We’re expecting tens of thousands out in London today, alongside major marches in Belfast and Glasgow too. But even if you can’t be there in person, there still lots you can do to support the campaign for A Future That Works. Here are some ideas we’ve come up with:
Join the campaign
It’s going to take much more than one day to win a Future That Works, even a day as big as October 20. If you want to help resist austerity, reverse our decline and build an economy that works for ordinary families, then join our ongoing campaign.
Join up online here, or just text “FUTURE” to 85515, and we’ll be in touch with more news and actions, online or nearer where you live (any SMS sent to 85515 cost your standard network rate).
Follow the march online
You can get updates on how the march is going by following our @futurethatworks Twitter account, or by checking the TUC Live mobile app. We’re also running a special LIVE blog on what we’re seeing during the day.
The Twitter hashtag #Oct20 should be buzzing, and we’ll be running a liveblog all day of stuff we’ve spotted, here on the site. If you’re marching, tweet who you are and where you’re from to #onthemarch if you’d like a shoutout from the mobile stages on the route.
Make the news
We can’t expect most of the mainstream media to give us a particularly fair hearing, so we all need to do more to hold bad stories to account. Visit your favourite (or possibly your least favourite) newspaper or online news sites and leave a comment on their stories about the march and the campaign against austerity. If they’re missing the point, put them straight so that anyone reading the article knows there are two sides to the story. Or add a supportive comment to good accounts, and share them round on social media.
Say why you’re supporting
And even if we can’t count on the press, we can do a lot to make our own media. Let’s fill the web with blogs, tweets and forum threads about the march and the issues and stories behind it. For bloggers’ background info, download our pamphlet.
We’d love to see your links, and include as many as we can as part of our liveblog for the day. Send us your content to check out for the liveblog
Put in a request
If you’re spending hours on a bus to the march, why not play the radio game? Tune in to local radio stations on your way down and phone in a themed music request with your own story. Pick your songs for different stations, be it protest or poppy. Getting a request like “We’d like to hear These Boots Are Made For Walking for everyone on our coach from Newcastle, heading to London for the TUC march”, is going to raise the spirits of everyone who’s listening.
You can find contact details for many radio stations online at MediaUK - Tweet us on #Oct20 with your station and song title if you get a bite!
Help make the march
Make The March are an independent project supporting October 20 by sharing great creative ideas from marchers and activists. They’ll be looking out for banners, placards and costumes on the march, and highlighting them in a contest on their site. If you’ve got something you’d like to include in the contest, tweet them or upload a picture.
Or if you’re just looking for inspiration, look through their entries and share the ones you like best with your friends to help spread the word about the day. makethemarch.org.uk
Vote for the fishiest outsourcer
From healthcare to railways, and from security to disability assessments, private firms have been taking over more and more of the work of our public services, and in many cases making a right pig’s ear of it. Help campaign group False Economy to raise the profile of this issue by voting in their award for the fishiest outsourcing firm:
Sign Pat’s Petition
Carer Pat Onions started a petition on the Downing Street website, to seek a pause and review on the combined impact of extensive welfare reforms at the same time as deep service and benefits cuts, which is causing huge difficulty for sick and disabled people and their carers. She’s managed to build more than 50,000 signatures, but only has a fortnight left to push it to the 100,000 needed for a Parliamentary debate. Please help by signing it, or sharing with others if you’ve signed already.
Lobby your local CCG to protect the NHS
The government’s plans to privatise and fragment our NHS are taking shape across England. 38 Degrees are running a series of actions to local doctors’ commissioning groups, asking them to use their place in the new NHS structures to protect our health service, not privatise it. Join the petition in your local area:
Share this page
Doing all the actions on this page will help raise the volume of the march a notch, but imagine how much more it could do if you helped five, ten or fifty others to get involved too! Please help us get this out by email, or by sharing on social networks.
