On 20

October, tens of thousands of people from across the UK and Northern Ireland

were marching to take part in’ A Future That Works’. Organised by the Trades

Union Congress (TUC) , the Scottish TUC and the Congress of Trade Unions'

Northern Ireland Committee, to protest against the government's austerity

policies, it demanded that the government adopts an alternative economic

strategy that puts jobs, growth and people first. As well as a march and rally

in London, marches and rallies  took place in Glasgow and Belfast.

The

European Federation of Journalists and its affiliates supported the

demonstration. EFJ President Arne König said: “Throughout Europe, and not only

in Greece, Portugal, Spain and Italy,  our unions are fighting against

austerity plans of governments which are putting the future of journalism at

risk.”  .

NUJ General

Secretary Michelle Stanistreet said: "Members of the NUJ were marching

with thousands of fellow trade unionists, students, pensioners and families on

Saturday to protest about the remorseless and wrong-headed cuts that are

damaging livelihoods and lives across the UK. Journalists were amongst the

marchers because our industry has been particularly badly hit in recent years,

as owners of media companies opportunistically seized the chance to cull staff,

cut costs and close newspapers altogether, leaving a frightening democratic

deficit in our local communities. She said that NUJ members will continue to

stand up for journalism.

Jim

Boumelha IFJ President added: “It is incomprehensible that the international

financial institutions are still pursuing structural adjustment and fiscal

austerity, even when it seems evident that this totally incoherent approach is

an illusion and has destroyed millions of jobs including thousands of

journalists jobs. The IFJ is supporting the ITUC global campaign for the World

Bank and IMF to abandon their approach to ‘growth through austerity’ and

re-examine all of their policies through the ‘jobs lens’. We congratulate the

NUJ and its members for being part of the fight back and joining the wider

labour movement to march for the alternative.”

The EFJ,

which is a regional organization of the International Federation of

journalists, represents over 310,000 journalists in over 30 countries.

For more

information, contact the EFJ at +32 2 235.2200.