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Incorporating the Daily Worker www.morningstaronline.co.uk Monday September 20 2010

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KILLING SPORT

Lib Dems’ badge of dishonourby Will Stone

HUNDREDS of union activists rallied in Liverpool yes-terday to accuse Liberal Democrat politicians of “betray-ing the electorate.”

The mass protest at the Lib Dems’ annual conference hit out at the party’s pact with the Tories which has seen them helping to drive through public-sector cuts that have already led to over 200,000 jobs be-ing slashed or under threat.

General secretary of Unison Dave Pren-tis, speaking at a TUC protest rally at the city’s Salthouse Dock, said: “Who can trust the Lib Dems now? They have ditched the poor, the elderly and the vulnerable along with their election promises. Their thirst for power has led them to sell out their own supporters.

“They must face up to the responsi-bility that their assaults on public-sector workers will see hundreds of thousands of people out of a job. The impact of those cuts on local people who rely on those services will be devastating.”

Joint general secretary of Unite Tony Woodley accused the Con-Dem coalition of having no public mandate for the assassination of public services in what he described as a “betrayal of the electorate.”

“As always it will be working people who become the victims,” he said. “From the very young to the very old, the support they depend on will be pulled away.

“The tragedy is that it doesn’t have to be this way. A tax-avoidance clampdown would bring billions into the economy right away. This is a wake-up call. We are not go-

ing to wait around for our services to be assassinated.”Unions will be holding a series of fringe meetings

throughout the conference to discuss the impact of the spending cuts.

But Chief Treasury Secretary Danny Alexander ac-cused trade unionists of misrepresenting the govern-ment’s aims.

And he appealed to public-sector workers to co-operate in helping to push through cuts to their own jobs and

services.Mr Alexander said: “I know there are a minority in the trade unions who will delib-erately misrepresent what this govern-ment stands for because they are spoiling for a fight.

“Please don’t allow their political moti-vations to push you into doing the wrong thing for the country. We do not want to take you on. We want to take you with us.”

Deputy PM Nick Clegg (pictured) con-ceded at the conference that many mem-

bers were still uncomfortable about his pact with Prime Minister David Cameron, but

urged them to “enjoy” being in government.RMT general secretary Bob Crow accused Mr Alexan-

der and his bedfellows in the Tory Party of unleashing an all-out class war on working people and our public servic-es through their cuts programme.

He added: “Mr Alexander and the Con-Dem govern-mment have decided to make the working class pay for this crisis while the bankers who created it are unscathed and back on the gravy train. The idea that we won’t fight back is ludicrous.”

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