www.socialistworker.co.

uk

Join the national PCS demonstration on 30 May...

NATIONAL GALLERY: A
FIGHT FOR ALL OF US
T

HE NEWLY ELECTED TORY

government is set to ram through
more austerity. We need to resist,
and the strike at the National Gallery
and the fight to reinstate sacked PCS
rep Candy Udwin are important battles
to stop Cameron and Cos assault on
working class people.
Its vital that every PCS member who
possibly can gets to the unions national
demonstration this Saturday 30 May at
1pm in Trafalgar Square in London.
It is against privatisation at the National
Gallery and in defence of Candy.
PCS members at the National Gallery
have already struck for 24 days since
February and are escalating their action
with a further ten days strike from Tuesday
26 May to Thursday 4 June.
Many speakers at last weeks PCS
conference rightly paid tribute to the
bravery of National Gallery strikers and
Candys defiance in the face of her sacking.
It was brilliant to see a letter supporting
the dispute in last Saturdays Guardian
newspaper signed by a raft of union
general secretaries and artists.
The protest on Saturday is supported by
the Peoples Assembly, on the national day
of action to build for a huge End Austerity
Now march on 20 June.

Designed

The outcome of this dispute will affect

us all. If management can get away with
sacking our union reps how will we defend
our members and win the battles to come?
The Tories are moving quickly. Some
100,000 more jobs are to go in the civil
service. PCS members have faced a major
assault over the last five years80,000
civil service jobs have already been lost.
The drive to remove the check off
system of taking union subscriptions was
designed to stop our union functioning.
A big push to get union members to pay
by direct debit has signed up the majority
of existing members and that must
continue.
In the wake of the election weve got
no choice but to step up the fight against
austerity.

Strikers have stood strong against victimisation and privatisation

As well as the National Gallery, PCS

conference also heard about successful
fights against privatisation in Land Registry
and the strikes against the closure of the
DWP call centre in Garston.
The Glasow Computer Sciences
Corporation has seen a five day strike and
needs support from every union branch.

National

But we cant just fight the Tories branch by

union branch, or call centre by call centre.
We need national strikes by PCS, ideally
coordinated with other unions.
But we know thats not always easy.
While continued pressure must be pushed
through TUC structures, PCS has to give
a lead. We cant simply wait for others to
move.
So there are two crucial dates coming
up. The 30 May demonstration needs to be
as big as possibleawash with PCS flags.
Then on 20 June theres a chance to put
100,000 people or more onto the streets to
show that millions of us reject austerity.

Already thousands have taken to the

streets across the country to show their
anger at Tory rule. We have the chance to
build a mass movement against austerity.
If we can stop privatisation at the
National Gallery and get Candy her job
back well really have something to crow
about!

What you can do to support the

National Gallery Strike
Join the demo, 1pm Trafalgar Sq,
Saturday 30 May: bring union banners!
Tweet #ReinstateCandy
selfies to @NGNotForSale
Donate to: sort code 08/60/01 and
account no 20169002. Cheques to PCS
Culture Media and Sport Association,
c/o PCS North West Region, Jack Jones
House,1 Islington, Liverpool L3 8EG
Invite National Gallery strikers to your
town or meeting to spread the campaign

https://ngnotforsale.wordpress.com/

PCS Get behind

NG strike 260515