On Thursday October 21st, Notts County Unison organised a demonstration at County Hall, West Bridgford against the cuts advocated by the Tort-led authority. Coming the day after the Coalition Government's "Comprehensive Spending Review," the event attracted around 500 people, a mixture of council workers, service users, campaigners and local residents.

It was a clear day, but cold. This didn't seem to have put people off. This is the third union-organised protest at County Hall in a year and certainly the largest. (The previous demonstrations were in November and February.)

There were a wide array of speakers who condemned the agenda of the aptly-named Kay Cutts and the parallel national attack on public services and welfare being waged by the national government. Speakers included Alan Rhodes (leader of the Labour Group on the county council), Jean Thorpe (Nottingham City Unison), Hugo Blanco (Peruvian activist) and speakers from the CWU and a range of service user groups.

Alan Rhodes, keen to jump on any bandwagon now he's been ousted from power (see also the controversy around the International Brigades memorial), has already spoken at an anti-cuts meeting organised by the Trades Council. At County Hall he committed himself and the Labour Group to supporting the campaign. The decision to follow him with Jean Thorpe was an inspired one as it allowed her to counterpoint Rhodes' claims with the actions of the Labour-led city council. Over the river, the council recently attempted to use the single status arrangements to shaft school support staff (ironically - given the initiative's basis in the Equal Pay Act - a predominantly female workforce). She also noted that councillors in the city intend to implement government-mandated cuts without putting up a fight.

The speaker from the CWU (whose name I forget) noted that the Coalition Government intended to privatise the Royal Mail, a policy pursued but dropped by New Labour and committed his union to supporting any industrial action by council workers. Blanco went even further in his contextualisation of the local struggle, in a speech which mentioned struggles against capitalism across Latin America.

There were speeches by a number of service user groups, but I didn't catch names and all the speeches were translated into British Sign Language. It is to be hoped that the relationships built between workers and these groups can be built on.

A number of speakers spoke positively about recent protests, strikes and blockades in France. Quite how we are to get from the current apathy in the UK to that level was not discussed. The recent attack on County Hall, arguably one of the closest actions to those in France was not mentioned by anybody.

So far the only action organised by Unison against the cuts agenda has been three static demonstrations and a limited work-to-rule. Much of this timidity reputedly can be traced to regional officers who had their own political agendas opposed to militant action in the run-up to the General Election. It is to be hoped that bureaucratic manipulation can be avoided or defeated as we move forward. A sizable demo is a good start, but it is only the very beginning. There is a long and difficult fight ahead.