A Hillingdon Socialist Party member
A large crowd gathered in Friends Meeting House in Uxbridge on 16 June for a special Hillingdon Against the Cuts (HAC) meeting to build solidarity and support for the public sector pensions strike on 30 June.
Mike Bosman, west London PCS Home Office rep, was the first to address the meeting. He gave a vivid description of the pressure workers in the civil service are coming under as staff numbers go down, the workload goes up and only the pay stays the same.
From the chair, Wally Kennedy, secretary of HAC, reminded the meeting of the power of strike action. If the bosses do not go to work the wheels of the economy keep turning regardless. But if the workers refuse to work then everything grinds to a halt.
A speaker for UK Uncut gave a lively account of their campaign to expose tax dodgers such as Philip Green and Vodafone. He gave full support to 30 June, saying strike action was the highest form of direct action.
Finally a speaker from the Socialist Party stressed the need to build for 30 June as a step towards a general strike in the public sector, as well as stressing the need to build a political alternative to the three mainstream parties of austerity.
There was an excellent discussion around this final point with contributions from the floor from the local Unison branch secretary, a Unite shop steward at Heathrow and reps from the local CWU and RMT branches. The meeting ended with plans to bring work colleagues to visit picket lines on 30 June.
