Reports of Coalition of Resistance events in Newcastle

Here are reports, by fellow Tyneside activists, of two Coalition of Resistance events in Newcastle this week. I couldn't get to the Vodafone direct action (see report below), but Wednesday's public meeting was excellent.

Challenging the cuts consensus: there is an alternative

'Despite several other local campaign and organisational meetings taking place in Tyne and Wear on the same evening, one of the biggest anti-cuts meetings so far in the region took place in Newcastle on Wednesday night.

A 70-strong public meeting organised by Tyne and Wear Coalition of Resistance heard a very strong platform of speakers - Paul Clays, Regional Secretary CWU; Clare Williams, chair of Northern Public Services Alliance; Julie Young, Regional Organiser PCS; Shirley Ford, Regional Co-ordinator Green Party and Maddy Nettleship, Branch Secretary, Gateshead Health Unison - put the case for alternatives to the cuts and for organising the broadest possible unity in anti-cuts campaigning.

The meeting agreed to a proposal to organise a protest against Vodafone’s tax evasion on Saturday, details were announced of a major local cultural event to happen on 26 November and many of those in attendance expressed an interest in attending the National Organising Conference in London on 27th November

A video recording was made of all the speeches at the meeting and will be made available very shortly.'

Newcastle protest at Vodafone: make the rich and bankers pay!

'For the second weekend running activists have shut down Vodafone stores in protests over the company's alleged tax avoidance and government budget cuts. Protesters say Vodafone was let off a £6bn tax bill by HM Revenue.

Following a decision taken by the 70-strong Newcastle Coalition of Resistance meeting last Wednesday, around 20 CoR supporters organised a protest outside Vodafone stores in Newcastle today.

Chanting “Can’t pay, won’t pay; make the rich and bankers pay!” supporters marched behind the Tyne & Wear Coalition of Resistance banner down Haymarket to one of the three Vodafone stores in Newcastle.

After a lively & noisy protest lasting around 30 minutes the store’s doors were locked & a sign posted on the door stating, “We’ve had to close this store temporarily.”

Supporters then marched back down Haymarket and turned their attention to a second Vodafone store in Grainger Street. The protest outside the store drew a large crowd of shoppers eager to sign the CoR founding statement and express their incredulity of the double standard involved in Vodafone’s tax amnesty. “They’d arrest me if I didn’t pay my taxes!” shouted one very angry shopper.

Those signing the statement took information about the national conference on 27th November and several said they would come along to the next local organising meeting on 17th November. Two students are now planning to set up a CoR group at Newcastle university.'

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