Link to this page: http://www.socialistparty.org.uk/issue/653/10935
From The Socialist newspaper, 12 January 2011
Campaigners tell PM: 'No to Royal Mail privatisation'
ON SUNDAY 9 January, 1,000 people turned up in Witney, prime minister David Cameron's Oxfordshire constituency, to demonstrate against the privatisation of the Royal Mail.
Steve Bell
After a march through the town there was a short rally at which the most memorable speakers were Billy Hayes, Communications Workers' Union (CWU) general secretary, Dave Ward, CWU deputy general secretary, and two young people from Witney protesting against youth service closures in Oxfordshire.
Both Billy and Dave emphasised the need to widen the struggle and spoke of industrial action to protect jobs and services and to defeat the Tory cuts, whilst those campaigning to save the youth service spoke about the need to oppose all cuts in services. Critical questions were raised of the Labour Party policy by Dave.
A Buckinghamshire Unison health branch spokesperson raised the Medirest cleaners' dispute and pointed out that where the trade unions provide a fighting lead then previously unorganised workers will take action, sometimes within only a few months of joining a union. Health activists and Socialist Party members collected over £300 for the Medirest hardship fund.
- More than one-third of all Post Office's could close as a result of the Con-Dem coalition's privatisation of Royal Mail. Currently, a Royal Mail inter-business subsidy keeps 4,400 Post Office branches open. However, this £343 million subsidy to Post Office Limited, which runs 11,900 branches, could end. Under the previous Labour government some 6,000 branches across Britain were closed.
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In The Socialist 12 January 2011:
Anti-cuts campaign
Bankers get billions - We get cuts
Youth fight for jobs
March for a future - Join the demonstrations on 29 January
More attacks on rights for young workers
Students at Leeds Trinity re-occupy
International socialist news and analysis
Tunisia: Wave of protests against repressive regime
National Shop Stewards Network
Rage at inequality fires workers' action
NSSN National: Anti-Cuts Conference
NSSN debate: The way forward for the anti-cuts movement
National Shop Stewards Network: Strategy and tactics - a dialogue
Labour baroness wants politics kept out of the Forest of Dean
Fighting Labour's cuts in Waltham Forest
Socialist Party news and analysis
Jobs cut while the rich carry on partying
The plot thickens at News International
'Big Oil' cuts corners on safety to boost profits
Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition
Councils ramp up service charges
Campaigners tell PM: 'No to Royal Mail privatisation'
Police moles attempt to discredit protest movements
Socialist Party workplace news
Kirklees council: First round victory in cuts battle
Darlington: Newsquest strikes continue to spread
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