MPs MAY have voted against adjourning Parliament to allow the Tories a pre-election beano next week, but the People’s Assembly Against Austerity will still be in Manchester to ensure those guilty of the crimes committed in the name of austerity against working-class communities are appropriately “welcomed” from their daily commute, and marching tomorrow with the clear message that it’s time to go.
 
We’re marching with a clear vision of a fairer, more equal society based on a new politics and economy; our values of social solidarity, the demand for a green industrial revolution supporting sustainable jobs, homes, health, peace and justice. 

We’re marching to expose the Tory lie that austerity is over. In solidarity with the millions suffering misery, poverty and hardship on a daily basis, the consequence of an ideological political choice to inflict pain and suffering on the most vulnerable in society. 
  
We’re marching because the austerity imposed on us by the Tories and their Liberal partners in crime is burning through working people’s lives — a relentless political attack on the many, by the few.
  
A bombshell survey by my union, Unite, found that 70 per cent of those forced onto universal credit had skipped meals and 42 per cent used foodbanks. Foodbank use stands at a record 1.6 million, with half of emergency food parcels going to children.
 
In the fifth-richest country on our planet, people are unable to heat their homes, pay the rent, meet their bills or buy school uniforms. 

Benefit sanctions are plunging people into the depths of despair and several of those who responded to the Unite survey said they’d tried to kill themselves, or had suicidal thoughts.
 
One of those forced into in-work poverty by the Tories’ vicious, uncaring regime is Emma (I’ve changed her name). She’s a front-line NHS worker who was in a horrible, abusive marriage. 
 
Not only was she psychologically abused, she was a survivor of marital rape. Emma, who has two young children, eventually found the courage to leave her husband.