After huge anti-austerity demos…

Organise the fightback!

Neil Cafferky
NSSN placard: 24 Hour General Strike Against Austerity

The National Shop Stewards Network has been instrumental in arguing for a 24-hour general strike   (Click to enlarge: opens in new window)

Over a month’s wages are about to disappear from the pockets of millions of low-paid families. Despite hundreds of thousands taking to the streets on the fantastic anti-austerity demos on 20 June, more cuts are threatened. Plans by David Cameron’s Tory government to cut tax credits could see families with two children lose £1,690 a year.

This catastrophic cut in living standards will force many working class people further into poverty. This from the party that has the cheek to claim it stands for ‘hard working families’.

The reality is very different. The Tories are determined to bulldoze through welfare cuts of £12 billion, alongside billions of cuts in services, to pay for tax handouts for the wealthy. It’s like the Tories have decided to reimagine the tale of Robin Hood, except this time, the Sherriff of Nottingham is the hero!

For anyone wondering how to pay the bills, Iain Duncan Smith has a solution. Employers must pay higher wages.

Unfortunately, this isn’t a sign that IDS is signing up to the £10 an hour minimum wage demand. While the Tories are always keen to enforce pay cuts on workers, they say any wage rises must be ‘voluntary’ by the employer.

In the real world workers know that wage rises of the kind needed to plug this gap only come about through organising in unions and where necessary, taking strike action.

However, it’s no coincidence that when enormous squeezes in workers’ pay and living standards are being devised, plans are afoot to restrict even further the right to strike.

The Tories have brazenly set out their plan of attack against the working class. We need to be equally bold in organising the fightback! The trade union movement must begin preparing for a 24-hour general strike as a warning to the Tories that they will face a huge backlash if they go ahead.

Only pressure from union members can push union leaders to deliver the action we need. Come to the National Shop Stewards Network conference on 4 July to launch that campaign.

National Shop Stewards Network

9TH ANNUAL CONFERENCE: Stop the Tory union busters!

Saturday 4 July 2015

11am to 4.30pm
Conway Hall, Holborn, London WC1R 4RL

Leaflet: http://www.socialistparty.org.uk/txt/369.pdf

www.shopstewards.net

Speakers include

  • Special guest: Greek trade union activist Harris Sideris, a member of the trade union rank and file committee of the contract workers, sacked by Vodafone.
  • PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka
  • BFAWU general secretary Ronnie Draper
  • FBU general secretary Matt Wrack
  • RMT president Peter Pinkney
  • Rob Williams, NSSN chair
  • Youth Fight for Jobs organiser Helen Pattison
  • Anti-blacklisting campaigner Dave Smith
  • Tamil Solidarity trade union coordinator Isai Priya