No more austerity and cuts! Fight for our future! Demo on Wednesday 13th 6pm

Wednesday 13th March, 18.00

The Fountains, Bristol City Centre

The current global crisis has affected workers, unemployed, students and pensioners all over Europe. The crisis has social, economic and political impacts: firm closures lead to millions of redundancies; more people are living below the poverty line deepening in such a way the gap between rich and poor. Rising poverty and unemployment and the socio-political developments of the last 30 years under neo-liberalism are likely to intensify divisions based on racial or ethnic difference within society and push down the legitimacy of the political institutions.

In order to confront the crisis, to restore the profit rate, to service the total debt and to rescue the banks (by huge bailouts) the governments in Europe applied certain policies. The European banks were extremely exposed to the national debts of the periphery. The bailout of the banks by the member states was important since the states switched the holding of sovereign bonds from the European banks to the European tax payers having as their main argument financial discipline and paying off the debt.

Especially in the periphery of the European Union the austerity measures and the budget cuts, under the guidelines of the ECB and the IMF deteriorated the situation and deepened the division between the core and periphery. Austerity measures, budget cuts, house evictions pushing down the salaries and the pensions, privatisations, raising the taxation for the poor, inflation and increasing the flexibility of the workers, led to more than 10,000 suicides in the last three years. 11% unemployment in the Euro zone, more than 25% of the people live below the poverty line and thousands of homeless people reflect the situation in Europe. This is the real character of the murderous EU!

However, this situation is also visible in the core of the EU transferred due to the characteristics of the EU and the character of the austerity policies. The conservative and liberal government coalition has already applied, in England, the 5 year Government Austerity Program (in order to reduce the national deficit) which aims at destroying the welfare state: huge education cuts and increase of tuition fees, huge cuts in the health and care system (the NHS is under huge attack), companies more interested in avoiding taxation than recruiting new people. That means no new jobs, no income increase and that the gap in society in terms of income is rising dramatically. In addition, in Bristol, the new mayor, the independent neo-liberal Ferguson applies more than 100 million pounds cuts of housing, transport and local care services.

On the 13th of March people all over Europe will mobilize against this situation. We should fight united against the austerity measures and paying off the debt in order to reduce inequalities, defend our social and economic rights and achieve social justice. In this struggle the unions should be on the front line by mobilizing the workers with strikes.

Against EU policies! Against police repression!
Against paying off the debt! Against austerity!
For our lives. For our future!
People over profits! We will not pay for your crisis!

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