Strike Against Jobs Carnage

  • No to New Labour’s civil service jobs massacre.
  • Prepare a one-day civil service strike.
  • Bring together all public sector unions to organise for a 24-hour
    public-sector strike in defence of jobs and services.

"CARNAGE!" THIS was the response of Mark Serwotka, general
secretary of the PCS, the main civil service union, to Gordon Brown’s
announcement of 104,000 job losses in the civil service.

Blair’s New Labour government is threatening the biggest single attack
on public sector jobs since the 1930s.

Civil service workers are shocked, but active trade unionists are
preparing to fight back. "After this review, the once ‘secure job’
has now become insecure," a young civil service worker, Hassan Miah,
told the socialist.

"I live every day now with stress and uncertainty. It’s tough
living in London, with all the inflated expenses, even with an inexpensive
lifestyle. I provide for my parents and family, and as a result I have a
mortgage and other debts. Not having a job is unthinkable."

Hassan is on the branch executive of PCS in the Department for
Education and Skills (DfES), and is determined to fight back. "I
won’t make it easy for them. I became active in my union last year, and
there are thousands like me around the country."

Brown claims he is cutting ‘waste’ to provide better services. But
while health and education are getting more, other services will fall
behind.

New Labour ministers are now insultingly referring to civil service
workers as ‘bureaucrats’, though they play an essential role in delivering
services to the public. This is a crude attempt to isolate civil service
workers from other workers.

This assault on the civil service unions is an attack on all trade
unions and workers. If Blair’s government defeats the civil servants, they
will then attack the jobs, pay, benefits and rights of all other workers.

This is like Thatcher’s attack on the miners in 1984. That’s why the
trade unions must unite in support of civil service workers for a
fight-back.