
Thursday will see upwards of two million people on strike - a substantial proportion of the British workforce. A number of unions have coincided their members’ strike ballots into one combined day of action, which promises to send a powerful message of the popular strength of feeling against austerity.
It is those unionised workplaces that have suffered
directly from the Coalition’s dogma of cuts and pay restraint that
are leading the charge. Local authority and school workers in Unite,
GMB and Unison have voted to strike in response to a 1% pay offer,
which of course amounts to a fourth consecutive real terms pay cut.
PCS members are striking against the year-on-year pay cap that has
been imposed on civil servants, with a demand for a pay increase that
would begin to make up for the years of downward pressure.
Teachers
in the NUT are taking action in response to the wide-ranging attack
that the Coalition, led by Michael Gove, has waged on education,
including his attempts to weaken legal protections and terms and
conditions for teachers. And the Fire Brigades’ Union is
participating too, before eight days of consecutive action beginning
on 14 July, in protest at eye-watering hikes in firefighters’
pension contributions. And spare a thought for the hundreds of
thousands of former public sector workers who might well have voted
for industrial action were it not for the fact that they have already
been sacked by the ‘small government’ zealots of
Whitehall.
These millions of vital public sector workers have
more than a strong enough case to take action. The government’s
policy of pushing down pay has created a new financial crisis:
substantial economic hardship for millions of households across the
country. Inflation has outstripped growth in wages throughout this
recession. PCS figures put the rise at the cost of food at 16%, and
the rise in electricity bills at 22% since 2010, but most pay packets
have been frozen or barely risen.
This has had a disastrous
ripple effect across the economy, because it has pushed down demand
for goods and services and held back recovery. Meanwhile the
wealthiest 1,000 people in Britain have seen their assets double in
value since 2009. A recovery has clearly taken place, but not for the
vast majority of the population.
And as a Unison member has
said, local government workers “shouldn’t be scapegoated to make
up for the incompetence and greed of the bankers”. That’s exactly
it. It’s hard to see any explanation other than the standard of
living of millions of people is being sacrificed to restore stability
to an economic model that delivers almost exclusively for the
wealthiest 1% of society.
That is why it is so important that
so many people are making a stand against austerity on 10 July. Many
will have been motivated to vote in favour of the strike on account
of their own, acutely-felt consequences of the Coalition’s policy.
They have seen their family’s income slip for no fault of their
own. But the benefit of their taking action could well be felt
additionally by millions of non-unionised workers, those in the
private sector, older people and the unemployed. What such a
considerable show of force can do is demonstrate the wild
unpopularity of continuing austerity policies. That should be noticed
in Whitehall and it should be noticed too in the Labour party, where
many senior figures still believe that signing up to Tory spending
plans represent the best path to power.
It is obvious then
that the action on 10 July should be actively supported and assisted
by anyone who wants a society founded on social justice. If you’re
not on strike yourself, there are still many ways in which solidarity
can be offered.
For example, many of those taking action may
never have been on strike before, and be nervous about what the Daily
Mail will say about them, or worse what their neighbour will say
about them. Others will be worried about intimidation at work as a
result. If you have friends or family on strike, make sure they know
you’re behind them.
You can also get onto Twitter and
Facebook to show strikers whose side you’re on. Messages of support
from non-strikers are really appreciated.
And if you can, you
should drop by a local picket line – these will be outside many
buildings where people are striking. You can find out where and what
time picket lines will be near you by tweeting at the union’s local
regions and asking them. Don’t turn up empty handed. Striking isn’t
easy, and a cup of tea and a cake will mean a lot.
Don’t
forget too opportunities to get involved with further action: the TUC
march on 18 October will be an important chance to develop the
movement for a new economic plan which invests in people and the
economy.
Whatever you do, the important thing is that you
stand prepared to defend and support those taking action. To invoke
an old slogan: it’s not just for themselves that they are fighting.
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