Rochdale and Littleborough Peace Group joined half a million protesters and many other groups from Rochdale in central London on Saturday (26 March 2011) demanding an end to cuts in public services which will seriously damage, not only Rochdale, but the whole country. We marched from Victoria Embankment to Hyde Park calling once again for the Government to cut war not welfare and to cease spending on the Trident nuclear weapons system and to save jobs, health and education services The march stretched for over four hours and for three miles through central London and culminated in a mass rally in Hyde Park, where the crowd applauded speakers who told the coalition Government to end its policies of cuts and privatisations, to introduce higher taxation on the banks and the super-rich and to ensure that corporations currently avoiding taxes are made to pay them.
On behalf of the Peace Group, Philip Gilligan said, “Hundreds of thousands of ordinary people were in London on Saturday afternoon to tell politicians in Westminster that we will never accept their attacks on public services, jobs and pensions. We are united in resisting their cuts and privitisations. The peace group is pleased to be part of this mass movement and eager to remind people that money squandered on Trident and on wars is money that could be better spent on education, health and social services. We are confident that people in Rochdale would rather see their hospital and other services restored than to see their taxes being wasted on nuclear weapons of mass destruction and on continuing to send our young people to kill and be killed in NATO’s disastrous wars.”
