Community organising against the cuts
Spontaneous campaigns have popped up across the country opposing the cuts. You can find lists of them on the TUC website, or contact your local Trades Council.
Already, this year’s intake of TUC Academy Organisers have turned out to one en masse in Oxford, and doubtless the rest of us, dotted all over the country, have been involved in our local campaigns.
In Nottinghamshire, the local Trades Union Council have been instrumental in setting up Notts Save Our Services. The event grew out of a meeting, reported previously on the blog.
By now, the new intake of TUC Academy organisers will be preparing for their union interviews, and I wish them the best of luck. This will be the most exciting year since the inception of the Academy, and organisers, with their skills and training, will be central to these local campaigns and their success.
When we learn about community organising this is where we need to put it into practice. We need to unite trade unionists, benefits claimants, disabled people, tenants’ associations, students and anyone else affected by the cuts into an effective campaigning body.
Trade unionists are instinctive organisers and excellent campaigners. But we’re not always so good at identifying our allies and involving them. That’s why Notts SOS have been reaching out to groups who would not normally see the trade unions as obvious allies. They won’t come to us, we have to go to them.
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