Leading Greens Jenny Jones and Darren Johnson are calling on Londoners to join them and thousands of civil servants, school teachers, and lecturers on a march to Parliament as part of a national day of action against government cuts in public sector pensions.
Jenny Jones, the Greens' London Mayoral candidate and member of the Greater London Assembly said:
"The government cuts are cutting into the pensions of people who have worked and saved and thought they could be safe in old age. This is not pension reform, it is simply a pay cut on top of a pay freeze. It's bad economics, and forcing more people into poverty damages the whole of society. The strike has my full support."
Darren Johnson, also a Green London Assembly member, added:
"This attack on public-sector pensions affects hundreds of thousands of low-paid workers, and needs to be seen in the context of the wider cuts programme. The lowest paid will be worst affected by having to work longer hours for less pay. This decision is unfair, unnecessary and morally reprehensible, especially when you consider that billions of money is being lost every year through corporate tax evasion and bank bailouts." [1]
Currently, the pension wealth of the top 10% is worth ten times that of the bottom 50%. Average public sector pensions are less than £8,000 and half receive around
£5,600. [2]
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Notes
[1] See http://www.greenparty.org.uk/news/caroline-lucas-tax-evasion-bill.html
[2] Source: The Hutton review.