The last week has seen a number of protests taking place in the fight against low pay: from a TUC demonstration against the public sector pay cap, to the continuing struggle of the Picturehouse cinema workers in their demand for a London living wage. We provide here a series of reports from Socialist Appeal supporters on the various struggles taking place in the fight for decent pay.
Postal workers have rightly reacted with considerable anger over the use of the courts by Royal Mail bosses, who have taken out an injunction against the first mail strike, initially called by the CWU for 19th October. Steve Jones looks at how the class bias of the state and the law have been used to temporarily hold off the struggle to defend pensions, jobs, terms and conditions.
UCU members at the University of Leeds were on strike last week, on 11-13th October. Eoin Breathnach of the Leeds UCU (personal capacity) discusses the fight against the marketisation and casualisation of Higher Education, and against an aggressive management that is looking to unfairly stack the odds in their favour.
London Underground cleaners demonstrated outside City Hall on Thursday 12th October to demand that Sadiq Khan, the Labour Mayor of London, bring them back in-house by directly employing them. The London Underground tube lines are in effect London’s arteries; the cleaners therefore have enormous power should they organise to use it.
Last week, the CWU postal workers union announced a huge majority for strike action over attacks by Royal Mail on workers’ pensions and work conditions – a staggering 89.1% majority for action on a huge 73.7% turnout amongst the 110,000 postal group union members. Socialist Appeal supporters in the CWU discuss the issues at stake.
Picturehouse workers from Brixton, Hackney, Central, Crouch End and East Dulwich came out in force yesterday, as their struggle for a living wage continues into its second year. Dan Langley reports from the protest at the BFI London Film Festival.
Members of the RMT rail union are taking strike action again this week in their struggle to defend passenger safety and jobs. Mike Hogan of the Liverpool Marxists reports on the background to the strike, which is taking place amongst RMT members working for Merseyrail, Southern, Greater Anglia and Northern Rail.
On Sunday 1st October, around 50,000 protesters marched in Manchester to demonstrate against the Conservative Party conference, scheduled to begin today, under the banner “Tories Out! No More Austerity!”. Nick Hallsworth of the Manchester Marxists reports on the mood at Sunday’s anti-austerity, anti-Tory demonstration.
As tens of thousands of workers, activists, and youth gather in Manchester this weekend to protest outside the Tory Party conference, Rob Sewell discusses the eye-watering inequality in modern-day Tory Britain, and the fight against the crisis-ridden Conservatives and their failed programme of austerity.
Budget airline Ryanair recently announced the cancellation of nearly 2,000 flights over the next 5-6 weeks – about 40 to 50 flights a day. Officially, the company blames various delays, air traffic control strikes in France, weather conditions and a modified holiday schedule of pilots and cabin crew. However, this is all a smoke screen to hide the real chaotic situation of a mass exodus of its pilots.
Rob Sewell provides another contribution on the debate about the way forward for the unions and the Left in the fight against the Blairites, the Tories, and the cuts. The position of Socialist Appeal is clear: all forces on the Left should get organised, support Corbyn, and fight to transform the Labour Party into a genuinely socialist party.
Friday 8th September saw the first strike by UK airline pilots since the mid-1970s, in a dispute over pay. The British Airline Pilots’ Association has announced three more strike days in the autumn. With organised and united action, pilots could hit the bosses’ where it hurts – in their profits – and win an important and inspiring victory.