Turn votes for action into strikes

T
he TUC the conference which brings together all the main trade unions this week voted for resistance to the Tories. Now we need to turn the brave words into action. A serious fightback cant come soon enough. The government claims theres an economic recovery underway. And there might be for Cameron, Osborne and their rich friends. But what about the rest of us? British workers hourly wages have fallen by 5.5 percent since mid 2010, worse even than Spain, a country devastated by the economic crisis. Were getting poorer while the bankers and bosses who caused this whole mess are doing the recovering. There is some good news from the TUC and some not so good news. The TUC voted by 8-1 to back a motion moved by RMT rail and maritime union leader Bob Crow. It argued to reaffirm last years decision to examine the possibility of a general strike against austerity and to call a weekday national day of action, combined with co-ordinated strike action. The TUC also voted to support the Peoples Assembly call for a day of civil disobedience on 5 November and for a national anti-poverty demonstration next year. Labour would make tough decisions in plain English cuts if it wins the next election. With the Tories in a bigger mess than usual after their parliamentary defeat on Syria, this would have been the perfect time to call for a fightback. Instead Labour wants to show it is fit to govern by kicking the unions! The truth is we need a real discussion about a socialist alternative to the Labour Party.

www.socialistworker.co.uk

Hovis strikers fight zero hours contracts

H
undreds of workers at the Hovis plant in Wigan are on strike this week against workers being forced to work on zero hours contracts and the use of agency workers. They want ever y worker at the factor y on a proper contract and they need your support.

Luxury

Happens

Thats all good news, although we all know there is a big gap between conference motions and what happens next. We need to coordinate the strikes that are in the pipeline, get more of them, and push for a general strike. Hundreds of thousands of teachers in the NUT and NASUWT unions plan regional pay strikes on 1 and 17 October. Firefighters have voted for action over pensions. Postal workers next week begin a strike ballot over the effects of privatisation. The not so good news was Labour leader Ed Milibands speech. Rightly he attacked the Tories record and the outrage of zero hours contracts. But instead of concentrating his fire on Cameron he spent most of his time distancing himself and Labour from the link with the unions and explaining why

We dont have the luxury of waiting for a Labour government to save us. With wage and pension cuts, unemployment and zero hours contracts, NHS cuts and the bedroom tax we have to fight now. That fightback starts with getting the biggest possible turnout at the anti-austerity protest at the Tory party conference in Manchester on Sunday 29 September. It continues with getting behind the striking teachers, postal workers, firefighters, Hovis workers (battling zero hours contracts) and any other group of workers who fight back. But if we are going to stop Cameron and Co we need all the talk of coordinated strikes at the TUC to be turned into action. To make that happen we need networks of activists in every area wholl build the demos, back the strikes and push for the kind of action we need to win. Thats why the Organising to win conference, called by Unite the Resistance on 19 October, is so important. Lets unite the resistance and put an end to Tory austerity.

Rush messages of solidarity for the strikers to: 07739 326 011 roy.streeter@bfawu.org region4@bfawu.org Send workplace collections and trade union branch solidarity donations by cheque, payable to BFAWU at: 348 Chester Road, Cornbrook, Manchester, M16 9EZ Protest at Tory Conference

defend the NHS, fight the cuts

Sunday 29 Sept, Manchester Backed by Unite, Unison and GMB Transport is listed at uniteresist.org

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