the right to strike that won us the weekend; the right to strike that won us maternity pay...that's what they are after, to attack our right to strike..."

The speech ended with huge cheers from the trade union bloc that was passing the spot. An idea of how huge this demo was can be gauged from the fact that it took just the UNISON section of the march over twenty minutes to pass one point. This march was massive.

Further along the route there was a sound system, the Clarion Community Choir, the PCS drumming band, a jazz band, a huge David Cameron with his axe and `Made Up Mayor' for Greater Manchester, Devo Man and loads of sideshows, with the Castlefield Arena rally at the end of the march, starring Charlotte Church, Owen Jones, Natalie Bennett and Mark Steel, full to bursting before three quarters of protesters had hardly got out of Oxford Road.

This was a massive show of opposition to the Tories...over 100,000 people on the streets and against the Government. Will they listen? There were loads of pigs on today's demo – but none flying over the Conference Centre...

* For almost 200 more photos of the demo see the Salford Star picture gallery - click here (links at the top of the page and then click side photos to move it on)

For the rest of the week's events see the Salford Star diary – click here

Main photo by Steven Speed