First there were three, the sun having not yet shown its face, in the
pitch black darkness of the autumn morning it was only the neon of the street
lights that reflected off the red high visibility jackets of the picketing
Royal Mail workers. Eddie Kacar reports on the mood at EDO in Whitechapel in the heart of the East End of London
IMPACT
members have voted 86% to 14% for strike action on a 69% ballot. This
is a huge change from the position in March where a similar vote
resulted in a 65% Yes vote on a 53% turnout. The vote in March fell
just short of the 2/3 barrier that union rules lay down as the minimum
threshold for official action to be sanctioned.
This
marks a dramatic shift over the past 7 months. But that’s hardly a
surprise given the imposition of the levy, the slash and burn budget
and the threats of cuts and redundancies and the general economic chaos
and political crisis that threatens public sector workers.
As previously reported, on 21st October Steve Acheson
appeared at the Royal Courts of Justice in the Strand, central London. He was there because Scottish and
Southern Energy, the owners of Fiddlers Ferry power station, were seeking an
injunction against him under the Prevention of Terrorism Act!
Comrade Bill Landles is 85 on October 26th. By
coincidence, in the old Russian calendar that is also
the date of Trotsky’s 130th birthday and the
anniversary of the Russian revolution. This is highly
appropriate because Bill has devoted the whole of his
thinking life to the cause of the October Revolution
and the ideas of Lenin and Trotsky.HAPPY BIRTHDAY BILL!
Here are some more reports and interviews from CWU picket lines around the country as the strike enters the second day. More action has been announced for next week – things are hotting up!
It might have started out as a strategy, but the ICTU leadership’s
profound belief that they can wrest some concessions out of Cowen and
Lenihan would be better described as an illusion or perhaps a death
wish. We’ve pointed out many times that in a slump social partnership
is like the partnership between a cat and a mouse. But at least in Tom
and Jerry the mouse was a master of tactics.
As the first wave of the national post strike action enters its second day,
those on the picket lines around the country remain determined to win
their fight. Here is a first of a series of reports and interviews from various picket lines.
Postal workers are out on a national two-day strike over management
plans in effect to destroy the Royal Mail. Picket lines are being
staged at sites up and down the country. The bosses, backed by Lord
Mandelson, who is looking to hit back at the union over his failed
attempt to privatise the mail, have refused to negioate. The time has
come for workers to show their strength
A hearing is pending in the
Royal Courts of Justice, London, on Wed. 21st, October at 10.30am, at which
Scottish and Southern Energy is applying for an injunction against Steve
Acheson. The Injunction is being sought to prevent Steve from protesting at
Fiddlers Ferry power station about his dismissal from the project because of
the now notorious construction industry blacklist.
Waste, big salaries and huge pensions, that’s the image the
Tories are trying to present of the public sector in Britain today. It’s a bit
rich coming from them, at a time when their rich backers in the City of London
have been exposed as a bunch of greedy parasites.
It was only a few months ago that public anger against the banks and an
unprecedented crisis of capitalism seemed to have an almost
revolutionary tone. Public consciousness and official opinion seemed to
have shifted decisively to the left. Yet this rage seems not to have
effected any political change at all and somehow the public debate
(i.e. the editorial line of the press and the rest of the media) has
swung far to the right. But the anger and opposition to bank bailouts
has not disappeared.
In 1929, the New York stock exchange panic began, kickstarting a financial meltdown and opening up a decade of global depression. Only Marxism can explain the real cause of this crisis.