Sunday, October 31, 2010

Save our Libraries March

There was a good turnout for yesterday's libraries march, and despite the ominous weather forecasts, the rain held off too. I would estimate that there were about 200 people who marched from Crofton Park library to the town hall in Catford. There was a good range of people there - lots of families with children and older residents, as well as the usual activists.

Lewisham MPs Joan Ruddock and Heidi Alexander attempted to speak at the beginning of the demo, but their voices were pretty much drowned out by heckling, with people shouting 'Vote against the cuts'. A number of politicians there were looking rather uncomfortable - the local Lib Dem cllr, as his party is being blamed for cuts at a national level, and the Labour cllrs and MPs as they run Lewisham.

I want go into loads of detail as Transpontine has already beat me to it with a good write up and photos, but suffice to say the march was vocal, determined and presented a united front from the 5 libraries campaigns, who have now collected over 20,000 signatures for their petitions.

1 comment:

Ian said...

Hi, I'm a member of Voices for the Library, a group of library workers who have got together to campaign for libraries in the face of impending cuts. We publish stories on our website from use and libraryt workers to highlight the great things that they do. If anyone would like to write about Crofton Park library and the campaign for our website, we'd love to hear from you. We are also on Twitter (@ukpling) and Facebook (Voices for the Library). We'd love to hear from those involved in the campaign and wish you all good luck in fighting the closures.