A THOUSAND people packed into Manchester Cathedral on Tuesday night and more than double that number rallied outside as the “Enough is Enough” campaign spread into the north of England.

Faith leaders, community activists, trade unionists, families and the public took up the campaign which launched just three weeks ago in London and has since had 500,000 sign up online.

Rallying calls for action from speaker after speaker were applauded and cheered to the rafters of the historic cathedral as Tory privatisation and the inaction of political leaders against poverty and profiteering were condemned.

Eddie Dempsey, assistant general secretary of rail union RMT, said his union’s slogan “Unity is strength” was fittingly taken from a banner carried at St Peter’s Field in Manchester 203 years ago before authorities unleashed troops on a peaceful crowd in the Peterloo Massacre.

And he said that rallying slogan was now in action in the “Enough is Enough” campaign.

He said that through unity and action the people would take back all that the Tories are destroying.

“We are the people who created pensions, built the hospitals, schools and social housing, the things they have taken away. We are here to take them back.

“But our strength comes from unity. That is why the government and the media tries to keep us divided. They want teachers fighting NHS workers, rail workers fighting nurses, and all of us fighting immigrants. They want us turning on each other so that we miss the trick — those at the top making the money while we fight each other.”

He asked: “Who runs this country? A bunch of multi-national corporations? I feel change is coming. But we have got to get people to act. The next step is collective, united, non-violent action,” he said, bringing a standing ovation.

Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham was cheered as he said Greater Manchester’s buses were being taken back into public ownership despite Tory national rule — and speaker after speaker said renationalisation of energy, mail, communications, water, rail, buses and other public services was essential to the Enough is Enough campaign.

Dave Ward, general secretary of the Communication Workers Union, said the union was reuniting the system destroyed by Tory privatisation — mail, post offices and telecommunications — by workers from all three sections taking strike action.

He said the public was becoming aware of the obscene salaries and bonuses of the chief executives of privatised industries and the billions in profits handed to shareholders while profits soared alongside millions being thrown into desperate poverty – with worse to come.

And condemnation of the inaction of political leaders as the crisis worsened was scorned by speaker after speaker.

Jake Johnson of community union Acorn, which is spreading organised resistance against greedy property landlords, condemned “the lies and slander in the media who would divide us.”

He listed some of the widespread strike action by different groups of workers who were coming together to fight back and called for communities to support strikers, bringing more cheers.

Other speakers, including Liverpool MP Ian Byrne, pointed to the obscenity of the growing dependence on food banks in the UK – “more foodbanks than there are branches of McDonald’s.”

The Enough is Enough! campaign has more rallies planned in Liverpool on Friday, Norwich, Glasgow, Bristol, Brighton and Leeds and a national day of action in London on October 1 when government regulators will allow energy prices to leap to an average £3,549 a year.

The movement is making five key demands: slash energy bills, win a real pay rise, end food poverty, decent homes for all — and tax the rich.