The discontent in British society is moving from simmering to boiling as more and
workers go into action, either in official strikes or in unofficial wildcatstrikes. ---- The conditions created by Brexit and then by the Covid lockdownpushed workers to agitate around pay demands. This situation was furtheraggravated by the war in Ukraine, with scarcity of foodstuffs and raw materialscausing price rises and a willingness by capitalists to take advantage of this.Inflation is now running at 13% and rising. Employers are offering pay offers ofbetween 2 and 5% often after years of pay freezes in some sectors. In other wordsmany workers are facing what in fact is a pay cut. The Bank of England respondedby pushing up the base rate by a half percent, the highest increase since 1995.This will mean that more and more people will not be able to keep up with theirmortgage payments.As a result of this situation, more and more workers have taken to industrialaction over this summer. This includes workers organised in the rail unions, inRMT, ASLEF and the TSSA. Forty thousand RMT members went out on strike for twodays in the week ending August 21st, and were joined in London by LondonUnderground and London Overground workers and by bus workers in West Londonworking for the London United bus company, as well as some rail workers in theTSSA.Train drivers in ASLEF have also taken strike action over the last two weeksacross Britain.Elsewhere, around 2,000 workers organised in the Unite union will go on strike atFelixstowe, the largest container port in Britain from August 21st to August29th. Approximately 50% of the UK's container traffic comes in throughFelixstowe. This will undoubtedly have a drastic effect on the supply of food andraw materials, already in a parlous state.On Wednesday, August 24th, many wildcat strikes are expected to happen atconstruction sites and refineries.On Friday August 26th , 115,000 Royal Mail workers in the CWU union will go outon a one day strike, and will be joined by 2,000 workers in the Post Office CrownOffice who will start a two day strike. This will be followed on Tuesday August30th by a strike by 40,000 BT and Openreach workers, and by Post Officeadministration and supply chain workers.On August 31st workers at Royal Mail, BT and Openreach will strikesimultaneously, involving 150,00 workers. More strikes by Royal Mail workers willtake place on 8th and 9th September.Bus workers working for the Arriva bus company have continued industrial actionin north west England and in Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire, and Hertfordshire, aswell as in north London, Kent and Essex.Hundreds of workers at the Grangemouth oil refinery in Scotland went out on awildcat strike last week. They will be taking wildcat action again on August 24th(see above).Amazon workers went out on wildcat strikes too. In Bristol they went on strikeand organised a sit-in at the BRS1 centre. On the same day Amazon workers went onwildcat strike at Rugeley. Workers also walked out on the same day at the BHX1Site in Rugeley. Earlier wildcats took place at Amazon centres in Coventry andTilbury and at Swindon. Amazon workers at fulfilment centres in Dartford,Tilbury, Belvedere, Hemel Hempstead, Chesterfield and Rugeley operated slowdownsin work last week, refusing to pick more than one package an hour.Workers in the Unite union at Dundee University plan to go on continuous strikefrom August 25th whilst workers at the AQA exam board struck for four days andplan to come out again on a five day strike. Meanwhile workers at the posh Londonstore Harrods are balloting for strike action. Bin workers throughout Scotlandare also due to come out on strike.These waves of militancy have alarmed the boss class. They know that the summerof strikes will be followed by increasing industrial action in the autumn. TheTory Transport Secretary Grant Shapps has threatened to introduce more guard-lesstrains and strike bans for the transport sector. Both the candidates for the nextTory leadership, Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak, have talked tough about cracking downon industrial action.As for Keir Starmer and the Labour Party, they too are horrified by this wave ofmilitancy. They are intent on attempting to prove to the bosses that they are themost competent party to deal with working class militancy as they have done before.What is needed is for workers to make sure that they come out on strike at thesame time. The next opportunity for this is August 31st, with many workersalready due to strike that day. This should be accompanied by rallies anddemonstrations in local areas. Pensioners, the unemployed and youth (schoolstudents and college students) should support the strikes and reinforce picketlines, rallies and demonstrations. Local solidarity committees should be createdin neighbourhoods, involving both striking workers, pensioners, unemployed andstudents.We cannot trust the union leaders to carry out a successful outcome to thesestrikes, even the most radical sounding of them like Sharon Graham and MickLynch. The latter, despite his previous criticisms of the Starmer leadership, wasready to endorse Starmer by saying "I want him to be prime minister. That's whatwe've got. He must win. We've got to push him and persuade him to get into aposition where he's in the front rank with you, all of you."But Starmer has already made his position clear. He is opposed to strikes and toany meaningful action by workers. He is our enemy. The union leaders aredesperately trying to stop workers breaking with Labour. We know that Labour hasconsistently throughout its history opposed itself to strikes by workers. In thecoming months Labour will stand side by side with the Tories in denouncing thesestrike waves. As for the union leaders, they will attempt to sabotage anymeaningful action. We as workers must resist and develop our own grassrootsorganisations, not just in the workplaces but in the neighbourhoods.https://www.anarchistcommunism.org/2022/08/19/class-anger-class-struggle-class-unity/_________________________________________A - I N F O S N E W S S E R V I C EBy, For, and About AnarchistsSend news reports to A-infos-en mailing listA-infos-en@ainfos.ca
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