The People’s Assembly Against Austerity will be mobilising to support the TUC protest against on 18 October

The People’s Assembly Against Austerity will be mobilising in support of this mass demonstration called by the TUC. This will be the third demonstration this summer, following our No More Austerity demo on 21 June, which saw 50,000 people take to the streets, and the co-ordinated strike action on July 10, with over 1 million public sector workers on strike (watch the footage from Trafalgar Square on the Counterfire liveblog)

Some key reasons for getting involved:

• Poverty Pay – 1 in 5 people in Britain now earn less than the living wage, and for the first time ever we have more people in work below the poverty line than the number of people unemployed! 
• The Cost of Living Crisis – We are told that we have recovered from the cost of living crisis, but ordinary people are still £40 a week worse off on average than they were 5 years ago. Furthermore, if bankers hadn’t crashed the economy and wages growth had stayed on track, workers would have £100 a week more in their pay packets!
• Rising Inequality – In 1998, Chief Executives received 45 times the average pay. Now they receive 185 times the average pay. Put in other terms, they make more in a day and a half than what most people earn in 12 months!

TUC General Secretary Frances O’Grady explains key reasons why we all need to join the movement to bring a real and lasting economic recovery in which everyone can share:

The TUC demo in 2011 saw 500,000 people on the streets, lets get millions on 18 October! 

From the TUC website:

This autumn the TUC is to organise a mass demonstration in London under the banner of Britain Needs a Pay Rise. It will take place on Saturday 18 October 2014, and will begin with a march through central London, culminating in a rally in Hyde Park.

This will be the fourth march that the TUC has organised since the coalition came to power. The first – the March for the Alternative – in March 2011 saw 500,000 people attending a huge march and rally in London.

With people facing the biggest squeeze on their incomes since Victorian times, and official figures out last month showing that wages have fallen in real terms every year since 2010, the TUC believes that as growth returns to the UK economy, everyone should get to share in the recovery.

TUC General Secretary Frances O’Grady said: “Hard-pressed families across the UK must be beginning to wonder when the tough times they are experiencing will ever end. They keep hearing that the economy is growing and learning of yet another bonus extravaganza in the city, yet their own wages never seem to go far enough.

“Worries about money are a big deal for ordinary people. While their household budgets can just about stretch to cover everyday essentials, they are likely to have to load up their credit cards to meet the cost of any unexpected items.

“During the dark days of recession, workers accepted that their pay might have to be frozen or even cut to save jobs, but now the economy is picking up – and many employers can afford to pay their staff more – the time has come for Britain to get a pay rise.”