Over 5,000 people from Sheffield and across the North of the country came to the ‘Rage Against the Lib Dems’ demonstration in Sheffield over the weekend of the 12/13th March.
Around 500 attended on the friday night, giving delegates a noisy welcome to the city, and drumming up (literally!) interest in the following days main demonstration.
After hearing from a range of speakers before the march set off from Devonshire Green – including an ‘intervention’ by a failed Liberal candidate – they marched through the city centre before rallying outside the heavily fortified City Hall. Speakers at the end of the demo were cheered as they slammed the Liberals' policy changes, on student fees, the economy, the failure to properly tax bankers' bonuses, detention of children of asylum seekers, and the privatisation of our public services. Loud cheers went up particularly when Unite the Union General Secretary Len McCluskey condemned the over the top police presence for the demonstration, and their ‘attacks on our kids’ at recent student demonstrations.
Many Messenger readers went along to the demo, opposing the cuts to youth and mental health services, as well as those to advice centres and Sure Starts.
One of those people, Julie Kerr, said: “It's been a great day, so good to see so many people out to defend our jobs and services, and to say to the Liberals that we wont put up with their lies and sell outs any more. If they think this demo is it, they are very wrong, this is only the beginning.”