Many workers are now standing up to fight. The ruling class and the Tory
government, aided and abetted by the Labour leadership, are insisting thatworkers must accept job cuts, wage cuts, worse conditions and a downgrading ofservices. At the same time they have raised the cap on bankers' bonuses. ---- TheSunak government is prepared to send in troops into hospitals in England andWales to break the ambulance workers strikes and to deploy other soldiers to dothe jobs of striking borders workers doing passport checks. ---- Meanwhile thetrade union leaders have remained silent on these strike-breaking moves. Thereshould be no cooperation with the Army with their strike-breaking operations andworkers should immediately walk out if they are deployed.In addition this government is planning further laws to limit the right tostrike. This would entail implementing minimum service laws during strikes on thetransport systems. In other words, the trade unions would have to agree to letmany services be run during strikes.Backing these proposals up, Labour stated that they would not repeal these lawsif they were elected.Isolated one day or two day strikes won't deter the rail, post and NHS bosses.Workers need to bring in work to rules and go-slows tactics (as postal workersare already doing) and to increase the size and militancy of the picket lines. Inaddition pressure must be increased to force the union leaders to agree tocoordinated strike action. Whilst some of these union leaders are paying lipservice to the idea of a general strike, in reality they are failing to mobiliseeffectively now.These self same union leaders are ready to agree to below inflation pay deals ifthey can. Look at the BT deal which was claimed as a victory by the CWU unionleadership or the willingness of the GMB union to call off the planned strike byambulance workers on 28th December.Pressure from below is forcing union leaders to think of joint action on February1st. Union leaders from ASLEF, CWU, FBU, GMB, NASUWT, NEU, UNISON and PCS metrecently to discuss a joint strike day. The fire-fighters union the FBU decidednot to join in the action as their ballot continues until January 30th.A united one-day strike is still limited, but it is a start towards buildingunified action on a wide scale. Militant workers should put pressure on the unionbureaucrats to make this day of action come about.This year 2022 has seen hundreds of thousands of workers take strike action.According to the Office of National Statistics 417,000 working days were lost tostrike action in October alone, the highest level since November 2011. More thanthis, from June to October, there were 1.1 million working days lost to strikeaction, the highest since the early months of 1990.Despite this newly re-emergent militancy, union leaders are refusing to call fornational rallies and demonstrations and to encourage support for the picket lines.As the ACG keeps repeating, grassroots strike committees need to be organisedlooking for joint action and solidarity between the different striking sectorsand looking towards building borough wide bodies uniting strikers, theunemployed, pensioners and school and college students to develop strikesolidarity, to resist evictions, and to act as focuses for resistance to theSunak regime and indeed to any future incoming Labour government intent onpursuing austerity and attacks on the pay and conditions of the working class.https://www.anarchistcommunism.org/2022/12/29/the-current-strike-wave/_________________________________________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
Geen opmerkingen:
Een reactie posten