What's The Alternative

So who is going on the March for the Alternative on Saturday? And who has been asked 'What's the alternative?' or even been told 'There's no alternative?'

Who has been told that they're only marching to protect their own jobs, as if there's something wrong with being a bit fucked off about losing your job.

The question 'what is the alternative' implies that there is none, which is clearly wrong. The problem is that this isn't a March with one voice.

This isn't a March that's going to end with a list of agreed solutions & everyone singing off of the same hymn sheet. Partly because the people marching are not the people in charge & partly because the March contains many different voices: from those who would have cuts, but not front loaded as George Osborne has arranged them; those who would cut differently - especially Trident; those who would tax the wealthy more & cut less; to those wanting some kind of fully-fledged departure from capitalism & a full-scale revolution.

So what are the alternatives? Well, there's a lot. If you're that interested then you can read up what the TUC, what the Labour Party, the Green Party, the SWP & others say. The alternatives are out there you know.

Personally I know why I'm marching. Yes, these reasons might be based on blinkers of ideology but please don't pretend that decisions being made by George & co aren't being made on the basis of their own blinkered ideology rather than in the name of some 'neutral' national interest. If that were the case it wouldn't be nurses, Doctors, teachers, police officers, soliders, sailors & airmen paying the price for a recession created by a worldwide financial crisis caused by gambling bankers would it.

I believe in an alternative that includes focusing on growth before everyone starts going mad with the scissors; in cutting Trident not EMA; in not wasting £2bn on a re-organisation of the NHS that it almost certainly doesn't need; a Tobin tax to wouldn't break the banks would it? Fundamentally I believe in not cutting so deep, so fast.

I'm not saying I'd be proved right but I am saying that there are alternatives.