WORLD WORLDWIDE EUROPE UK - news journal UPDATE - (en) UK, ACG: Workers' resistance to Labour government (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

 It was abundantly apparent at the Labour Party conference that the

Labour Party is eager to prove that it can be trusted to act in the
interests of the boss class. From fuel allowance cuts to refusal to
abolish the two child benefit cap, to talk of sacrifice for the economy.
---- Aat the same time, Labour has made a deal with the trade union
leaderships that it would move to settle pay disputes  and to offer
minimal and inadequate reforms over workers' rights and strike laws. To
a lesser or greater extent it has so far been successful, getting
various sectors to agree to derisory wage settlements. All that might
change in the future.

There is widespread discontent in workplaces around wages, and terms and
conditions. Many workers have little faith in the Labour government
defending their interests. Labour's planned austerity measures,
including the statement that no further funding of the NHS and so called
"reforms" , for that read increased NHS privatisation, will aggravate
the situation.

There will be calls from union bureaucrats to " give 'em a chance,"  to
hold back strike action and give Labour time to act. This may not avoid
looming struggles to come. Nurses in the RCN union have voted
overwhelmingly to reject a 5.5% pay offer and there will be new pay
rounds in spring 2025.

The recent strike wave of  2022-2023 brought many workers out on strike
for the first time, and showed that solidarity works and that strikes
can be effective.

  Alongside this, there is the distinct possibility that Labour will
raise tuition fees, excluding many working class youth from higher
education and putting greater pressure on those still able to attend.
This will come together with the determination of Labour to let some
universities, now in dire economic circumstances,  go to the wall.
Jacqui Smith, Minister for Skills, confirmed this by stating: "We'll let
some universities go bust."

The nurses should be backed in any forthcoming industrial action. Their
anger was expressed in a two thirds rejection of the 5.5% offer,  out of
145,000 voting in the ballot. To a certain extent, they were encouraged
by the limited pay victory of the junior doctors with a pay increase of
22%. But primarily, nurses' anger is fuelled by both derisory pay AND
the growing staffing crisis. Forty thousand nurses have left the NHS in
the past year, indicating the state of play there.

This comes alongside the decision by other health unions to accept below
inflation pay offers.  The Unite leadership failed to offer advice  to
its members on how to vote, but 35% of them voted to reject the 5.5%
offer (not reflected  among members of Unison, where only 23% voted to
turn down the offer).

To repeat, if the nurses go into action, despite any manoeuvres by the
RCN leadership, they must be fully supported, as must any localised
industrial actions in the health service. The Labour government and the
media will round on the nurses, saying that their demands are
unrealistic, and that greedy workers like the nurses are the reason that
the fuel allowance payments were axed. This divide and rule propaganda
must be answered with the utmost solidarity.

https://www.anarchistcommunism.org/2024/09/26/workers-resistance-to-labour-government/
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