The Socialist 2 July 2008

Hands off our NHS!

Feature: 60 years of the NHS

Local government strike action: Workers say: 'enough is enough!'

Fight Labour's welfare privatisation

91% of pay deals are below inflation

Workers united against pay freeze

Education - class segregation grows

Boris Johnson reveals his real policies

Royals down to their last crown?

Union support for demo to stop BNP 'festival'

National Shop Stewards Network: Rebuilding trade union strength

Campaign for a New Workers' Party

Obituary: Terry Fields

LGBT London Pride: No to homophobia

Mugabe clique tightens its grip on Zimbabwe

Big oil returns to Iraq

Poland: Thousands join 'hands off the Labour Code' demo

PCS shows action gets results

Visteon workers win 5%

For a fighting, democratic Usdaw

Tube cleaners in pay strike

Victory for Belfast Airport shop stewards

East London street cleaners fight privatised employer

Previous issues, etc

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Workers united against pay freeze

AROUND 30 people attended a meeting organised by Cambridge TUC entitled 'Together we can beat Brown's pay freeze'. The speakers were Christine Blower, acting general secretary of the NUT and PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka. Both spoke of the strike action taken on 24 April and pledged support for the action to be taken by Unison on 16-17 July.

Mark Serwotka was clear that the government blaming public-sector pay for rising inflation is a political attack - every leading economist has dismissed these claims, and has concluded that public-sector pay does not cause inflation.

He explained that in a TUC meeting of union general secretaries and government ministers, Unison general secretary Dave Prentis told treasury secretary Yvette Cooper she had "angered six million public-sector workers".

Many in the audience felt that Prentis had also angered millions of public sector workers over the agreement of a three-year pay deal which will leave many health workers facing four years of effective pay cuts!

Socialist Party members spoke in the debate on the need for political representation for the working class and the need for trade unions to break with New Labour.

Cambridge TUC sent delegates to the National Shop Stewards Network annual conference and agreed to keep fighting against Brown's pay freeze and push for united action. Cambridge Socialist Party will be involved in this struggle and have organised a Campaign for a New Workers' Party meeting for September.