Link to this page: http://www.socialistparty.org.uk/issue/626/9578
From The Socialist newspaper, 26 May 2010
PCS conference: Preparing for action
National Gallery workers, members of the PCS, walk out against low pay, photo Paul Mattsson (Click to enlarge)
Meeting barely a week after the horsetrading between the establishment parliamentary parties had finished, the 2010 conference of the Public and Commercial Services union (PCS) was an important event. It was clear to all delegates that the new Con-Dem government was determined to make working people pay for a crisis of the capitalist system and civil servants would be on the front line facing many of these attacks.
Greg Maughan
But, just days before the conference began, a high court appeal ruled that changes to the Civil Service Compensation Scheme were unlawful. It makes a change for a judge to rule on the side of workers but, as delegates explained, it was not the legal challenge on its own that won but the three days of solid strike action and other campaigning that backed it.
Initiated by Brown's Labour government, huge cuts to the compensation scheme were made in preparation for whole swathes of job cuts on the cheap. The defeat of those changes was a boost of confidence for the conference delegates. But delegates realised that attacks from the employer and the government are only just beginning.
National Gallery workers, members of the PCS, walk out against low pay, photo Paul Mattsson (Click to enlarge)
Discussion took place around the need for industrial action to defend jobs and services. In particular the question of coordinated action across the public sector came up.
PCS is pledged to call on the TUC to organise a national demonstration against public sector cuts as a step towards such coordinated action. If the TUC holds back from this, the PCS will have to take the lead in forming a coalition of the willing, drawing together the best militant trade unions to call such a demo in their name.
Chris Baugh, PCS assistant general secretary, addresses the National Gallery workers, who walked out against low pay, photo Paul Mattsson (Click to enlarge)
The conference was unified on the need to organise the 'fight of our lives' against Con-Dem cuts and on the tactics to take things forward, with full democratic debate hammering out and developing these tactics.
This is a testament to activists in the PCS, with the Socialist Party playing a leading role in transforming the union over the last few years.
The very successful Socialist Party conference meeting was attended by about 80 delegates and nearly £1,300 was collected for the Socialist Party's Fighting Fund.
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In The Socialist 26 May 2010:
Millionaire ministers butcher public services
Con-Dem cuts - 'only the beginning'
National Shop Stewards Network
National Shop Stewards Network conference: Time to organise against con/dem attacks
Socialist Party news and analysis
NHS cuts: The Con-Dem sting in the tail
Sri Lanka: One year after the war
Socialist Party national committee discusses building the fightback
Socialist Party workplace news
PCS conference: Preparing for action
Local government: Where's our pay award for 2010?
Youth
Young people: organise to fight the cuts
Socialist Party National Youth meeting
Students must pay, say the rich
Pamphlet: Our Education Under Attack: why a mass campaign is needed
Socialist Party feature
London 2012 Olympics: A big business spectacle
International socialist news and analysis
Greece: 2,500 hear Socialist MEP Joe Higgins declare week of action
Romania: Mass protests against EU/IMF deal
Puerto Rico: Students and workers fight austerity cuts
Education
Education under attack: Con-Dem government prepares for battle
Unions must defend public services
Tory government says rich must pay less
Comment
Diane Abbott and the Labour Party leadership battle
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