Solidarity 179, 19 August 2010

TUC Day of Action

Moving to biennial congresses, inviting senior members of the coalition government to speak at Congress 2010, consistently manouvering years against motions from unions calling for strike action... the TUC — the national federation of almost all of Britain’s trade unions — is not taking on the government with the same class-war spirit as the government is employing against workers. But now the TUC has called a “day of action” for 20 October. Cue sensationalist screeching from the Tory press about an “autumn of discontent”. The TUC doesn't have a great record in this department; its April 2010...

Southampton librarians make Friday 13 unlucky for council bosses

Librarians in Southampton struck on 13 August against job cuts, de-skilling and casualisation. This followed a first round of action in June. The council plans to staff libraries with unpaid and untrained volunteers, replacing six full-time trained workers, in order to cut costs. It has said it is dealing with “difficult economic times.” Speaking in the Southern Daily Echo at the start of the dispute several months ago, Unison’s regional organiser Andy Straker said “There is real anger from our members over this issue. They feel that management and councillors are devaluing their skills and...

London Underground workers hit back over job cuts

Members of the RMT union on the London Underground have voted by 76% in favour of strike action against job cuts, and by 88% in favour of action short of a strike. As LU bosses seek to cut any corner possible in order to save money, 800 station workers' jobs are on the line. Such workers are vital to maintaining both the safety and quality of the service on the Underground, both of which will suffer massively if bosses succeed in laying the workers off. RMT general secretary Bob Crow said: “Less than two weeks after the Potters Bar inquest delivered the damning verdict that cuts to maintenance...

My life at work: "Schools are going into blind panic mode. They'll take it out on us."

Frances Streeting works as a teaching assistant in a secondary school. Tell us a bit about the work you do. I work with students who find it difficult to keep up with their learning. My role is to ensure that they can be included in mainstream class, helping them get their work done or at least achieve something. Teachers always say “if that teaching assistant wasn’t in my classroom, I wouldn’t be able to teach”, so we’re pretty central to the needs of students in school, in terms of their learning and their care. Some of the children we work with have got problems in their lives that I as an...

London firefighters fighting mass sackings

Firefighters in London are considering action after a dramatic breakdown in talks with their bosses, the LFEPA. Despite recent talks apparently ending “harmoniously”, LFEPA has begun the process of formal consultation over mass dismissals. Its intention appears to be to sack pretty much every firefighter in London and re-employ them on the new shift pattern it is attempting to introduce. In a letter to members, the Fire Brigades Union EC member for London Ian Lehair writes: “For the authority to have thrown the proverbial hand grenade into the talks at such a sensitive stage... is both...

PCS: fight this victimisation

Following a spate of sackings and victimisations at Hastings Child Support Agency, Public and Commercial Services Union activists are organising a march and rally to protest. Branch secretary Sam Buckley has become the fifth union activist to be fired since 2007. An industrial tribunal found that former branch chair Eddie Fleming was unfairly dismissed, but has not been reinstated. Black members activist Winston Resalsingh was also sacked after asking whether he was being discriminated against by being refused facility time to attend PCS Black Members Committee meetings. The then-Chair Chris...

Understanding the EDL threat

Plans by the English Defence League to demonstrate in Bradford on 28 August present a huge challenge to the local community, the national labour movement and the socialist left. After failing to fulfil their promise of a “long, hot summer” of demonstrations, the EDL has now planned a provocation that could have repercussions for wider British society. But unfortunately the threat posed by this nasty racist street gang has sent some sections of the left and trade unions into a spin. Once again the weakness and wrong-headedness of the “official” movement against racism and fascism has been shown...

Northern Ireland bombings: a new IRA war?

Minority Republican organisations have planted 49 bombs and been responsible for 32 shootings in Northern Ireland over the last eight months. All that stands between the bombs they set off and a sizeable slaughter of civilians, police or soldiers is pure chance. With each bomb the chances increase that there will be such a slaughter. Last week three children were slightly injured by a bomb intended to kill policemen planted outside a school. As things are going, it is only a matter of time. One of the three organisations mounting the present campaign, the “Real IRA”, a then-recent splinter...

War on "benefit scroungers": stop Lib-Con attacks on the poor and powerless!

The Sun has gone into tabloid overdrive in support of a vicious government attack on claimants. Anyone on benefits — people they say “refuse to work”, people they say have had “too many children”, people they say are “robbing hardworking Sun readers of their cash”. The government is backing that campaign — they want the same things. The Sun says “scroungers” deserve to be “named and shamed”. So do the government. The Sun is stirring up a vigilante drive among its readers, asking them to file reports of cases of “benefit cheats”. This is just what Cameron means by a “big society”. This...

Pakistan disaster - support the Labour Relief Campaign!

The number of people affected by the floods in Pakistan has now reached 20 million. More than 650,000 houses have collapsed, mainly in villages. Thousands of hectares of crops have been destroyed, along with people's livestock, household goods, clothes, shoes and other essential items. Millions are without drinkable water, food, shelter and clothing. Diseases like flu, fever, diarrhea and cholera are spreading fast. Now more torrential rains are forecast. This is one of the most devastating floods in human history, affecting more people than the South East Asian tsunami and the Kashmiri and...

This website uses cookies, you can find out more and set your preferences here.
By continuing to use this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions.