Yesterday's march Against the Bedroom Tax saw hundreds of people march from Cathedral Gardens to the Civic Justice Courts and back where a rally took place featuring Coronation Street's Julie Hesmondhalgh, political commentator Owen Jones and Maria Brabiner from Salford Against The Bedroom Tax.
Julie Hesmondhalgh was clearly angry as she made reference to this "evil, evil tax"…
"I am absolutely fed up of a Government that makes us constantly look at the people in society at the absolute bottom of the rung and blame everything on them" she told the crowd "While we're looking down here, it's all going on up here – the tax avoidance, the expenses…it's disgusting and people seem to be being duped by it.
"It has to stop" she added "We have to spread the word, we've got to fight the apathy and know that we can change things. Things bigger than this have been changed over the years – we got the vote, we get rid of slavery…this is chicken feed in comparison. We are many, they are the few. Let's fight it!"
Owen Jones, himself a journalist, made reference to the media's almost total blanking of the Tax and called for a bit of DIY organising amongst the working class…
"We have one principle" he said "An injury to one of us is an injury to all of us. We have to link up our struggles, whether we're disabled, working people been thrown out of work, a young person who faces a future of debt and insecurity, an elderly person who has to chose between heating and eating; these are the things we have to link together.
"What is so disgraceful about this Government" he added "is that it's trying to redirect our anger at the fact we're getting poorer year on year, from those who caused this crisis to people's neighbours down the streets – the working poor against unemployed people, non-disabled against disabled people, private sector workers against public sector workers - you've been mugged so your less deserving neighbour should be mugged as well. We need to remember who caused this crisis and who is being made to pay for it."
Jones, in line with many Salford Labour Party councillors, also called for the Labour Party to commit to getting rid of the Bedroom Tax if it is re-elected…
"We have to take the fight to the Tories but we also have to say loudly and clearly to the Labour leadership that, if you form the next government, no ifs no buts repeal this tax."
He called for common sense alternative policies to be relayed to people "to give them hope"…
• Build council housing instead of subsidising landlords through housing benefit, to stimulate the economy, create jobs and control rents.
• Bring in a real living wage instead of subsidising low wages with tax credits.
• Create 100,000s renewable energy jobs.
• Control the banks that tax payers have subsidised.
• Concentrate on tax avoidance instead of the pittance lost through benefit fraud.
Jones concluded by calling for the media to tell the truth about people's real life stories of life under the ConDem Government.
Photos by John Catterall
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