Unity in action - 24th April joint public sector strike - some pictures

From the top:

Photos 1 and 2 - Strikers at North Devon College in Barnstaple.
Photo 3 - A picture from the well-attended rally held at Exeter City's St James Park.
Photo 4 - Socialist Party member and PCS National Executive member Mark Baker addresses the rally.
Photos 5 and 6 - Jim Thomson, a student teacher and member of Exeter Socialist Party, speaks at the rally.
Photo 7 - The picket line at Exeter College.
Photos 8 and 9 - The UCU, with supporters including members of the Socialist Party and Socialist Students, march to St James Park.

24th April - Pay, pensions and 'public services, not private profit'

This Thursday, thousands of teachers, further education lecturers, Department of Work and Pensions (Jobcentre Plus) staff and council workers in Birmingham are going on coordinated strike action. The action will take place on the same day not just to maximise the impact and pressure on the Government and other public sector unions, but to reflect the fact that the issues all these workers face are similar and linked.

Teachers are striking about the insulting pay offer, but are also angry about high and increasing workload, the privatisation of education and performance related pay. As the strike bulletin of the grassroots campaigning organisation 'Classroom Teacher' points out, "The Government wants us to carry on working ourselves into the ground meeting their targets when the best they can offer in return is year after year of below-inflation pay awards."

Further education lecturers have their own problems with pay. It seems likely that the Communication Workers' Union will ballot for strike action soon over Royal Mail pensions.

Staff in the Department of Work and Pensions are staging action on a number of issues, including pay, privatisation and brutal job cuts.

What links all 4 actions is a generalised assault on public services and the workers who day after day keep them running, despite the dead-hand of Government bureaucracy and targets, and crass and exploitative management. The New Labour government is trying to privatise and marketise public services, just as the neo-liberal faith it slavishly follows is crashing and burning in the wake of the global credit crisis and economic slowdown.

We support the strike action. With real inflation running at well over the official inflation (a ludicrous 2.5%) the Government dishonestly peddles, the pay offers to public sector workers means a decline in standard of living, and more and more workers struggling to make ends meet. In addition to this, the Government continues to claim that public sector pay rises are inflationary, a flat out lie, as admitted by most economists, many of them no friend to workers.

It is critical that this Thursday is not the end, but a stepping stone to future action involving all public sector unions. United action around the banner of 'public services not private profit', but encompassing other issues common to most public sector workers such as pay, pensions, workload and bullying management would be the best way to fight back against the Government, who won't rest until every public sector worker has their pay, pension and morale crushed, and every avenue of opportunity for private sector vultures to make as much money out of public services has been explored and exploited.

Join us on the picket lines and at the rally at St James Park, Exeter at noon!

NHS demo and anti-BNP protest

In response to the Exeter University Debating Society's reckless calling of a debate on the question of whether the BNP should be allowed a platform on campus (a position we strongly disagree with as the presence of fascists, which the hard-core BNP members undoubtedly are, leads to intimidation and violence against groups such as ethnic minorities and homosexuals, and also gives the impression that the BNP are a legitimate political party which only lends them credibility), Devon Socialist Party, and other groups such as Exeter Socialist Students, Exeter Socialists and Devon NUT, organised a protest outside the debating chamber.

The debate was won (if not on strength of argument but because the right wingers who see having fascists on campus as a 'cracking wheeze' dominate the Debating Society turned out in force) by those proposing the BNP be allowed on campus to spread their poison and cause safety issues for large numbers of students. They will now undoubtedly try to invite someone like BNP Fuhrer Nick Griffin down to speak, something which will be resisted by all anti-fascist campaigners. As last Friday, the Socialist Party and Socialist Students (who organised the protest last week) will be at the forefront.

On the Saturday, Socialist Party and Socialist Students members travelled from Exeter to London to go on the march to defend the NHS. It would be fair to say that the four main things you could always see on the demonstration were people, banners for the health union UNISON, banners for the general union Unite and Socialist Party members, placards, banners or papers.

The rally held at the end of the demo was kept deliberately non-political by the UNISON leadership, who seem determined to remain several centimetres up the Prime Ministers unmentionable. In UNISON they bitterly oppose any attempt to question the donation of millions of pounds of UNISON members money to the New Labour government that is kicking them in the teeth and the NHS in the direction of private sector fat cats.

We say - Break the link with New Labour - don't fund those who kick us in the teeth
- Support the Campaign for a New Workers Party and candidates standing on anti-cuts and save the NHS platforms
- Link up the local NHS campaigns to form a fighting national 'Save our NHS' campaign free from the obstructions of the likes of UNISON leader Dave Prentis

Devon Postal Strike round up

Socialist Party and Socialist Students members visited the picket line at the Mail Centre in Exeter twice at midday and at midnight on Friday. Only 6 workers in this large mail centre scabbed, with the vast majority of workers solid in supporting this strike. When we raised the issue of the need for a new workers' party, pickets expressed firm support for our ideas and are mystified why the leadership continues to fund New Labour, who are behind the privatisation, cuts and job losses in the postal service and public services in general.

In Barnstaple the strike remained solid and the determination of the strikers to continue the fight was evident. Local Socialist Partymembers in North Devon are currently working to try and unite the public sector unions behind the postal workers and againstprivatisation and cuts in the public sector as a whole.

In Teignmouth and Newton Abbot, the determination to see this one out reflected what we saw and heard in Exeter. Socialist Party strike leaflets and 10 copies of the socialist were snapped up as postal workers welcomed a clear explanation of their cause. In conversations there was a higher level of political discussion than in previous strikes with many recognising that New Labour never repealed Thatcher's oppressive anti-trade union laws. Many of picket expressed anger at the media and the bullying attitude of some local managers. Tempers rose with the arrival of 'scab' agency workers at one point management threaten to call the police to arrest the socialist reporter, unfortunately for them they did not know where the picket line ought to be. This is the same management who refuse to give postal workers an opportunity to earn £8 an hour - instead they preferred to use agency workers at £18 an hour of which these receive £6.50 an hour.

Strikers felt that they were in a powerful position with the run up to Christmas. However they recognise that they will face hardship with the lack of funds for their families. During discussions the idea of setting up a South Devon Support Group was brought up. The need to build links with other unions and other members of the public was seen as vital. This would then link up with other groups in Exeter and North Devon.

Postal strike - brief update

This is only a brief update on today's postal strike, there will be a more detailed report soon, when we have all reports in from Socialist Party members who have supported the postal workers across Devon, from Barnstaple in the north to Plymouth in the south to Exeter in the east, and plenty of places in between.

Generally though, the strike was near solid, and in Newton Abbot it was 100% out. The atmosphere on the picket line was determined and generally there was a good spirit. Our leaflets, copies of the Socialist and support were well received, and the postal workers can be sure we are behind them 100%. Speaking to some of the strikers, it is clear that while they are angry over the 'pay rise' of 2.5% they have been offered (which, with inflation standing at 5%, loss of early start bonuses and strings attached including mass cuts and 40,000 job losses, has got to be one of the measliest 'rises' ever offered), the main reason behind the strike was the privatisation and commercialisation of a public service.

Support for the strike from the general public was high (and very enthusiastic), proving once again that ordinary people can see through the lies, distortions and manipulations of the government and Royal Mail management.

It is not thought that managers working today had much of an impact on the effectiveness of the strike, being collectively described by one worker as 'about as efficient as a sponge in the Sahara desert'!

Concrete steps will now be taken in North Devon to forge public sector unity, by arranging a join meeting of all the public sector unions to move forward, campaign and fight together.

Devon Socialist Party supports the postal workers

With the news that postal workers are set to stage a 24 hour strike on Friday 29th June, the Devon Socialist Party would like to express our solidarity with them and the CWU (Communication Workers' Union), and pledge our support for the action they are taking. On the day of the strike, Socialist Party members in Devon (and elsewhere) will give practical and political support to those taking industrial action.

The reasons behind the action (the 'yes' vote was a resounding 77%) are primarily pay and the direction of the Royal Mail/Post Office.

Justifiably, the CWU think that postal workers should earn the national average wage and that the Royal Mail should not renege on previous agreement. The CWU are also opposed to the privatisation, fragmentation and commercialisation of the postal service that has occurred over these past years and is set to continue. Commercialisation and privatisation is the reason why post offices are closing, conditions at work for postal workers are worsening, pay is being squeezed, and the second post for of the day has been abolished.

Devon Socialist Party calls for the demands of the CWU to be met in full, and for the privatisation and commercialisation of the postal service to be stopped and reversed. Postal services need to be run by a public sector body, democratically run by postal workers and the public at large. No more Post Offices should be closed and any villages or towns lacking a Post Office should be provided with one, even as an adjunct to a local shop.

The CWU has produced a leaflet countering the misinformation coming from the Government and the Royal Mail, which is uncritically reported by the capitalist media. It can be found here.

The Socialist Party leaflet (produced before a date was named for strike action), outlining our views in a little more depth, can be found here.