In support of the 10 July strike
Tomorrow, millions of public sector workers will be striking across Britain, particularly in London. Major players include NUT (whose secretary, Christine Blower, appeared on Question Time last week), PCS, Unison, Unite, and many other unions.
Although I am not in work at this time of writing (the new job I have does not start until September), and in particular do not work for the public sector, I, like many Green Party members support this strike in solidarity with these people, and against the wider austerity agenda that has been hurting us so much in the last 4 years, just so the rich can get even richer and escape the consequences of a recession that was entirely their fault-not ours.
Worryingly, amidst the publicity for this planned strike, the Con-Dems have touted an idea, originally touted by London's awful mayor, Boris Johnson, that will effectively make public sector strikes impossible-they propose requiring a 50% support threshold for strikes, when most elections in Britain cannot reach a 50% turnout let alone 50% support for one party, for example the London Mayoral election. In the last general election, not a single MP from any party achieved votes from 50% of the registered electorate in their respective constituency.
This law is just an excuse to intimidate public sector workers into accepting lower pay and eventual outsourcing of their service (if the Con-Dems continue to get their way)-many local government workers now actually work for private companies as their work was outsourced by local councils pressured to exhaustion by Eric Pickles and his Whitehall cronies.
Let us make this strike matter, no matter what the mainstream media try to do to black out progressive voices like ours-if we are all together, we can rally and bring the austerity agenda in Britain to an end. In this battle against austerity and neoliberalism, united we stand, divided we fall.
Regards, Alan.
Although I am not in work at this time of writing (the new job I have does not start until September), and in particular do not work for the public sector, I, like many Green Party members support this strike in solidarity with these people, and against the wider austerity agenda that has been hurting us so much in the last 4 years, just so the rich can get even richer and escape the consequences of a recession that was entirely their fault-not ours.
Worryingly, amidst the publicity for this planned strike, the Con-Dems have touted an idea, originally touted by London's awful mayor, Boris Johnson, that will effectively make public sector strikes impossible-they propose requiring a 50% support threshold for strikes, when most elections in Britain cannot reach a 50% turnout let alone 50% support for one party, for example the London Mayoral election. In the last general election, not a single MP from any party achieved votes from 50% of the registered electorate in their respective constituency.
This law is just an excuse to intimidate public sector workers into accepting lower pay and eventual outsourcing of their service (if the Con-Dems continue to get their way)-many local government workers now actually work for private companies as their work was outsourced by local councils pressured to exhaustion by Eric Pickles and his Whitehall cronies.
Let us make this strike matter, no matter what the mainstream media try to do to black out progressive voices like ours-if we are all together, we can rally and bring the austerity agenda in Britain to an end. In this battle against austerity and neoliberalism, united we stand, divided we fall.
Regards, Alan.
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