Kirsteen Fraser, secretary of the SNP trade union group

"There is a new weapon of mass destruction in our communities...and its name is austerity. It is a weapon that has been unleashed upon us by a Tory government that we did not vote for, that we did not want...and at the general election we said no to. We will not accept austerity in Scotland, not now, not ever."

Cat Boyd, Radical Independence Campaign

"Austerity is about political choices and the Tories are choosing to make workers, the unemployed and disabled pay for a crisis of the banks and financiers.

"Not one cut is necessary, austerity is about political priorities and there can be no doubt this government's priority is...to maintain the privilege of the undeserving rich.

"We are here today because our priority is the wellbeing of the people, the wellbeing of the millions and not the millionaires.

"Austerity is an attack on democracy as well as our living standards."

Ryan Boyle, People's Assembly Scotland

"We will be the first generation in recent history to have a lower standard of living than our parents. People twice my age have a home, a child and partner and a pension scheme: life had a point and a purpose. Young people today...have no opportunity for a meaningful life or any sense of self-worth."

Larry Flanagan, general secretary of teaching union EIS

"There are lessons to be learned from the poll tax campaign of the 1980s...it was a grassroots movement.

"That grassroots message is where its strength came from...to create a social movement that challenged Thatcher's poll tax. And we won that fight.

"Today we are facing a more calculated, more cynical attack from the same source - in terms of a Tory government - that is even more ideologically-driven than we faced from Thatcher in the 80s.

"It is predicated on creating even greater inequality in our society and entrenching unfairness as a way our society operates."

Janice Godrich, president of the Public and Commercial Services trade union

"We have had the election of a government of free market extremists who are intent on systematically destroying every gain made by working people over the last 100 years. Working class people at least had the opportunity of getting a decent education for their kids, free healthcare and safety net in times of unemployment and sickness. We now must accept that all this is going, gone or under threat."

Jordan Deehan, Freedom Square campaign

"We are here to say loud and clear we reject austerity. People across this country are struggling. The attack on the disabled is shameful, this is a full-scale attack on the weakest in society. What is austerity?: it is planned poverty, it doesn't have to happen."