An excellent public meeting organised by Staffordshire Shop Stewards Network (SSSN) took place last night in Hanley. The main aim was to discuss and plan out how we can build for a 24hour public sector general strike in the autumn which we think is the next step in the struggle to stop the government's attacks on pensions.
The meeting was attended by union reps and members of CWU postal, PCS, NUT, FBU, CWU Telecoms, GMB, Unison and NUS from across North Staffordshire and Stafford.
The first speaker, Liat Norris from Youth Fight for Jobs (YFJ), explained about the new 'Jarrow March' which was being organised by YFJ and that some of the marchers would be visiting North Staffordshire on 19th of October to lead a march through the city to highlight the 22% youth unemployment rate in Stoke-on-Trent.
Opening the discussion about building to get four million on strike in the autumn, SSSN organiser and Socialist Party member Andy Bentley first stressed the significance of the coordinated strike action of 30th June. He pointed out that,
“Despite being told that by some that workers would not fight back any more and that trade unions are finished, the 30th June saw the largest single day of strike action since 1980.
Despite a massive media campaign against the strike it was overwhelmingly solid and popular among wider layers of working class people.
200,000 PCS members - 84% of their members - took strike action on the day. There was strike action in Downing Street, 90% of civilian police support workers struck and there was even a picket line outside the cabinet office!
NUT and ATL members were just as solid with 11,000 schools closed and in London over one third of striking teachers were on the London demonstration.
Widespread anger at the Con-Dem attacks on pensions was demonstrated as marches and rallies took place in almost every town and city across the country.”
Andy went on to explain how, “The SSSN and PCS had played a key role in ensuring that a successful rally took place in Stoke-on-Trent despite North Staffs TUC initially refusing to support the event - an act which confused many workers who were striking and others who wanted to show their support on the day.”
“Tens of thousands of leaflets given out at picket lines, marches and rallies across the country by the NSSN, Socialist Party and others calling for a 24hr public sector general strike received overwhelming support. PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka's call at the London rally for four million to strike in October, 'including Unison, Unite and the GMB', received a standing ovation.”
However, Andy also pointed out that a 24hr public sector general strike, “ won't just fall from the sky. We need to conduct a massive campaign in unions that have not yet balloted for action. Their leaders must be pushed to organise ballots immediately in preparation for action in the autumn.”
“The NSSN is also organising a march and rally at the TUC conference on Sunday11th September to put pressure on the TUC to coordinate a strike of the whole public sector.”
After much discussion and many excellent suggestions plans were made to ensure that SSSN activists do everything possible to build support for coordinated strike action.
A bus is being booked by the CWU North Midland branch for the NSSN march and rally at the TUC conference.
For Sentinel report follow link below; but despite it saying "40 million" we did actually say 4 million!
Staffordshire Shop Stewards Network shared a link.
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