Organizers have announced the speakers for the Cost-of-Living protest taking place in Hanley town centre this Saturday.
The event organized by Staffordshire People’s Assembly is part of a national day of action that will see protesters take to the streets in more than thirty locations around the country.
The People’s Assembly was founded in 2013 as a ‘national campaign against austerity, cuts and privatization’, it is not affiliated to a specific political party and aims to being together diverse groups and communities to campaign on social justice issues.
Protests taking place this weekend will see solidarity expressed with the 800 P&O workers sacked last week via a Zoom call.
Speaking to the BBC on the day of the mass sackings an official for the RMT trades unions said he had ‘seen grown men crying because they don’t know where they are going to go from today’.
Speakers at the Hanley protest will include representatives from the North Staffs Green Party, Stoke-on-Trent and Crewe Socialist Workers Party and local trades unions.
Mark McDonald a leading human rights barrister may also be speaking at the protest, at the time of going to press this had not been confirmed.
Mr McDonald specializes in criminal defence and has worked extensively on cases involving miscarriages of justice including those of Michael Stone and Ben Green.
A spokesperson for Staffordshire People’s Assembly said: ‘the disgraceful treatment of P&O workers and the ongoing crisis caused by government inability to face up to to impact of rising energy costs have galvanized public opinion’.
Adding that ‘we are taking to the street to stand in solidarity with P&O workers and to send a message to demand action be taken on a cost-of-living crisis that could see 1.3 million people driven into absolute poverty’.