The Socialist 20 January 2016

Unite the fightback

Unite the fightback: Coordinated strikes needed

United workers' action can save NHS

Water firms' £1.2bn in profit off human need

Political policing: Met spy targeted socialists

Trident debate: socialist programme needed

Housing crisis reaches level of 1960s

Civil service: £1bn on consultants

Outrageous attacks on Corbyn for 'sexism'

Them & Us

1986 Wapping strike - Defeat of the print unions

People's Budget meeting success

Carmarthenshire Unison campaigns against council cuts

Unite the Union local government committee votes for no-cuts budgets

Preparing a no-cuts people's budget

Momentum and democracy in Hackney and beyond

Angry Labour meeting puts councillors under fire

Gateshead carers oppose respite centre closures

Celebrating Eleanor Marx's birthday

Nationalise Tata to save steel jobs!

Tube workers to strike again to defend jobs and conditions

Reinstatement victory for John Vasey

Shop workers lobby council against Sunday opening

Workplace news in brief

USA: Fight the billionaire class!

China: Financial turmoil spreads fear across global markets

Northern Ireland: Defy anti-abortion laws

Letters to the Socialist

PO Box 1398, Enfield EN1 9GT

020 8988 8777

[email protected]

Link to this page: https://www.socialistparty.org.uk/issue/885/22054

Search the site	Printable version

Home | The Socialist 20 January 2016 | Join the Socialist Party

Subscribe | Donate | Audio | PDF | ebook

Unite the fightback: Coordinated strikes needed

Linda Taaffe, Secretary, National Shop Stewards Network

"We never dreamt of being on a picket line," said a junior doctor addressing a meeting of trade unionists after an exhausting day of strike activities.

Yet doctors were there picketing with audacity - striking for the first time in 40 years - while preparing to do it again.

Their next action has now been suspended as arbitration talks have reportedly progressed - though they'll have to resume planned action in February if no significant concessions are given by the government.

They have had no choice but to fight back - just like tube workers preparing to strike again against the imposition of unsocial shifts through the 'night tube'. And just like thousands of other workers, from teachers to council employees, will need to do too.

Tory ministers are relentless in their ruthlessness. They are trying to take working conditions back, not to the 20th century but to the 19th!

For too long, fat-cat bosses and their Tory political representatives have gotten away with it. And for too long some trade union leaders and right-wing Labour politicians have allowed them to. As a result millions of workers struggle on part-time, unsocial hours, no home life and chronically low pay.

This has forced a new generation of young workers, like the doctors - once considered the bedrock of the middle class - to come into the fray of the workers' movement.

Militant

Professional associations like the British Medical Association are being pushed to be every bit as militant as long-established fighting unions like the RMT.

What an opportunity to link up all the different disputes and groups of workers! But where are the leaders of the Trade Union Congress? Where are the demonstrations bringing together striking workers and all those supporting them, inspiring other workers to intensify their own disputes, and showing the bosses we are one?

It's a real step forward for Labour leaders to come to picket lines. And it was great to hear Jeremy Corbyn say a Labour government under his leadership would repeal Thatcher's anti-union laws and support solidarity strikes.

But it can't stop there. Working people have had enough of waiting. It's time to build for mass, coordinated strike action!

In this issue

Socialist Party news and analysis

Unite the fightback: Coordinated strikes needed