Torpid TUC Rally Against Austerity

I've been on many demo's in my time and I'm sorry to report that the much hyped TUC March Against Austerity, The Sequel was a bit of a damp squib. The numbers were down on last year's half a million and also unlike last year lacked anger and passion. I did not see any lively young activists from Occupy or UKUncut, students, or pissed off anarchists (other then the syndicalist IWW) to inject a bit of life into my jaded middle aged lefty self, not even a decent Samba band-although they were probably all on this. And certainly the working class outside the public sector or London's unemployed were only noticeable by their absence. On the whole it was a comfort zone for the Trade Union leadership to spout empty rhetoric about fighting back against the evil Tories while waiting for Miliband to seize power. Of course there is still time for a movement that combines rank and file workplace resistance with anti poll-tax style community action to catch fire, as the massive social and economic re-structuring of this country continues on relentlessly-see Richard Seymour's interesting analysis here. Meanwhile I came away from the demonstration not with the will to take things further but to retreat into a gloomy Sunday morning negativity.

PS: Infantile Disorder's account is well worth a read here