Whitehall rang out to the cries of Welfare Not Warfare as over 1,000 disabled people, trade unionists, anti-poverty and anti-war campaigners protested outside Downing Street on Wednesday (26 March) ahead of the chancellor’s cruel spring spending statement.
There was absolute fury. Having already announced £5 billion cuts in Personal Independence Payment (PIP), it had just been revealed that Rachel Reeves got the figures wrong and was set to take even more.
She announced that the health element of Universal Credit would be cut by 50 per cent for new claimants and frozen thereafter.
Speaker after speaker condemned the slashing of health and disability benefits, which the DWP’s impact assessment calculated will push an extra 250,000 people, including 50,000 children, into relative poverty – though the Joseph Rowntree Foundation estimates the actual increase in poverty will be closer to 400,000.
Speaking by the statue of World War Two general Viscount Montgomery, Stop the War national convenor Lindsey German condemned the government for its “disgraceful attacks on some of the poorest people in society, while pouring billions into the weapons of war.
“What kind of a government is it that has to find even more cuts to disability benefits while arguing for an extra £2.5 billion to go on so-called defence? This is a government that gives unlimited money for weapons and war but will do nothing for the people who need it most.
“Real security is everyone having the right to a decent home and to healthcare, not more and more spent on militarism to bomb and kill people in other countries. We oppose war because we want a better life for everyone here – if we have money for tanks and guns we have money for people to live decently and to build hospitals and schools.”
Independent MP Jeremy Corbyn stated that many families would have to give up work to care for people who should be looked after through public resources and the state as a whole, as a direct result of the government’s decision to go down “the road of new austerity” while at the same time pledging to spend £13.5 billion more per year on armaments and now increasing the defence budget further.
“That is the equivalent of almost 10 years of ending the two-child benefit cap, for example,” he said, urging ministers to look instead at the causes of war and the opportunities for bringing about peace and disarmament in the future.
No-one voted for this. No one voted for Keir Starmer’s flag waving and Churchillian posing while he and Reeves refuse to consider all alternatives to their savage cuts, including by taxing the wealthiest in society. No one voted to get rid of the Tories only to have a so-called Labour government carrying out policies that even the Tories did not dare to carry out.
Attacking the most vulnerable to fund war is indefensible; lining the pockets of arms dealers off the back of the sick, disabled and our children is immoral.
This is why it has never been more urgent to organise for #WelfareNotWarfare and why Stop the War has pledged that the fightback starts here.
Our public meeting and rally next Tuesday (1 April) has a fantastic line-up of speakers and is an opportunity to not only find out more about getting involved in the Welfare not Warfare campaign, but also our campaign on defending the right to protest.
As we saw during Wednesday’s protest, when disabled people, including wheelchair users, were harassed and even arrested by police, the attacks on the right to protest are not confined to trying to shut down our massive pro-Palestine movement. We have warned that anyone who raises their head to protest against this government’s actions, including disability and environmental activists, trade unionists and many others, will be a target as the authorities increasingly use the draconian Public Order Act to try to silence our voices. We must be defiant in the face of such intimidation.
Register here for our Welfare not Warfare, No to Starmer’s Militarism, Defend the Right to Protest public meeting and rally – Tuesday 1 April, 6.30pm, Brunei Gallery, SOAS, WC1H OXG.
Speakers include Jeremy Corbyn, Lindsey German, Faiza Shaheen, Francesca Martinez, Ben Jamal, Matt Kennard and Holly Turner.
Source: Labour Outlook