Thursday’s People’s Charter meeting in Stratford was perfectly timed. It happened on the evening of the day that New Labour’s John Hutton told millions of workers that he wants to make them live poorer and work longer. Bob Crow was the first speaker to the audience of about one hundred people. He voiced the view of everyone who can tell the difference between black and white that the Con Dems want to smash the welfare state. Addressing Hutton’s pension proposals he observed that the basic problem is not that public sector pensions are too high but that state pensions are not sufficient to allow people to live comfortably.

Bob made the connection between a working class based movement which is rooted in both unions and communities, arguing that unions have to avoid being seen as selfish and make it clear that they are the ones who are fighting to protect services in working class areas. He developed the point by saying that pensioners and the unemployed can’t take strike action but they can take part in civil disobedience and he offered the example of blocking motorways.

Understandably he spent a lot of time talking about the proposals to make the anti-union laws more restrictive. As recent court rulings have showed any company with a barely competent lawyer can get a judge to rule a strike illegal and now they want to make the law even more biased against trade unionists.

It’s a fair bet that Bob doesn’t plan to join the Labour Party anytime soon. He was coruscating about the family drama which submerged the real political debate at the conference.

Next up was the Green MEP Jean Lambert. She seems to have had a sneak preview of the Million Climate Jobs pamphlet which the Campaign Against Climate Change Trade Union Group is launching next week. Lots of her proposals for an alternative economic strategy were very similar to it. Unlike some members of the Miliband family she’s willing to get up in public and argue in favour of transfers of wealth from the rich to the poor. She raised that ever popular slogan “we need more tax inspectors”. Of course she’s right. Squeezing the tax dodgers should be a big demand at the minute.,

Junayed Miah of the London Muslim Centre offered some impressive figures about the size of Whitechapel Mosque’s congregation. As will be obvious to anyone familiar with its catchment area many of the people who attend it live in overcrowded homes and in poverty. His message to the meeting was that the LMC wants to be part of a broad coalition against the cuts precisely because of these facts.

The National Union of Teachers Alex Kenny welcomed all the anti-cuts activity that is happening around the country. His view is that this is a time for organising at the local and community level. However the big event will be the demonstration that the TUC has called in March.

Meetings like this are happening up and down the country and they are absolutely essential. Last night pulled together a core of established political and trade union activists plus a lot of people who’d picked up a leaflet in the shopping centre. They will be the nucleus of a mass movement against the austerity drive. The last word goes to someone who spoke from the floor and it’s indisputable. His point was that unity and working together are now essential. The only dividing line is whether or not you oppose all cuts and are willing to do something about it and to that end all the campaigns need to start working together.