Following defeat in last academic year’s university strikes, UCU members are again balloting for action. This time, if the vote is successful, branches will all come out together, paving the way for coordinated action – on campuses and beyond.
PCS members begin a national strike ballot today, against a backdrop of attacks on jobs, pay, and conditions in the civil service. Truss and the Tories have declared war on Whitehall. The unions must mobilise and launch a united fightback.
This week’s Labour conference will provide no optimism for activists looking to fight back against the Tories and bosses. By contrast, recent rallies of the ‘Enough is Enough’ campaign have drawn energetic crowds, as the class struggle sharpens.
Only weeks into the new academic year, it is clear that UK schools are suffering from a severe staff shortage. Swathes of teachers are dropping out of the profession, due to low pay and high workloads. But teaching unions are fighting back.
Unison members in higher education at 22 universities are staging stikes over pay. At the same time, lecturers in the UCU are balloting for action. The scene is set for united struggle by workers and students on campuses across the country.
The last year has seen a wave of strikes across industry, with a number of important victories recorded by Unite members under Sharon Graham’s leadership. The lesson is clear: to win, workers need unity, militant action, and socialist policies.
Following the death of the Queen, trade union leaders have cancelled planned strike action ‘out of respect’ to the Royal Family. But the Tories and bosses have not paused their class war. The labour movement must mobilise to topple their system.
This week saw further action by postal workers and telecoms workers in the CWU. This shows the way forward for the trade union movement: to unite the struggles with coordinated action against the bosses and their crisis-ridden system.
Across the country, the trade union movement is awakening and workers are moving into action. And there is the prospect of members in Britain’s biggest union, Unison, joining the battle. The need for fighting leadership has never been greater.
Strikes are breaking out across Britain’s bus network, as drivers fight for decent wages and conditions. And recent victories in the North West provide a vital lesson for the whole labour movement: militancy pays.
Today saw the start of a wave of action by workers at Royal Mail, in the largest strike yet in the rising tide of class struggle. To win, these battles must be united into a mass fightback against the bosses – and for bold socialist policies.
Hundreds of dock workers have brought Britain’s busiest port to a standstill, in a dispute over pay. This shows the potential power that workers hold – a power that must be harnessed through militant struggle for a bold socialist alternative.