Peter Lazenby
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THE voices of the chorus from English National Opera (ENO) rang out in London today — not from the stage, but from a protest rally outside the headquarters of Arts Council England.
The Arts Council, on the instructions of the Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), is slashing funding to the arts by £50 million.
It includes cuts which will force the ENO to quit London, axe the budgets of much-loved theatres and other venues, and cut the budgets of some venues outside the capital by 100 per cent – including Oldham’s Coliseum Theatre in Greater Manchester.
Performers’ union Equity organised rallies and delivered letters of protest at Arts Council England offices at the BFI building in St Stephen Street and at the organisation’s regional headquarters in Manchester.
Members of Equity, broadcasting and technicians’ union Bectu and the Musicians’ Union took part, and in London workers from rail union RMT, postal and communications union CWU and Unite turned out in solidarity.
The London rally was addressed by speakers from the performing arts. Among them was actor and president of Equity Linda Rook who told a crowd of around 200 people that the government’s actions against the arts were “disgusting.”
Equity has accused the government of selecting union-organised theatres and arts organisations for cuts, and almost all theatres and companies selected for 100 per cent cuts are outside the capital, making a mockery of the government’s “levelling-up” rhetoric.
A speaker from Bectu said that the turnout at the London rally “shows the passion people feel for the ENO” and accused the government’s DCMS of “cultural vandalism.”
Equity general secretary Paul W Fleming told the rally: “Levelling up is the lipstick on the pig of austerity,” to cheers.
Speakers in London included ENO chorus director Mark Biggin who said: “There is nothing elite about being world-class, and I could not be prouder to have been working in an organisation that does it at the highest level, and we must defend it.”
He then conducted the ENO chorus in a moving rendition of “You’ll never walk alone.”
A simultaneous rally took place outside Arts Council offices in Manchester supported by actor and Morning Star ambassador Maxine Peake and actor Julie Hesmondhalgh.
