Trade unionists demonstrate in Prague. Even the speakers were surprised by the low turnout
photo: Vít Hassan, PrahaIN.cz (like others)/Demonstration against poverty, 8/10/2022
VIDEO Bratislava, Warsaw, Madrid, Rome, Vienna, Lisbon, Porto and of course Prague. There is a demonstration against poverty, high prices and low wages everywhere during October. Confirmed by Josef Středula, chairman of ČMKOS. In the Czech Republic, in Prague, it started on Saturday at 12:05. It is a symbolic time indicating that it is five minutes past twelve.
PrahaIN.cz also found out what exactly the speakers intend to draw attention to. The topics relate mainly to the current situation in the country. From rising food prices to energy.
Therefore, one of the motives of the organizers is to regulate the prices of basic needs, to regulate the prices of food, energy, fuel, water and rent, to introduce a tax on extraordinary profits, to maintain the real purchasing power of wages and salaries at least at the level of 2022 or to increase the minimum wage to 18,200 crowns in 2022.
On Saturday, in addition to Josef Středula, Jan Zazvonil, chairman of the Railway Traffic Alliance, Jiří Dokoupil from the Janáček Philharmonic in Ostrava and a number of other representatives of trade unions were to speak to the participants.
“The goal of the demonstration is to send a message that everyone who works honestly has the right to a dignified life,” the organizers said at the launch. “Everyone who is dependent on the help of others due to their health condition has the right to a dignified life. And also everyone who cares about their children! And that’s why we call on the government: start making decisions that prevent people from falling into poverty!”
Then the chairman of ČMKOS Josef Středula took the floor.
“We’re worried about our future,” he said, adding that he wanted to share that particular concern with other speakers. “We are not satisfied with what is happening in the Czech Republic. But at this moment, in Bratislava, a demonstration also started, also against poverty,” he pointed out, and the greeting of the president of the local trade unions started on the screen.
After her, Dagmar Žitníková from the health unions helps people. Like the others, she addressed those present with the greeting “hello people”. She was the first to draw attention to the high prices of meat, oil, and flour. “We want those who are supposed to act to act. This is the government, the Senate, the Chamber of Deputies. You do it so that we can live better. We want the government to put a ceiling on prices so that people don’t worry about where they will live,” she stated, adding that young people have nowhere to live.
another speaker was, for example, Václav Krása, chairman of the National Council of Persons with Disabilities of the Czech Republic.
The Czech-Moravian Confederation of Trade Unions, which is organizing Saturday’s event, is the largest trade union headquarters in the Czech Republic. It is an association of thirty-one trade unions and has approximately 800,000 members. According to our estimates, a fraction of this number is in place. As several guests on stage and backstage told us, it’s 1-3 thousand people. “Disappointing,” gushed one of them, saying thank you very much to everyone who came.
PrahaIN.cz remains on site and we will bring updated news.
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Demonstration on October 8, Against Poverty (ČMKOS)