Manchester M10 Strike report

May 11, 2012 By REVOLUTION MANCHESTER Leave a Comment

Yesterday, around 400,000 members of the UCU, PCS and Unite went out on strike across the country in the lastest action against pension cuts.

Two demonstrations had been organised in Manchester- one to start in Salford, the other to start on Oxford Road, with the idea being that they would converge for a rally at the end of it all. REVOLUTION members joined with other anti-capitalists and marched behind the Greater Manchester Anticapitalists banner, which some trade unionists liked so much that they demanded we go to the head of the march.

It was a lively, vibrant demo of a few hundred. Plenty of chanting and noise, flags all over the place, a range of union banners, and lots of applause from onlookers (even after we decided to take over the road). The real downside was the turnout – on November 30th last year, the Manchester demo had thousands of trade unionists marching and chanting through the streets. For all the passion and determination of the marchers present, you couldn’t help but feel that somehow we were just re-enacting the previous protests but with a smaller group.

Similarly, the rally seemed to be the same speeches that we’ve heard before. Speakers from local UCU and Unite branches said that we needed to escalate the struggles, with the UCU speaker emphasising that in June the UCU would have TWO days of strike action instead of one. The Unite speaker spoke about the importance of getting Unison members back into the fray, which is a reflection of many of the left trade union leaders’ strategy of relying on the big unions for strength, rather than committed or militant action from their own members.

The rally quickly finished as the BBC were outside doing some filming. So we all picked our flags and banners to go outside and chant for a couple of minutes in front of the cameras- you couldn’t ask for a better metaphor for the strike.

The union leaders rely on strikes as a form of protest. Rather than seeing them as action which can stop the government through shutting down the economy, they are instead a way of flexing muscles in preparation for returning to the negotiating table.

The slow trickle of one-day strikes is not working- the government is just as committed to pension ‘reform’ now as they were six months ago.

Our future is slipping away from us. Young people can expect to work longer than their parents, doing more work for a shitter pension. We need to help grassroots members of the trade unions challenge their leaders’ strategies for defeat. REVO members will be going to several trade union conferences this summer and autumn to argue that we’re losing our pensions too, and that stronger resistance is needed which uses mass, indefinite (ie we don’t go back to work until our demands are met) strikes to win.

Filed Under: Action, Cuts, News, Workers Tagged With: m10, Manchester, protest, strikes

NASUWT conference backs further action against austerity

April 8, 2012 By Sally Turner Leave a Comment

Teachers have voted for an escalation in industrial action over the government’s attacks on state education.

NASUWT, a teachers union not typically known for its militancy, held their annual conference in Birmingham this weekend and delegates unanimously backed a resolution that could see walkouts closing schools in the autumn term.
The motion said that teachers faced “scurrilous attacks, abuse, intimidation and lies”, and accused the government of a “vicious assault” on the profession. The motion is said to have highlighted the unions concern over the privatisation of our schools and the economic interest in education, evidenced by the huge expansion of privately-run and privately-owned academies in recent years.

Education provision faces a very real attack, and not just from the government’s cuts. Figures published last week by the Department for Education revealed that the majority of England’s state secondary schools are, or are about to become, academies, taking them out of the hands of local councils and making them the property of private companies.

Private sponsors have little incentive to improve support for students with the most problems, since their investment in school is calculated on its ability to produce a direct profit or reinforce a business’s ‘community friendly’ credentials. Frequently academies refuse to take on pupils with lower grades or patterns of bad behaviour, for fear that it will tarnish the reputation of their school.

The union’s leadership claim that their motion will allow them to prepare and carry out a flexible campaign in the autumn with actions short of a strike (also known as ‘work-to-rule’, which often involves boycotting admin work and marking), leading up to a ballot for strikes, in response to the attacks on their pay & conditions coming from academies and austerity.
The threat to teachers’ pay and conditions from academies is also being debated by the National Union of Teachers at its currently ongoing annual conference, with a motion pushing for fresh strike action to be debated.

Last month we saw the union leaders back out of a national strike and in the end, the NUT and UCU held a regional strike in London. This kind of action won’t be enough to beat the government on pensions or prevent the expansion of private academies.

If the next wave of public-sector strikes are delayed until Autumn, then it will have been nearly a year between national strikes. With this strategy, strikes become more like expensive protests for workers, rather than a direct attempt to stop the government enforcing policy. This can be counter-productive, as workers often won’t take part in strikes they don’t think can win. There needs to be a strategy of escalating action which leads towards indefinite strikes.

Young people in the trade unions should take the example of the successful electricians’ campaign and organise with other ordinary members to pressure the leaders into taking serious action sooner rather than later. School, college and university students should aim to take their own action- occupations, stunts, and protests, with the view to encourage staff to join them. Our unity in action remains the only way to halt the government’s attacks.

Filed Under: Cuts, Education, News, Workers Tagged With: academies, austerity, cuts, industrial action, NASUWT, privatisation, strikes, teachers, tories, tory scum

NUT strike shows potential for united resistance

March 28, 2012 By Dan Edwards Leave a Comment

After a strong regional strike, around 8000 demonstrators marched through central London today demanding an end to the government’s attacks on public-sector pensions. Though the march and rally were called to support striking workers, it became a site for a number of different groups to express their anger with the government and the austerity agenda.

When I first arrived at the demo start-point, I looked up and could only see in tones of pink and blue. The UCU had doled out thousands of bright pink helium balloons, and the NUT had produced thousands of little blue flags. The NUT also brought along a massive inflatable pound-sign which was being crushed in a vice (credit crunch- dyageddit?), adorned with the demand for ‘decent pensions for all.’ The overall effect was pretty cool, as flags rippled and balloons bobbed about in the (ridiculously) sunny sky. It was also good to see a number of Unison and PCS flags out on the demo, showing solidarity and support between different trade unionists, even if their leaders had held them back from striking on the day. Likewise, there were a number of banners from NUT and UCU branches beyond London, as well as a banner from Unite construction members in London.

There was a truck with a soundsystem heading the demo which served as a portable stage for speakers from the various trade union leaderships (sadly we have not learnt the lesson of our German comrades that these trucks can also be used to play music, lead chants, and make for a more engaging experience). I could barely hear them over the noise of the crowd, as people discussed the strengths and weaknesses of the movement, and where they should go next. Needless to say I was more interested in their conversations than the speeches of the bureaucracy (although it was good to hear Owen Jones talk about how the Tories are trying to play private and public sector workers against each other, in a classic game of divide-and-rule).

One lecturer told me that they felt annoyed that it was only a London-wide strike, and that their union leadership should be playing a more active role to ensure that everyone came out on the same day. This thought was echoed by Katherine and Ella, two teachers from southeast London, who felt that there would be more media attention if everyone struck together.

Likewise, Kester and Issy, two students from Queen Mary’s, told me that they’d hoped to be seeing the PCS coming out on the day, and that we ultimately need “as many strikes as possible” to beat the government. They also felt that the trade unions would only attract more members and gain strength through strong action and a willingness to tackle the Tories head-on. They also complained that the NUS leadership had done nothing to make the March 14th demo as attractive or visible as this one, and went on to say that they were let down by the lack of organisation on behalf of the NUS, but encouraged by grassroots student groups such as NCAFC and EAN.

The mood of the demo was determined, and a good range of people from different backgrounds, trade unions and social groups turned out to show their anger with the Tory cutters. Amy, a teacher from Hammersmith, told me that “it’s not over,” and that “more action is on the way” to stop the pension cuts. Sadly, her union leaders might disagree with her. Despite the militancy, the desire for coordinated strikes, the demands for more demonstrations, and the willingness of many ordinary people to struggle, the heads of the unions have been determined to halt action, or have backed down from calling it for fear of ‘going alone’.

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Pension sellout: don’t get demoralised – get organised!

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Why did PCS leaders pull the plug on M28?

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Tory budget, stealing from the poor to fund the rich

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Filed Under: Education, News, Reports Tagged With: education, London, NCAFC, NUS, NUT, protest, strikes, UCU

Pension sellout: don’t get demoralised – get organised!

March 28, 2012 By REVOLUTION NATIONAL COUNCIL Leave a Comment

Statement by REVOLUTION National Council – 28 MARCH 2012

Trade Union leaders have sold out the campaign against pension cuts right, left, and centre. Despite some of the biggest strikes in British history, with over 750,000 people on strike last June and nearly 2 million last November, backed by huge levels of public support, it seems that none of the union leaders have the stomach to stay in it to win it.

First the most right-wing trade union leaders pulled their members out of the struggle- Unison leader Dave Prentis and GMB’s Paul Kenny were quick to accept the government’s pension offer in December which made some minor reforms to the rotten deal. The leaders of Unite were next to duck the struggle.

With the big three unions all out of the picture for the time being, the leaders of the NUT, PCS, and UCU dithered over their next steps, before eventually deciding to do very little. Initial plans for a joint strike on March 28th were cancelled after the NUT decided to only strike in London (despite 73% of its members supporting national action). The UCU agreed to do the same, and the PCS said that it wouldn’t strike unless other unions were willing to do so nationally.

Unless the NUT agrees to some significant action at its upcoming conference (April 6th – April 10th) then it seems unlikely that the more left-wing union leaders will challenge the right-wingers by going ahead with strikes or calling on grassroots Unison, Unite and GMB members to join them.

The two big socialist groups in Britain- the Socialist Party and Socialist Workers Party- have also failed to offer us any alternative. While SWP members have certainly voted in favour strikes every time the issue has been raised (unlike the SP leadership of PCS which ignored its members’ 70%+ vote in favour of action), they seem to be content merely cheerleading the left-wing leaders’ (like Mark Serwotka of the PCS) strategy of occasional one-day strikes.

This is a huge setback for young people, as well as current public-sector workers. With the retirement age raised, huge numbers of jobs being slashed, and more experienced workers joining millions of others in the search for work, our chances of getting a decent job are getting slimmer by the day. What’s more if we do manage to get a job in the public-sector, our pensions will be a pittance, our unions will be weakened, and our pay and conditions will be far worse.

The trade unions have a duty to organise and fight, not only to their own members, but to young people and the unemployed who can’t take strike action to defend the public-sector and their futures. The trade union leaders who back down in the face of government threats, right-wing leaders’ sell-outs, or a fear of striking alone, are letting us down.

But all is not lost and the battle against cuts is far from over. Recent campaigns have shown how workers and the unemployed can organise without having to wait for their bureaucratic union leaderships to give them the go-ahead. The electricians’ victorious fight against 35% pay cuts often seemed more like a social movement than a trade union campaign. There were blockades and occupations of building sites, building industry award ceremonies stormed, and a constant series of protests and pickets of workplaces, even by people who didn’t work there.

A number of trade union national conferences are coming up soon. Young people need to get down to them and cause a stir- we need to make it clear to ordinary trade unionists that the leaders’ strategy isn’t working for them or us. We also need to convince the union members of the desperate need to organise young people and the unemployed; to prevent them from being used to undermine wages and strike action – like during the last Royal Mail strikes, where students were recruited to break picket lines. Most importantly, joining unions gives us a voice and a fighting chance to challenge the leaders’ sellouts.

The NUT conference at the start of April in Torquay will be crucial. If national strikes aren’t supported by those present then it seems unlikely that the other union leaders will take the initiative to strike alone. NUT members need to emphasise the importance of taking the lead in the fight to save not just their own pensions, but the futures of the students they see graduating into a nosediving labour market.

In the meantime we should not just wait for the unions to take the lead. The occupation of Millbank and the student movement of 2010 helped invigorate trade unionists, non-organised workers and the unemployed last year. We have the power to take inspiring action, and this time we have to make the demand ‘students and workers unite and fight’ a practical reality.

As young people with the least to lose and the most to gain, we have to be prepared to take our place at the head of the struggles, taking direct action to the heart of the capitalist system. We cannot change society on our own, but we can show that we are determined to fight for our futures – with or without the fat-cat union bosses.

Filed Under: News, Statements, Workers Tagged With: cuts, m28, march28, NUT, PCS, pensions, strikes, Trade Unions

Why have PCS leaders pulled the plug on M28?

March 19, 2012 By Dan Edwards Leave a Comment

Cold feet, Mark?

March 28th has been talked up as the next date for joint strikes by different trade unions against the government’s pension cuts, but despite overwhelming votes for strike action in several unions, it seems the leaders don’t have the stomach for a fight.

They aren’t just betraying their own members – they’re selling out millions of unemployed young people, who will have to begin the fight for a fair pension from scratch.

One-by-one the main unions involved (NUT, PCS, UCU) have decided to ditch action or else undermine it:

The UCU decided it would onlystrike nationally if the PCS was striking. The anti-trade union laws mean members in pre-92 universities on a different pension scheme could not be ballotted for action.

Then the NUT leaders decided that they would only call for strikes in London on the day.

Then the UCU leaders scaled down their action even further by also limiting strikes to London (unless PCS shamed them into striking nationwide by being the first to bite the bullet and call a national strike on March 28.

Now the PCS leaders have announced that they will not strike until April.

This is despite the fact that the members of these unions have shown that they want to fight. The NUT got a 70% ‘yes’ vote in its latest ballot for further strikes against pension cuts, with a similar number of PCS members voting ‘yes’ too.

The PCS leadership have claimed that they are only doing this because they want to coordinate their strikes with other unions. This begs the question why they aren’t calling their members out on a day when at least 2 other unions are? They aren’t even following their own logic!

But more importantly, the PCS leader Mark Serwotka is allowing his members to be fucked over by the more right-wing leaders of other trade unions. At a recent meeting in Manchester of Unite the Resistance, he criticised the leadership of Unison for selling out the pension dispute, but then admitted he did not want to take action without them.

Serwotka should be organising more strikes, not less, and appealing to grassroots members of other unions to join the PCS’s actions. But trade union leaders often refuse to call out different unions’ members for fear of breaking the ‘gentleman’s agreement’ between the different union bureaucrats which says that they won’t challenge each other’s power.

Young people need to help and support trade unionists organise against their rotten leaders, who would rather give up their members’ pensions than fight for them. If public sector positions are cut and the workers forced to stay in their jobs for longer, then there are less jobs for us to take up, and youth unemployment will rise. Not to mention the fact that cuts to our hospitals, education and communities all negatively impact our quality of life any way.

We also need to organise to pressure the unions to fight back against the worrying rise of two-tier workforces – where young workers are paid less, with worse pension rights, for doing the same job as older co-workers.

In the trade unions we need networks of ordinary members to challenge the leaders and act as an alternative when the bureaucrats sell us out. Those of us not in unions should make links with these workers, and plan our own actions to stop the government’s austerity drive.

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Will Tescos keep its jobs promise?

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Police role in blacklist scandal exposed

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Save NHS rally is missed opportunity

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Filed Under: News, Workers Tagged With: m28, NUT, pcss, strikes, UCU

N30 Mass Strikes – Live coverage

November 29, 2011 By sean89bowiecat 1 Comment

Welcome to our live coverage of the November 30 public sector strikes. We will be bringing you the latest info and reports as our members join pickets, occupations and demonstrations across the country.

Send your reports to [email protected]

Meanwhile, check out the articles below for background and analysis of the Tories’ response to the biggest wave of industrial action since 1979.

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17:00

That concludes today’s coverage, now for a summary of the day’s events:

Well over 2 million workers from 40 different Unions went on strike today in the biggest show of defiance since the Winter of Discontent in 1979. Those striking included workers from across the public sector – nurses, teachers, paramedics, cleaners, civil servants, and Border Agency workers were joined by thousands of unemployed, pensioners and youth, making it a genuinely united display of strength.

With demonstrations of tens of thousands reported up and down the country, the scale of public opposition to welfare cuts and pension theft is clear.

The mood at hundreds of picket lines and rallies was militant, with calls for escalating the action, up to and including a general strike in the new year receiving widespread support. People are fed up of austerity, and tired of a trade union strategy which moves at a snail’s pace. We need to organise to stop the cuts dead, before they do irreversible damage to our public services.

George Osborne’s Autumn budget is a declaration of class war. On his side are the Lib-Dems lackeys and the city traders, bankers, and company directors who demand ever more savage cuts in public spending, job security and pension rights in order to placate the markets. On our side stand the millions of workers – public and private sector – who stand to lose the social gains won by two centuries of working-class struggle.

By doubling the number of public-sector job cuts to more than 700,000 the Tories have abandoned any pretence at ‘being in this together’ – they are determined that it won’t be their class of exploiters, profiteers and parasites who pay for th economic crisis.

As for Her Majesty’s Loyal Opposition – the Labour Party couldn’t be more loyal to the ruling class programme of austerity if they ditched their left-wing fig leaf and sat shoulder to shoulder on the Tory benches. Ed Miliband, elected by the votes of Trade Unions cannot bring himself to offer even rhetorical support to the resistance of millions of people. Why? Because he is totally committed to austerity – rescuing capitalism at the expense of the people who made him leader of his party.

Today more than anything demonstrates the need for a new organisation to co-ordinate the resistance, and build support for a working-class alternative. An organisation which can unite the thousands of militants in the workplace, the schools and the dole queues behind a real struggle against Tory austerity, Labour treachery and Trade Union sell-outs, towards a society based on the needs of the millions who run it, not the millionaires who exploit it.

Whatever happens, the new year will bring fresh struggles, and all those who want to break the logjam and fight for a political and social alternative should join us in making 2012 a year of defeats for the bosses and victories for the working class and youth.

Join REVOLUTION

Call for a General Strike.

16:45

To no-one’s surprise the government has already started trying to manipulate the figures in its own interests. The Department of Health has told NHS trusts to present its figures in a totally misleading way, aiming to play down the strength of the strike. They have been told to say only ‘how many workers should be in work’ and ‘how many are not’. Of course, many NHS workers are members of the RCN, RCM and BMA, associations which are not taking strike action. This means that any figures presented by the Department of Health are a complete diversion, as they will show lower turnout from the strike, by including tens of thousands of workers who had not even been balloted for strike action!

16:32

More pics of today’s action in Leeds:

REVOLUTION LEEDS

Strong picket at Leeds Met

Leeds Met Student Union Banner

Leeds Rally

General Strike to stop the cuts

16:23

Great video of Unison local government activist in Brighton – “Ed Miliband elected on union votes, now he’s sitting on the fence with splinters in his arse”

16:20

Unite the Resistance meeting in Manchester attracts unionists and youth, but SWP still not interested in building the kind of rank-and-file movement which has proved so successful in the Sparks’ dispute with Balfour Beatty

16:12

A selection of photos from REVOLUTION Leeds

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16:03

A round-up of today’s biggest demonstrations:

50,000 reported in London

20,000 reported in Bristol

20,000 reported in Glasgow

15-20,000 reported in Liverpool

10,000 reported in Newcastle.

Hundreds of thousands more marched in demonstrations both large and small across the country, in a show of strength that will rock the government. Attempts by the right-wing media and Tories to discredit the strikers as ‘mindless militants’ have failed, with most polls showing overwhelming public support for the strikers, who are majority women performing vital jobs.

16:02

This video just sent in by Luke in Sussex of the student demonstration there

16:00

Here’s a great photo, sent by Joana in London

Occupy LSX

15:35

Brighton university was completely shut down today as all campus trade unions (UCU, Unison, Unite) staged a strike which was well observed by members.

Here’s a video of Tom, from Brighton UCU addressing the rally:

15:30

UCU – the education construction union

UCU Steward

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14:50

Front of London march arriving at Embankment – but back of demo has still not left starting point, meaning numbers have exceeded all expectations. Here’s a photo of the front of the march

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14:45

Huge rally in Manchester, but no word of further action from speakers on stage.

14:40

Reports of 2-300 in Chelmsford town centre

14:30

Coverage interrupted due to technical difficulties

14:21

Click

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14:00

Time for a lunchtime summary. The scale of strike action across the country has been huge, making government and Tory press attempts to downplay the strike look even more pathetic – even the school that Cameron sends his kids to is closed.

With thousands marching in Leeds and Manchester, a reported 20,000 in Bristol, and London brought to a standstill by dozens of marches, today is the biggest day of national action since June 30, with a national scale not seen since the student walkouts of winter 2010.

Turnout from young people has been impressive, the defeats suffered by the student movement failed to crush resistance, especially considering that it is poor and working-class youth who will be hardest hit by 75% budget cuts for youth schemes and 1 million 16-24 year olds unemployed.

The message coming from rallies up and down the country is that union leaders must stick to their guns, and that ordinary workers are not prepared for today’s strike to be the end of the matter. This is a warning shot to the government, but many people recognise that the new year will have to bring sustained, co-ordinated action if we are to reverse the tide of cuts and bring down a government which has no other purpose than to restore profits for the bosses at the expense of millions of working people and youth.

13:56

Leeds police preparing to kettle students, rumour Leeds University occupied, while a Leeds trade unionist says:

“It’s not just about pensions – it’s about a future for youth”.

13:54

Reports coming in say 20,000 marching in Bristol, while police deploy dogs on strikers with their children in Dalston.

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13:48

3000 people at rally in Leeds, with great atmosphere. Speakers interrupted by cheers and chanting. Now strikers and supporters are staging a march down to Occupy Leeds in City Square.

Leeds

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13:43

Student feeder march has swollen to at least 2000 as it marches through central London.

This pic was tweeted by Birkbeck SU officer Sean Rillo Raczka as the march set off

Malet Street

13:34

Here’s a great pic from Newcastle. More great pics at Newcastle Free Education Network

13:30

Strathclyde and Sunderland Universities are completely closed, with well over half of Britain’s 21,700 state comprehensives completely shut by strike action. Many more are partially closed.

12:26

A picture of the local Trades Union council rally in Victoria Gardens, Leeds

Leeds TUC Rally

12:22

Here’s a picture of the demonstration in Manchester

Manchester

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12:15

Student feeder march has started from Malet Street, heading for Lincoln’s Inn Fields. At least 500, now merging with large teachers bloc assembled in Russell Square with many more students on picket lines across the capital heading for main rally.

12:12

At least 2000 marching through Leeds

12:09

Thousands marching through Bristol, with massive public support. Meanwhile Lincoln’s Inn Field in London is filling up with a steady stream of trade unionists, while smaller marches continue to tour pickets and gather numbers as they wind across London.

12:04

Heavy police presence at University of London Union

Outside ULU

Gordon Street

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11:59

Here’s a round-up of the polls showing support for the strikes:

• Evening Standard - Do you think Wednesday’s strike by public sector workers is justified? Yes 32% No 68%

• BBC - Do you think Wednesday’s strike by public sector workers is justified? Yes 61% No 39%

• Guardian - Do you support the 30 November strikes? Yes 79.3% No 20.7%

• Daily Mail - Do you support the public sector strikes today? Yes 90% No 10%

Surprisingly, a massive majority in favour from Tory rag, the Mail…

11.51

Majority of pickets across country are women – not surprising since women make up 3/4 of the public sector workforce. The Con-Dem attacks are an historic attack on women in the workplace, who already earn less, and work the majority of temporary, precarious jobs with poor rights and working conditions. It’s no wonder that women have turned out in such numbers to oppose these attacks, which aim to drive them back into the home, forcing them to once again take on the burden of unpaid childcare and domestic duties.

11:45

The BBC is reporting that the Department of Health has said that NHS trusts must not release figures of numbers on strike, or number of operations, appointments etc cancelled before a ‘national position’ statement is put to the media. The government want to have the first word about the effectiveness of the strike, but the millions of ordinary people joining the resistance will certainly have the last.

11:44

Many thousands of trade unionists and youth assembled in Deansgate, Manchester

11:37

300 strikes at rally in Brixton call for General Strike, and vote unanimously for further and longer strikes in the new year

11:30

Members of French Trade Union federation La CGT leading chants of ‘tous ensemble, tous ensemble’ from Unison’s battle bus in Camden

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11:27

Four arrested in London, on suspicion of assaulting a police officer and carrying an offensive weapon

11:23

80+ students stage march from Sussex Uni to town centre rally

11:20

Haggerston School in London has solid picket, and NUT meeting calls for sustained strike action to win!

11:17

200 staff and students march down from Manchester Uni to main rally in town center

11:15

Today’s strike is about more than pensions. This is a strike to defend the social gains that the working class has fought for since 1945, which the millionaire’s coalition is trying to roll back. Millionaire ministers with secure £50k taxpayer-funded pensions are robbing 16% of public-sector workers pay by holding down pay for 4 years, while they attempt to break up the NHS, privatise schools and make the hard-working people who civilise our society work longer, harder for less. Today, youth, unemployed, pensioners public and private sector workers are united in our opposition to this war on our living standards.

11:11

Even the Metro knows this is class war!

11:09

The Guardian reports that loyalist politicians from Unionist parties have crossed picket lines to enter the Northern Ireland Assembly buildings, while Sinn Fein has instructed its members not to enter parliament in solidarity with the strikers

11:05

18 months into a Tory government, and 15 years since they were last in power, and Britain is experiencing the largest strikes for a generation. Pickets, rallies and demonstrations have spread throughout the country, from urban centres in the north and south to small market towns in the shires. Pickets are reported outside dozens of police stations, and students are continuing to mobilise significant numbers at schools, colleges and universites. Updates soon on the London student feeder march to Lincoln Fields.

11:03

Government determined to insist that strikes are not effective – 1.5kg cocaine seized by border control scabs at Stanstead this morning.

11:00

UCL pickets ensure complete shutdown of college in central London

10:45

Excellent pickets at London hospitals, especially St Thomas’ and Waterloo Ambulance Service HQ

10:30

Giant pickets at SOAS with up to 1/3 staff on various picket lines around the building, preventing people from crossing lines, and singing ‘we will, we will stop you’

10:22

Outside Birkbeck College, London

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09:59

Here’s a photo from Joana in London, of police suiting up in Russell Square – we’re not expecting trouble but doubtless the police have other ideas.

09:51

Bradford UCU reports a great turnout on pickets with solidarity cake and balloons going down well with the students.

09:45

Lively pickets at LCC and LSBU, strikers talking to passersby. Also strong pickets with staff and students at Sussex Uni, continuing to grow.

09:38

Here’s a signthat someone’s helpfully posted on Westminster Bridge about stop and search regulations. Also remember that you are not required to give your name, age or address unless you have been arrested.

Westminster Bridge

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09:36

Around 200 electricians from the grassroots Sparks’ campaign and activists from Occupy London are touring pickets near Southwark Bridge, have visited PCS now moving on. Police looking to kettle them.

09:30

Manchester Met: Marketing Lecturers forming pickets at the Business School

09:13

Biffa workers refuse to cross picket lines to empty bins at Leeds Magistrates Court.

08:15

Pickets which started at dawn are now growing considerably outside schools, hospitals and even the Houses of Parliament, ensuring that the Ministers with £50k/year pensions do not escape confrontation with those whose pensions they are robbing to fund the lavish bonus culture at city banks.

8am:

Apologies for the late start due to technical difficulties. Today’s coverage follows the action across Britain, where 3 million workers from 30 unions are staging the largest action in decades against government attempts to tax their pensions, slash public services and cut 700, 000 jobs.

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Tories tremble in face of N30 strikes

Tory Budget means war – we need a new organisation to fight it

Britain prepares for mass shut-down

Filed Under: Cuts, News Tagged With: coverage, live, n30, public sector, strikes, Unions

Tories tremble in the face of N30 strikes

November 28, 2011 By Dan Edwards Leave a Comment

Up and down the country, workers, students and activists are preparing for the biggest strike of a generation, which could see anywhere between two and four million workers refusing to go in. Demonstrations are being planned across the country, picket lines are being organised with the support of students and service users, and #Occupy activists are planning solidarity actions.

The Tories had threatened to pass a wave of anti-union laws should public sector workers strike against the pension cuts. They have now backed down, with Francis Maude describing any new legislation as a ‘last resort’ (meaning the threat is still there should the strikers keep up the action).

This comes just a fortnight after failed attempts to split the strikers, by offering the pre-cuts pension deal to workers about to retire, and offloading the worse deal onto newer members of staff. They also unsuccessfully tried to get scabs to bring their children to work, and failed at getting civil servants to guard the borders on N30 (it now looks like the army will be drafted in). They also suffered an embarrassment when the head-teacher Cameron praised for not striking on June 30^th announced that she would be shutting down her school as the government refused to negotiate seriously.

Despite the right-wing press’ attempts to demonise the public-sector workers, accusing them of having ‘gold-plated’ pensions and taking ‘irresponsible’ and ‘selfish’ strike action, it seems that the majority of the country is behind the strikes, with over 61% of people polled by the BBC saying they supported N30. Young people were particularly supportive, with around 80% saying they were in favour of the industrial action. People can see that a victory against pension cuts puts us in a stronger position to fight every single cut to our public services.

But the fascists of the EDL and the Infidels see it differently, with members threatening to attack demonstrations and picket lines on November 30^th. How much of this is a genuine threat and how much is just the internet bravado of keyboard warriors remains to be seen. But given the far-right has failed to mobilise more then 500 for its demonstrations in recent months, it would face huge problems should it try to take on the biggest, most well-supported strikes in 30 years.

Whatever the fascists, Tories and bosses’ press threaten, this is a movement which is getting stronger. The ridiculously over-the-top reaction to the November 9^th anti-cuts demo, where students were threatened with rubber-bullets, police dogs and undercover officers, showed how afraid the government is. They are afraid of the power of the workers and poor taking to the streets and blocking the cuts agenda with direct action.

This day of industrial action is a great show of strength for the anti-cuts movement, but it appears that many unions will not be taking further action until early next year. This won’t be enough to stop the Con-Dem cutters. The Tories are determined not to allow us to hold onto our public pensions, public education or our public healthcare. If we want to stop the cuts we need to kick them out of power.

This is why we need to turn one-day strikes into general strikes; where all workers refuse to go in until the government steps down. The union leaders don’t want this, which is why we should organise a movement within the unions of grassroots members to force action when the bureaucrats on 3-figure salaries try to hold us back. Let’s use the N30 strikes to launch further action against the government, and organise together to bring down the millionaires’ coalition.

Filed Under: Cuts, Workers Tagged With: n30, november 30th, pension cuts, pension strikes, pensions, public sector, public sector strikes, strikes

Anti-Academy strike stays strong at Prince Henry’s School

November 17, 2011 By Sally Turner Leave a Comment

Teachers at Prince Henry’s School in Otley entered their third day of strike action this morning against plans to turn the school into an Academy, due to come into force on December 1st.

60 teachers were joined by around 30 students for a lively picket starting at 7:30am.

The atmosphere was very positive and vibrant with lots of home-made placards in addition to the official NUT and NASUWT ones. There was lots of honking of horns from supportive motorists and food was provided by a nearby cafe.

One of the students had invited Ryk Downes, a lib dem councillor for Otley and Yeadon was the first of the school governors to resign over the matter, demonstrating a commitment to principles unusual for his party. He said it was obvious that the majority of staff, parents, students and community weren’t in favour of the academy plans. Although the school’s so-called ‘consultation process’ did not include a poll of parents, a show of hands taken at a public meeting showed only 2 for, with 72 against. He also raised the issue that school buildings would not longer by insured by the LEA, undermining the Headteacher’s promises not to cut wages and to create 10 new jobs.

He didn’t say what he’d be doing as a councillor to oppose the academy plan but said ‘it’s not really a politically situation’; meaning he plans to do precisely nothing, short of photo-shoots on picket lines.

This craven abdication of his responsibility as a local councillor reflects the fact that the Liberal Democrats are propping up the Tory government, whose Education Bill has just been signed into law, paving the way for the wholescale privatisation of all Primary and Secondary schools.

The students went into school at 8-30 despite talking to them about holding a student strike. There main concern was that although they wanted to support the teachers and oppose the Academy plans, they didn’t want to be suspended for their actions. However they were all dressed in black which was described by one student as:

‘Although it doesn’t seem to be doing anything, it is showing that we’re communicating together and behind the teachers in numbers.’

This is a good step forward, but with just 2 weeks to go until the privatisation comes into effect, we need students to

students and staff on the picket line

escalate the pressure on the governers by coming out in force alongside their teachers.

The trade unions at the school must be unequivocal in defending any student who is victimised for striking in defence of their school. While we have no illusions in the NUS’s capacity or willingness to defend school students, it too must take a stand against any threats made against students for taking poltical action.

Unbelievably, it came to light that during an assembly about the Academies, Headteacher Janet Sheriff had told the students ‘not to worry as there would be no chavs,’ in the academy. The students said they were appalled by the language she used and the by her implicit suggestion that working class children wouldn’t be admitted to the school.

While shocking, this attitude is completely in keeping with the Academies ethos – under Labour, Academies were used to ‘rescue’ failing schools in poor communities; under the Tories, Academies are targetted at schools serving wealthier communities, where investors hope to get a bigger return on their investment by dumping costly provision for students with special educational needs.

At around 9 o’clock there was a march in Otley Town Centre, although quiet with no chanting it was still very much supported by passers-by and members of the community. We marched to a nearby church where a public meeting was held followed by a union meeting.

In the public meeting it emerged that the head teacher believed the strike would have crumbled by the third day and hadn’t expected it to go on so long. The NUT and NASUWT put forward 3 proposals they wanted the head teacher to agree to before they would agree to review the strike action.

Defer the Academy Plans instead of allowing them to go ahead on Dec 1^st

Ballot the Parents

Allow the Governors to put forward their arguments for and against.

Initially, Janet Sheriff wanted to challenge the legality of the strikes, but faced with the strength of the strike and unity between staff and students, she is now looking to reach an agreement, demonstrating that determined strike action is the best way to defend profit-motivated attacks on education.

A meeting is being held tomorrow in which the union reps and head teacher will discuss what can be done to resolve the matter and how further strikes can be prevented. The union reps are in a strong position to force the Head Teacher to back down, but further strike action should not be ruled out until the Academy proposal is abandoned.

It seemed a lot of teachers were opposed to the Academy but whether they’ll agree to the proposal being deferred and discussed more remains to be seen.

Students are going to visit LibDem MP Greg Mullholland’s surgery at 11am on Saturday at the Sainsbury’s in Otley and then leafleting within the general community afterwards.

There is also a public meeting called by Otley Town Council on Tuesday 17^th November at 7pm in Otley Parish Church.

The struggle at Prince Otley’s will be seen as a test case by other schools in Leeds preparing Academy plans, and we encourage anyone concerned about the Academies rip-off to attend this meeting and organise resistance to the privatisation of our communities’ education to the lowest bidder.

Read more

Prince Henry’s School strikes against Academy plans

London School strikes against Academy proposal

Shorefields students suspended after anti-academy protest

Filed Under: Education, News Tagged With: academy, cuts, education, Greg Mulholland, Lib Dems, NASUWT, NUS, NUT, prince henry school, privatisation, school, strikes

Prince Henry School strikes against Academy privatisation

November 10, 2011 By Sally Turner 1 Comment

Today the NUT and NASUWT at Prince Henry’s Grammar School in Otley, Leeds are taking strike action against plans to impose Academy status on the school. Today’s action will be followed by further strikes on Wednesday 16^th, Thursday 17^th, Tuesday 22^nd, Wednesday 23^rd and Thursday 24^th of November.

The unions have given notice that 64 teachers will take part in the strike.

Head teacher, Janet Sheriff, who is in favour of the transition to Academy status said:

“I am extremely disappointed two of the unions have chosen to disrupt the education of students. I fear that while this purports to be a local dispute it may be motivated by a national political agenda. The majority [of teachers] will put students first and make every effort to minimise the disruption.”

Nevertheless, with the school closed to all years except 7 and 8, it is clear that strike is well supported by the majority of teachers, who face having their nationally agreed pay, working conditions and collective bargaining rights torn up if the transition to Academy status goes ahead.

Janet Sheriff’s attempts to question the integrity and motives of her own staff, is nothing more than an attempt to detract from her own responsibility as the architect of a plan which – if it succeeds – will see control of the school’s budget, curriculum, recruitment, and rules handed over to a consortium of private “sponsors”.

Along several other School Governers she is allowing her school to be taken over by profit-motivated individuals, who unaccountable to the local community.

Indeed, it is not the NUT who are motivated by a ‘national political agenda’ but Janet Sheriff herself, as the Academy scheme is championed by Tory Education Minister Michael Gove whose idea of managing our education is to use funding cuts and threats to force all primary and secondary schools into accepting Academy status.

When the academy was proposed in October, most of the teachers, parents and town council were opposed to the proposal.

During the consultation period the school held two very well attended public meetings and at both meetings when votes were held the opposition to an academy was almost unanimous with the second meeting showing results of 71 against and only 2 for. This highlights very clearly that people attended the meetings in order to oppose the academy status and wanted their voices to be in heard in opposition.

A survey of all staff at the school showed that around 2/3 were opposed.

All of this shows very clearly that not only staff at the school, but the local community are against the proposal of an academy.

However it was carried by one governor vote, with the results being 10 for and 9 against and the conversion is due to start on December 1^st.

NASUWT members were balloted in July and have been taking action short of strikes, while the NUT were balloted in October and both unions decided to move forward to a coordinated strike.

This is definitely a step in the right direction as teachers oppose seeing their schools been turned into business enterprises and students should join them on the picket lines to show our support.

The odd day of disruption caused by the strike action is nothing compared to the consequences of allowing Academisation to go through. Fighting to defend the national curriculum guarantees a balanced education and defends the principles of democratic accountability to the local people who fund the school through their taxes.

REVOLUTION members will be joining the pickets, get in touch if you want to come along!

Read more:

Tories won’t train teachers

Teachers strike over Academy plans

Shorefields students suspended after anti-Academy protest

Filed Under: Education, News Tagged With: academy, Leeds, NASUWT, NUT, Otley, prince henry school, strikes

Can the United Nations liberate Palestine?

November 9, 2011 By KD Tait Leave a Comment

Riding the surge of popular optimism in the wake of the Arab Spring, Mahmoud Abbas, president of the Palestinian Authority launched a bid for recognition of Palestinian statehood at the United Nations. In this article Kady Tait examines why the UN’s failure to achieve a lasting settlement in Palestine is rooted in its role as a vehicle to maintain the status quo in favour of the imperialist powers who founded it.

With the bid announced in late September, Abbas is playing a dangerous game. On the one hand, his mission at the UN attempts to pre-empt an eruption of the mass movements in neighbouring Egypt and Syria in his own country, on the other it threatens to expose the futility of sustaining illusions that the United Nations can play a neutral, useful, or progressive role in the struggle for palestinian liberation.

The reactions from the US and Israel were predictable: the US declared that it would veto any vote on the Security Council, while Israel condemned the move, saying it undermined the ‘peace process’. Not a trace of irony from Obama who has attempted to cast himself as a friend of the Arab people, nor from Israeli president Binyamin Netanyahu whose attitude to the ‘peace process’ can be summed up by the 1500 deaths during the 2009 bombardment of the Gaza strip.

Abbas knows that any vote in the Security Council will be sunk by the US, so he has placed his hopes in the UN General Assembly, which has long been supportive of the Palestinians’ struggle. Indeed, countries which have declared their support for the statehood bid represent more than 80% of the world’s population. Since 1948, the General Assembly has regularly passed resolutions condemning Israel’s policy of colonisation, war and ethnic cleansing as illegal under international law.

Why is it then, that the UN General Assembly is incapable of acting upon such an overwhelming majority in favour of the Palestinians’ right to national determination, or to police Israel’s repeated violations of the UN’s mandates, resolutions and international ‘laws’?

Imperialism vs Semi colonies

Since its inception, the United Nations has been dominated by the ‘Great Powers’ of the world – the USA, France, Britain, Russia, and China. And like its predecessor, the League of Nations, it has been handicapped and paralysed by these nations’ antagonistic competition over political and military influence on the world stage.

These 5 nations are the permanent members of the UN ‘Security Council’ – the body which relegates the General Assembly to the status of talking-shop. That the UN does nothing without the agreement of the Security Council demonstrates that the true purpose of the UN is not to promote ‘world peace’ or to achieve the ‘equality of nations’. Instead it’s purpose is much more prosaic. It serves to act as a body by which the powerful imperialist nations can resolve their differences peacefully, by engaging in a game of chess whereby the 100+ semi-colonial countries who sit in the General Assembly are used as pawns, reduced to aligning themselves with one or other imperial power or bloc in the hope of retaining the crumbs from the imperialists’ table.

Imperialism is what the russian revolutionary Lenin described as the ‘highest stage of capitalism’ where financial capital concentrated in advanced nations expands across the world using its financial might to overwhelm the economies of smaller nations and subjugate them to the politics of the imperialist country. An example of this is the IMF, a financial vehicle funded in the main by the principal imperial powers. It sets conditions for lending money to poor countries, forcing them to open up their economies to the big capitalist corporations who strip the assets out of these countries in a constant expansion across the globe searching for profitable sources of raw materials and labour.

Where countries refuse to open up their economies, the power of finance capital is backed up by the armed power of the state they are based in. In this way the world is divided into imperial countries, the centres of finance capital based in the City of London and Wall Street, and the ‘semi-colonial’ countries who are subordinated politically by their economic dependence on the advanced capitalist states. The most obvious and destructive expression of this system is the African debt crisis, where African nations are prevented by the threat of economic and military sanctions from escaping the debt trap which impoverishes their people by transferring their natural wealth into the coffers of Western ‘multinational’ banks and corporations.

The division of the world into imperial powers and semi-colonies ensures the unequal distribution of the world’s resources under capitalism. While semi-colonial countries make up more than 80% of the world’s population, and are the source of the majority of the world’s natural resources, their people own much less than half of the world’s wealth.

The structure of the United Nations is arranged so that the imperial powers have a veto over any decisions which oppose their interests. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the hegemony of the USA in world affairs has been unchallenged. This is why it was able to present its invasion of Iraq as a fait accompli and why the UN is unable to enforce its mandates or international laws without the co-operation of the United States.

Why is Palestine important?

The 60-year conflict between Palestine and Israel has been a low-intensity conflict characterised by occasional short-lived outbreaks of open fighting, 1948, 1967, 1988-92, 2001, 2005, 2009. While thousands have died and the situation of millions of refugees has remained appalling, it is worth asking why it is this struggle rather than, say, the devastating war in Congo which has killed over 5 million people in the last 10 years, or the ‘War on Drugs’ which has ravaged the entire South American continent and claims tens of thousands of lives in Mexico every year, which is the subject of a huge international solidarity movement.

The Palestine-Israel conflict has remained a central feature of world politics, because it is a proxy war fought between the dominant forces in global politics since the end of the Second World War – US imperialism attempting to expand its influence in key strategic areas, jostling with French, Russian and Chinese interests in the region. While the wars which blight the African continent are the result of imperialist finance-capital’s ability to practice super-exploitation on a massive scale while the world’s media turns a blind eye, the conflict in Palestine encapsulates imperialism’s character as a union of finance, militarism and geo-politics operating in a region which will make and break imperial powers in the future decades of the 21st century.

This is why the fall of US backed dictators such as Mubarak in Egypt is an historic opportunity – and why we must fight for a genuine democratic revolution to topple Assad in Syria – not an imperialist puppet government like the NTC in Libya but a real people’s government founded on councils of the ordinary workers and youth

Only the working class, poor farmers, unemployed and youth, have an interest in opposing imperialism in all its forms – whether it is the zionist puppet of US interests or the brutal dictators propped up for decades by western cash and military equipment.

This is why we support the revolutionary overthrow of Gaddaffi, but reject the ex-Gadaffi imperialist puppets in the NTC, and oppose any further NATO or UN interventions in the ongoing struggles in the Arab world.

Arab Spring refreshes resistance

The revolutions and revolts which became known as the Arab Spring, rocked the Middle East status quo, where US-backed dictators in Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Libya, Egypt and Tunisia ruled their people with an iron fist for decades. The overthrow of Hosni Mubarak in Egypt was a defining moment in this struggle, because Egypt had long played a crucial role in refusing to challenge Israel’s occupation of Palestine. With his downfall, the Rafah border crossing into Gaza was opened, permitting a flood of supplies and ideas into the territory.

Yet in Gaza, Hamas acted swiftly to disperse pro-democracy demonstrations inspired by the Arab Spring, while Fatah did the same in the West Bank.

Nevertheless, the continuing resistance to the military junta in Egypt shows the way forward. Mubarak was brought down by a General Strike of Egyptian workers, organised through new Trade Unions and popular committees to organise defence in their communities. The continuing struggles of the Egyptian working class shows the way forward for Palestine. Mass strikes and democratic organisation can bridge the sectarian divide in Palestinian politics. The common struggle of workers and youth in Palestine can build links with those in the Israeli anti-austerity movement who also oppose the occupation.

A mass movement of resistance to Israeli occupation would no doubt see both Hamas and Fatah move to try and co-opt and contain it, attempting to pass themselves off as its natural leaders. But such a move is fraught with dangers and threats of new political organisations emerging to lead the Palestinian national resistance struggle. These new organisations can apply the lessons of the ongoing Egyptian revolution and have the potential to go far beyond the failed strategy of negotiation, compromise and guerilla warfare of Hamas and Fatah.

Why we support the vote

Abbas at the UN vote

The vote demonstrates one important principle: should the international community recognise a Palestinian state? The answer is yes. To oppose it would mean to line up, though for different reasons, with the US and Israel in opposing Palestinian national rights.

Any recognition at the UN must be seen in perspective. It will not liberate the Palestinians and it will not end the conflict. It will, however, strengthen the Palestinians’ position internationally, which exactly is why Israel is so opposed to it. But the wider goal must remain a secular, democratic and bi-national state for both peoples.

The 5.84 million Jews in Israel today are now close to being outnumbered by a growing Palestinian Arab population, comprising both those living as a minority in pre-1967 Israel and those in the post-1967 Occupied Territories. There are millions more in exile waiting for the right to return to their historic homeland.

Some Palestinians are opposed to the proposal because they see it as strengthening the corrupt Palestinian Authority and a betrayal of the refugees by accepting the 1967 borders.

Whilst these concerns are important, what is of over-riding importance is that any short term strengthening of the Palestinians’ position is not counter-opposed to the long term goal of a one state solution for Arabs and Israelis. Recognition of Palestine, even along the 1967 borders, would be a step forward, as part of a wider struggle to liberate all Palestinians.

Ultimately what is needed is a mass pro-Palestine liberation, pro-democracy and anti-imperialist movement on the streets right across the Middle East, which would weaken the Zionists’ position and strengthen the Arab revolution as a whole.

Internationally, we must win the labour movement – the trade unions, co-operatives, working class organisations – worldwide to support the Palestinian struggle and boycott and isolate the Zionist state.

We see the Arab spring as opening up historic opportunities to advance the struggle for a secular, democratic state with equal rights for men, women, Muslims, Jews and Christians in Palestine. The vote at the UN is a step towards greater recognition of the struggle, but ultimately we cannot let the imperialists in the UN be the ones to determine who is and who is not worthy of national rights. That question, and the democratic workers’ government that ensures it can only be answered by the workers themselves, in a political, military and above all international struggle against racism, dictatorship and imperialism.

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