Make 30 November a massive day of action

Paula Mitchell, Socialist Party executive committee

As we all face a bleak winter of high prices, falling real wages and paltry benefits, one bright spot is glowing and growing.

Public sector workers are taking up the beacon lit by striking rail, postal and BT workers in the summer and autumn. Hundreds of thousands of workers are standing up and saying they are prepared to fight, showing the way out of the cost-of-living crisis.

Huge inspiration will be taken from the victory of the Liverpool dockers, winning 14-18% pay rises.

Nurses in the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) have made history with their first-ever vote for nationwide strike action – only to be told by Tory ministers that their call for a pay rise above inflation is not “reasonable or affordable”.

Any strike dates announced by the RCN must be supported by trade union and community demonstrations at hospitals up and down the country – especially at those places that only just missed the Tory anti-democratic turnout thresholds.

These would be a huge boost, not just to the strikers but to members of other NHS unions currently balloting. The message must be loud and clear to the vicious Tories: we will all fight for our NHS.

The biggest-ever strike in universities by the University and College Union (UCU) is about to start, with a demonstration in London on Wednesday 30 November. Now sixth-form staff in the National Education Union have announced they will also be striking on 30 November.

These actions coordinate with planned strikes by Royal Mail workers in the CWU. Civil service workers in the PCS union have also voted overwhelmingly for strike action. Socialist Party members and PCS Broad Left Network supporters are campaigning for action to be called straight away, starting with 30 November.

Upping the coordination, drawing more workers into the struggle, all striking together, has the potential to win real pay rises and drive out the Tories.

It could also light a fire under Starmer’s New Labour government, waiting in the wings. Starmer’s deputy Angela Rayner, when asked by the Financial Times if workers could expect inflation-matching pay rises under a Labour government, answered, “brutally, no”.

Well, brutally, that isn’t good enough. The fight must go on to defeat the bosses and force whoever is in power to pay up. By necessity, that includes fighting for political representatives who do stand with the working class – a new workers’ party.

  • Let’s make 30 November a massive day of action – join the demo in London at 1pm, King’s Cross station, N1 9AL
    • Coordinate as many strikes as possible
    • Turn the UCU’s demonstration into a huge midweek demo of striking workers, students, and all those fighting the cost-of-living crisis
  • Demonstrate at hospitals on NHS strike dates