March ‘is first step in toppling the Tories’

A HARD-Left union group has urged activists to turn out in force at a London protest today, saying it will be the starting point for a series of strikes and marches ‘to push out May and the Tories’.

The National Shop Stewards Network (NSSN), which has vowed to attempt to bring down the Government, said it had cancelled its annual conference to enable more of its members to take part in a march on Parliament.

Two weeks ago shadow chancellor John McDonnell urged union militants to put a million ‘on the streets’ today to demand the overthrow of the Government.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has also urged Britain’s most militant union, the RMT, to work with him to ‘remove’ the Tories from Number 10. The NSSN, a group run by Trotskyites, sent an email two weeks ago to militants in which it urged them to bring different trade unions together so they can ‘link up strikes’.

The message – titled ‘Organise to get the Tories Out’ – encouraged union activists to arrange ‘coordinated strike action’ over the coming weeks.

Now the NSSN has called off its annual conference. In a statement, it said: ‘It is vital that everything is done to make this a massive demonstration as the starting point for a movement of protests, marches and strikes that is needed to build the pressure to push out May and the Tories.

‘Therefore, the national steering committee of the NSSN has decided to cancel this year’s conference to support the demonstration and to concentrate our efforts to build it.’

Today’s march on Parliament is organised by the People’s Assembly, a Leftwing movement supported by unions.

A statement on the People’s Assembly website makes use of the Grenfell Tower tragedy to urge activists to attend.