SATURDAY’S People’s Assembly demonstrations were a massive display of strength and solidarity that defied the fear and smear that marred May’s general election.

While right-wing political pundits called on the British peoples to acquiesce to the views of the 24 per cent of the population who voted Conservative in the face of media exhortation and a weak Labour opposition, the movement responded with a resounding “NO!”

The hundreds of thousands who marched to End Austerity Now put forward a positive vision for our society — a vision based on putting people first, on defending and extending the services that support the weakest and most vulnerable in our society, a vision built on the idea that we are all stronger when we work together. They represent the vast majority of people in this country who just want a decent future for themselves and their children.

What was particularly noticeable about the demonstrations in London and in Glasgow was their diversity and how young they were. The People’s Assembly has gripped the imaginations of people from all walks of life, particularly the nation’s youth. Gone are the stereotypes of male, pale and stale trade unionists, demanding a return to some mythical past.

Instead, both the banners and those carrying them gave a clear picture of a movement encompassing all ages and all backgrounds, with a strong sense of their history but also a radical vision for the future. In many ways, it was reminiscent of the height of the anti-war movement, when opposition to the bombing of Iraq sparked school walkouts and a blossoming of local groups up and down the country, involving both seasoned campaigners and those recently politicised.

However, the People’s Assembly, while it has not yet grown to the size of the movement that drew two million people on to the streets for the largest demonstration in British history, seems to have a much deeper engagement from the trade union movement than Stop the War did in its early days. While a number of unions passed resolutions supporting the Stop the War Coalition, and were willing to endorse and financially support its activities, the People’s Assembly seems to have much more active participation from trade unions and trade unionists at national, regional and local level.

This will be as essential to its success as the development of a broad movement against austerity will be to the future of the trade union movement.

As the nature of our electoral system as a fig leaf for the dictatorship of capital becomes ever clearer and as the full force of law is brought to bear on the trade unions in an attempt to shackle Britain’s largest democratic organisations, there has never been a more important time to build a broad democratic alliance against monopoly capital and its control of state power.

Such a movement must link together working people in every aspect of their lives, in the workplace and in the community. It must have both the power to mobilise the organised working class and to organise the unorganised. It must be built around an alternative vision for our society and it must give political expression to that vision.

The development of the People’s Assembly and its strengthening links with local anti-austerity groups, trade unions and trades councils is a major contribution to building such a movement.

In addition, it provides an opportunity to bring together socialists and progressives both inside and outside of the Labour Party, as shown by the response given by the London demonstration to Jeremy Corbyn.

While Andy Burnham drifts to the right and, like some optical illusion, Yvette Cooper appears by comparison to be moving leftward, activists in the movement would be well advised to ignore the spectacle of the Blairite candidates and instead turn their attention to building the movement and of course supporting the one candidate who puts this above electoral politics.

Jez we can!