Fight for your future!

Youth Fight for Jobs (YFJ) will doubtless earn a reputation for putting on the most lively, vibrant and colourful demonstrations in Britain.

Sean Figg, YFJ national organiser

Well over 1,000 marched, adorned with flags, banners and placards with the message of the demo - 'for real jobs', 'for free education'.

This will have made an impact on the huge Saturday afternoon crowds filling central London that afternoon.

Everywhere people stopped to watch us march by, in many cases cheering us on.

Crossing Lambeth Bridge, 28 November 2009, pic Spiky Rob

Again, the campaign received considerable media coverage - print, radio and TV. In the last hour of the demo 108 new articles about Youth Fight for Jobs appeared online! One radio journalist asked about the 'angry' mood of the demo. Of course young people are angry at the expectation that they suffer for the bankers' crisis. But as this demonstration showed, in Youth Fight for Jobs that anger is channelled into an organised and effective show of unity and strength.

a delegation deliver our petitions, 28 November 2009, pic Sarah Mayo

As the march passed Downing Street we stopped so that a delegation from the campaign could deliver a 10,000 strong petition to the Prime Minister, Gordon Brown. Unsurprisingly his butler informed us that 'no one was in'!

The demonstration marched over Lambeth Bridge and filled into Geraldine Mary Harmsworth Park for the closing rally. Hannah Sell, deputy general secretary of the Socialist Party, opened the rally. Hannah spoke of how the crisis facing young people is an inevitable product of the capitalist system which ultimately must be replaced by a system based on meeting the needs of the majority of ordinary people - socialism.

Sarah Wrack, a student from Sussex University, spoke about the cuts being pushed in education. At Sussex this will mean more than 100 job cuts, cuts to courses and other student services, and this is just the first wave. This is the situation across further and higher education.

Banners and groups from the civil servants union, the PCS, and others showed that this is a movement which unites young people and the unions. Tracy Edwards, PCS young members organiser, spoke at the rally about the fight against the cuts and the appalling conditions faced by young workers in the civil service.

On the march, 28 November, Aleksandrs Ivanovs

Matt Wrack, general secretary of the fire brigades union (FBU), described the attacks his members face.

He reported that youth in the FBU are entering into struggle. Neil Cafferky, chairing the rally, urged everyone to visit the FBU picket lines with solidarity and support.

Johan Rivas a trade unionist from Venezuela and member of the Committee for a Workers' International (the CWI is the world socialist organisation which the Socialist Party is affiliated to) spoke about the situation in Venezuela. Johan explained how the struggle against capitalism and for socialism is an international one.

Sean Figg speaks at the rally, 28 November 2009, pic Dave Carr

In closing the rally, Sean Figg, national organiser for the campaign, outlined how Youth Fight for Jobs will be putting pressure on the politicians and would-be-politicians in the run up to the general election. Youth Fight for Jobs will draft a simple four-point manifesto to challenge candidates to back the campaign and its demands - no job cuts, no university cuts, no fees and create jobs.

For what is still a relatively new campaign this was another major step forward. In the months between the launch of Youth Fight for Jobs at April's G20 meeting the campaign has reached the trade unions, the national media but most importantly young people sick of the way capitalism tosses them around like flotsam. Youth Fight for Jobs has shown the potential to build a mass movement of young people against the effects of the recession. In the coming years the 28 November demo will be remembered as a landmark in the campaign, but also as a taster of the bigger battles to come.

Get involved in Youth Fight for Jobs! See here for an article on our plans after the demo www.youthfightforjobs.com/article/6981

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