We’re now less than a week away from the largest co-ordinated industrial action the UK has seen for decades – perhaps since the General Strike of 1926. Around three million workers will be out on strike next Wednesday – in effect, most of the public sector, from over twenty different trade unions.
That’s over twenty different groups of workers who’ve collectively said they’ve had enough of the government’s constant attacks on wages and conditions, and have now balloted for action – with the strikes in most cases winning big majorities. A strike of this scale is virtually unprecedented: nearly every school in Scotland will be shut, as will large sections of the NHS, council services, universities and colleges, job centres and tax and benefit offices, courts and other public services.
30 November has huge potential to be a big show of strength. It will not, by itself, bring down the government, but an effective day of action can place enormous pressure on them, and hopefully lead to more. This is absolutely crucial – so far the government have offered only token concessions in the dispute over pensions, with new proposals on line to make employees work longer, pay 3 percent more in contributions AND receive a lower pension at the end of it. But the strike is about much more than just pensions – sparked by years of relentless attacks on public sector pay and conditions, compounded by a three year pay freeze.
So what can you do on the day?
Next Wednesday can be a mass day of resistance for everyone in the public sector and beyond. Walkouts, occupations, pickets, demonstrations and marches – all are useful tactics in turning the struggle into Every school, uni and college is likely to be shut on the day, giving students the opportunity to pour onto the streets in support of the strikes. Student feeder marches have been organised in both Glasgow and Edinburgh on the day, ahead of the main trade union organised rallies.
Picket! If you work somewhere going on strike that day, effective picketing can be hugely important in shutting down a workplace and ensuring the day is a success. If you’re not striking, you can still go and show your support – UK Uncut have made a national call out for people to go and show some solidaritea at their local picket lines.
Demonstrate! March, rallies and events are happening across the country. Find a local action here: http://www.n30strike.org/
Walk out! Most schools, colleges and unis will be shut due to staff striking – but in the even of your classes running, organise a walkout and head to the nearest rally or picket line.
Retweet! Share! Propagandise! The Tories and their chums in the media have already gone on the offensive, trying to create a fake division between public sector workers and those in the private sector. Speak to everyone you know and tell them the facts about the strikes.
Mass protest outside the Greek Parliament in Athens on Wednesday
On Thursday evening, the Greek Parliament voted through its latest austerity package – approved by all but one of the deputies from the ruling ’social democratic’ party, PASOK. Tens of thousands of workers will now suffer dramatic wage cuts of 40%, the slashing of pensions and the tearing up of collective bargaining agreements, on top of tax hikes and 20% unemployment (youth unemployment being nearer 50%).
In reality, the real authority in Greece is now the ‘Troika’, meaning the IMF, European Commission and European Central Bank. These three institutions are holding the Greek government hostage, demanding the complete destruction of the country’s public sector in return for the continuation of the €110bn bailout package which is keeping the country afloat, if far from stable. Greece can now keep paying its bills for a few months more, but a default on their national debt in the not too distant future is still almost certain.
Wednesday and Thursday saw the biggest days of action against austerity in Greece so far. Huge numbers were on the streets across the country, as hundreds of thousands of private sector workers joined the strikes for the first time. There were chaotic scenes in Athens, as stewards from the Stalinist trade union federation PAME clashed with other demonstrators. Amid the chaos, a PAME supporter died – although reportedly from breathing difficulties caused by police teargas.
The world economy is in crisis: Greece is the testing ground – and austerity isn’t working. By forcing ever deeper and harder cuts – this is the third drastic, emergency austerity package pushed through the parliament this year – the government is facing the growing contradictions of the system. Minus 7 percent “growth” is not going to cure the deficit. A default is probably on its way, and has actually already happened to a limited, controlled extent: Greece’s creditors have already accepted that they’ll only ever get back 79 cents for every euro lent. However controlled or uncontrolled the default turns out to be, the impact on northern European banks, and the Euro, will be profound, and there’s a risk the ‘contagion’ could spread to Spain, Italy and Portugal.
Greece has entered a situation where the vast majority of the population have lost all faith in the political system and the government, who cling on through necessity to implement the orders of the Troika. Class war is being raged by the elites, meaning the absolute destruction of welfare and living standards, plunging millions into poverty. The economist Paul Mason has described what’s happening in the country as “anomie”, meaning the gradual breakdown of social order through the effective withdrawal of the state from public life: schools without textbooks, mass unemployment, general lawlessness and, among swathes of the population, little hope that anything can get better – as summed up in this report from a few weeks ago.
Europe is watching: Greece was first, but will not be the last. Organise, counter-attack!
Next Thursday will see up to 750,000 public sector workers walking out on strike over pension cuts, in perhaps the largest direct confrontation with the government’s austerity agenda seen yet. Nearly 300,000 civil servants who’re members of the PCS will be joined by education workers in the NUT, UCU and ATL unions. It comes at the same time as some of the larger unions, like Unison, the GMB and Unite, are beginning to talk about a serious campaign of co-ordinated strike action later in the year. However, in Scotland the PCS will be striking alone next week, with teachers here having narrowly rejected action after union leaders outrageously urged their members to accept a serious attack on pay and conditions.
So while next Thursday is not going to be a General Strike on the same scale as we’ve seen across Europe over the past year or so, it still represents a key date in building the movement against the Coalition’s attacks, and its success may be crucial in it providing a springboard to wider action later in the year.
There’s lots you can do to support the strike next week – even if you’re not in the PCS and not going on strike!
JOIN THE PICKET LINES: There will be picket lines in every city in Scotland and many towns as well – with job centres, benefits, passport, customs and excise and tax offices all out. Why not find out where your nearest picket line is and go and offer your solidarity? UK Uncut have made a national call-out for people to take along breakfast to their local pickets – and there’s a list of actions on their website. Join one or make your own! See also j30strike.org
JOIN THE NATIONAL RALLY: A Scotland-wide rally has been called for George Square, Glasgow at 12 noon.
TELL ALL YOUR FRIENDS: the government and the right-wing media have already started a campaign of slander and lies against the strikes and the unions involved. Today’s Daily Mail frontpage led with a huge attack on the National Union of Teachers, while all the main parties, including the SNP and Labour, have come out and attacked the strikes. It’s all our responsibility to counter this with the real reasonsfor the strike – which is about protecting jobs, public services and the right to a decent pension.
Yesterday something unusual occured in the historic City of Stirling -- a large march and rally though its town centre. The purpose was to protest job cuts at the University -- specifically, 17 compulsory redundancies being made in the Institute of Aquaculture at the University of Stirling: Scotland’s only Instutute of Aquaculture, which enjoys an international reputation for world-reading research. The opportunity was also taken to celebrate free education in Scotland, and to continue the fight to protect our education system from cuts. On the same day staff across departments at the University were striking in protest at the redundancies.
Stirling Students Rally Against Job Cuts
The march was made up of 450 of Stirling’s staff and students, organised by UCU in collaboration with Stirling University’s Student Union. Starting at the university, the march wound it’s way through Causewayhead, over Stirling Bridge and through the historic town centre, ending with speeches at the public dais at the junction of King Street and Port Street -- bang in the city centre where the rally was supported and joined by locals, shoppers, and various other onlookers. Chants heard during the march included the classics ‘No Ifs! No Buts! No Education Cuts!’, and ‘When they say Cut Back we say Fight Back’. Some of these were chanted back at us enthusiastically by the school students we passed on the way (the march went past Wallace High School). The candidates for the Stirling constituency in the Scottish Election were present (except, obviously, for the Conservative), as well as local and national media.
Students and staff at the University of Stirling are -- like their counterparts across the country -- worried for the future of their jobs, their courses and their institutions. It is widely believed that these compulsory redundancies in the Instutite of Aquaculture will not be the last compulsory redundancies made at the University. The Institute of Aquaculture itself is well worth defending: as this article outlines, it does important humanitarian and conservation work in Bangladesh, teaching the local people how to conserve one of their most vital food sources, and running a night school for local children (which receives no funding and survives entirely on donations). Surely a department with such credentials deserves investment, rather than cuts? People in Bangladesh certainly think so, as can be seen both here and in the video below, where they stage their own protest against the redundancies at Stirling:
The Institute of Aquaculture have put people before profit, and in doing so have created jobs, run a school, and helped people in Bangladesh obtain the resources they need to preserve their environment and optimise a major food source. The institute literally educates the illiterate and feeds the hungry -- what further credentials can it possibly require in order to avoid attack by University management?
We must continue to fight for the future of education -- not only for our students and staff, but for the wider and international community, and all the people who benefit from what universities do. The Institute of Aquaculture at Stirling is a prime example of what education and research can achieve, and provides all the evidence needed in the case for the defense of our universities in the face of cuts.
Academic staff at over 60 universities across the UK are set to take strike action over the next two weeks. Next Thursday 17 March will see the first day of action, with members of the UCU union at seven Scottish universities walking out. This will be followed by consecutive days of action in Wales, Northern Ireland and England, before a national strike on Thursday 24 March. The action is being taken over proposed changes to pensions, and comes after universities refused to engage in negotiations with the union.
The ballot comes at a key time for the wider trade union movement, coinciding with both the latest round of cuts in the budget on 23 March, and the national anti-cuts demonstration on Saturday 26 March, which will see hundreds of thousands of people take to the streets in London, in the largest display of opposition to the government’s austerity programme so far. Just this week, it was revealed that public sector unions are looking at the possibility of co-ordinated strike action over the summer, again over pensions.
Pensions are in reality one of the few issues that co-ordinated industrial action can be taken around; political strikes are banned under the anti-trade union laws, meaning that strikes against government policy in general are effectively illegal. However, by taking co-ordinated action around specific workplace issues – in this public sector pensions – it’s basically the closest thing we can have to a general strike, without getting into the realm of illegality.
At Glasgow University, the strike has taken on added significance, with the university emerging over the past month at the forefront of the struggle over the future of education itself, pitting a dictatorial, business-minded senior management against both academics and the student body. At the beginning of February, management revealed £3 million of cuts, including proposals to scrap a number of courses entirely, including nursing, social work, several modern languages and the whole Department of Adult and Continuing Education. Under the cover of ‘budget restraint’ and an ‘unsustainable deficit’, it represents a wholesale neo-liberal restructuring of the university, spearheaded by free market zealot Principal Muscatelli and his henchmen: head of finance Bob ‘the eraser’ Fraser and master of intrigue David Newall (collectively known as the Three Muscatellis. Hohoho). All receive six figure salaries; Muscatelli earns £280k per annum.
The war against unaccountable managerialism is being waged on several fronts: The Herald runs near-daily stories detailing the ‘despair and demoralisation’ at the university, huge protest marches have been held, and staff have called an emergency meeting of the university senate – the first in over a century – in order to present their concerns to management. The occupation of the Free Hetherington is also going strong after over five weeks, and continues to be at the heart of the anti-cuts struggle on campus. Next week, the battle will enter a new phase with UCU strike action.
Three million people took to the streets in towns and cities across France today, in a mass display of opposition to the French government’s austerity plans, which include raising the retirement age by two years.
Today’s demonstrations follow a week of unrest, which has seen a general strike on Tuesday and continuous strikes across different key sectors which are ongoing. Workers at every major fuel refinery in France have walked out, with blockades erected at their gates – it’s been so effective that the country’s main airports may run out of fuel by next week. School students have been out in force, with tens of thousands coming out to join the street demonstrations, and barricading shut the entrances to their schools. Even in small towns, thousands have been coming out onto the streets, such is the level of anger at the government’s proposals, which are being spearheaded by President Nicolas Sarkozy, who came into office promising to be a French version of Thatcher.
Protests are being stepped up ahead of a parliamentary vote on the proposals this coming Wednesday. Another general strike has been called for Tuesday, while lorry drivers are expected to come out on Monday.
There’s now speculation that the unrest could transform into the kind of action which halted the government’s last go at pension reform – in 1995. Then, three weeks of non-stop action by public sector and transport workers forced the government to capitulate on their proposals, which similarly included a raising of the retirement age.
Across Europe, government’s are making a concerted attempt to force the working class to pay for their massive bail-outs of the rich, with ideologically driven austerity programmes that seek to destroy what remains of the welfare state.
In Scotland, we’ve still to see anything near the level of militancy shown in France over the past week. But as the impact of the cuts begins to be felt, it’s vital that we too have a mass movement of resistance – in the streets, in workplaces and in our schools and universities.
On Wednesday, Chancellor George Osborne will line up the details of the Coalition’s austerity plans, with billions of pounds worth of cuts in public spending across the board. In Scotland, we have our chance to show our opposition to them on Saturday, with the STUC demonstration in Edinburgh. Although it’s unlikely we’ll see the kind of protest that’s hit France, Saturday is an important step in building the resistance in Scotland. See you on the streets!
Tourists stream into the Acropolis, watched over by riot cops
For the past few days employees of the Greek Ministry of Culture who work at the Acropolis in Athens have been on strike to protest the fact that they haven’t been paid properly for almost 2 years (!) and that they are due to be fired at the end of their short term contracts.
Workers blockaded the iconic site, one of the most well known historical landmarks in Europe and a birthplace of Ancient Greek democracy. They stayed entrenched for days until they were attacked viciously by riot cops on Thursday. The stormtroopers of the Greek government, which has surrendered control of the country to the dictatorship of the EU and the IMF, chased workers into the building and beat them, attacked passers by and journalists documenting their behaviour, and used tear gas.
Around the world, the capitalist press has been terrified by the militant fightback mounted by the Greek working class to the assault they face at the hands of the government, and have been twisting the info that we receive about what’s going on there to suit their own propaganda agenda. In this case, they tried to portray the situation as a clash between workers and cops, rather than a blatant attack on workers who have every right to be pissed off, having been used as virtual slaves by their employers. Another key aspect of their propaganda has been to focus on the tourists in Athens who haven’t been able to get in because of the strike.
Riot cops use tear gas on workers
In the light of this, the workers decided yesterday to take a new tack. Instead of blockading the entrance, they blocked the ticket booths, and declared that everyone would get in for free! Whilst the site remains under siege from riot cops, tourists have been streaming in to see the jewel in Athens historical crown.
In an inspired move, they’ve taken away the classic justification of the government that strikes are “bad for tourism.” How can tourists complain when workers’ direct action comes without a price tag?
The Greek mainstream press has accused the workers of “tarnishing a national symbol” (so what was the behaviour of the violent cops doing for it then?), and Greek Occupation Overseer Prime Minister George Papandreaou said:
“Nobody has the right to padlock the Acropolis and make this world heritage site their private possession. [Why then are you making unpaid workers charge for admission?]
“Such actions hurt the country. They are fodder for all those who are betting on Greece’s defeat and now rub their hands in glee.” [In fact Greece has been defeated and taken over by the international financial institutions, and it's his fault. Fortunately the workers are organising and mounting a resistance with their militant fightback.]
This of course isn’t the first time the Acropolis has become a defining symbol of the struggle against the austerity assault on the Greek people. Earlier this year the Greek Communist Party famously dropped a banner from it in an image that made headlines around the world, crying ‘Peoples of Europe: Rise Up!’
But the action of the Acropolis workers has shown that strikers can be creative in the way they try and get visitors on their side, and given us a little glimpse of the alternative future which we could map out to the one our governments are enforcing of cuts, environmental destruction and misery: a future in which you don’t need money to see our history, and the heritage of the human race is available to all for free!
(The workers have announced they will make a decision about their next move on Monday. We’ll bring you updates as we get them.)
Dover Christchurch Academy was rocked this week by a school strike.
On Monday morning pupils were handed an amended timetable which both shortened and split lunch break; meaning that they would have a staggered timetable in which some groups would take a measly half hour break while others were in class.
Faced with this dictation of how, when and with whom they could socialise during the school day, around 300 pupils walked out of classrooms and congregated in the playground, demanding the restoration of their lunch break. The school staff responded to the situation by calling police, who arrested two pupils on suspicion of criminal damage and public order offences and forced the crowd to disperse.
First of all, I’d like to say hats off to the pupils in this case. Unlike workers engaged in struggle with employers, a pupil’s right to strike is often simply laughed away as ‘a good way to get out of school’.
In fact school walkouts have a long and radical history, having been used as a tactic in struggles against South African apartheid, the Vietnam war, American racial segregation and yes, even in support of teacher’s pay and conditions. I know from my own experience organising a school walkout to protest the invasion of Iraq way back in 2003, that any attempt to do something like this is often met with a certain patronising hostility by older people. If you’re too young to vote, the logic runs, you’re too young to care about or be affected by politics. Bollocks. Whether or not you think the right to eat lunch with your friends is important- personally I think it’s very important- the pupils at this school showed that they were prepared to stand up to authority figures trying to impose rubbish conditions and generally make their daily lives shitter. Maybe that’s a better preparation for life under capitalism than most of the things I learned at school.
Scottish school students striking against the Iraq war
A second important point to note is that these timetable changes occurred as part of the School’s transition from a normal, state-run school to an ‘academy school’; i.e. one that receives partial state funding topped up with private investment, and where administrative decisions and curricula are handled by staff rather than a local authority. Introduced by Labour under Blair and championed and expanded by the Tories under Cameron, academy schools are one of those issues that illicit a depressingly monotone approach from across the Westminster spectrum.
What this highlights is that for for all the rhetoric about ‘choice’ and ‘freedom’ in education that politicians from every major party bandy around, the people most directly effected by the education system are disempowered and expected to conform with whatever conditions are imposed on their daily environment.
I certainly know that, in a pupils position, I wouldn’t exercise my freedom of choice to ‘give heads and teachers tough new powers of discipline’ or to repeal the rules against teachers making physical contact with pupils.
Union map of where there were strikes and protests yesterday
You might not have noticed yesterday, what with the UK news much more concerned about what high paid cushy job David Miliband will be getting next, but across Europe millions of people were on strike and in the streets to protest the austerity policies of the EU governments.
Just like the ConDem government here, governments all across the European Union are making massive attacks on the working class, such cutting spending on vital services, taking away workers’ rights, throwing people out of work and generally making Europe a much more shite place to live.
Around 100,000 people took part in a Europe-wide demo in Brussels demanding an end to austerity policies. Delegations from 30 different countries are thought to have taken part. There’s some footage of it below:
There’s some great photos from the Brussels demo here, but a particular favourite of mine is these two who dressed up to take the piss out of right wing French President Sarkozy and his wife Carla Bruni:
Mr and Mrs Sarkozy
Meanwhile, in Spain there was a general strike, with 10 million people refusing to go to work in protest at the supposedly “Socialist” (the Spanish Socialist Party are more like New Labour) government, particularly plans to make it easier to sack workers and reduce the amount of compensation they’re entitled to. Protesters in Madrid went into any workplaces that were still open to hand out pamphlets and call on workers to join them, as well as blocking one of the main shopping streets the Gran Via. Throughout the different countries and regions that make up the Spanish state there were demonstrations taking place, and cops were used to break up picket lines, as you can see in this photo from Santiago de Compostela in Galicia.
Here’s some footage as well of the protests in Huelva, Andalusia:
In Barcelona, riot cops attacked and beat protesters, who fought back by torching one of their cars:
Update from a comrade in Barcelona: “Protesters completely occupied the headquarters of a major bank, and set up 2 huge speakers from the balcony which they used to give a running commentary of events onto the street, and somehow jammed the frequency of a local radio station so that it broadcast their speeches instead, clever stuff.
Nearby, a police car was set on fire. Riot police responded shortly afterwards by charging into the crowd and lashing out indiscriminately with batons, which I suppose was ‘revenge’ for the burnt car.”
In Ireland protesters gathered in Dublin to mark the return of the Dáil (Irish parliament) into session. The Irish government is hugely unpopular for its austerity plans, and has spent €25 billion on bailing out banks. This morning came the news that the government is saying it will have to spend €35 billion just on bailing out the Anglo Irish bank. In the photo below you can see what people think about that:
The flyer for the protests in Dublin can be seen here. As part of the action, a cement mixer with “Toxic Bank” painted on the side was driven into the gates of the Irish parliament.
In Greece, although the “mainstream” unions hadn’t called for a strike, public transport workers, doctors and dockers came out anyway. This follows on from the ongoing lorry drivers’ strike, which has seen supermarkets start to run short of supplies.
In Portugal 50,000 people marched in Lisbon and another 20,000 in Porto.
Here in Scotland the Scottish Trade Union Congress‘ “There is a Better Way” campaign did have a number of events to mark the Europe wide day of action. But what more can we do to try and catch up with our European friends? A good starting point would be getting yourself along to the street rally against the cuts organised in Glasgow this Saturday from trade union groups across the country. It probably won’t be on the scale of some of the protests seen above, but right now all across Europe it’s about kickstarting a movement that will show the governments and capitalists we aren’t going to accept paying the bill for their fuck ups. The rally meets at 12 at Buchanan Street subway.
One aim of the rally against the cuts is to try and build momentum for the all Scotland demonstration called by the STUC for October 23rd in Edinburgh (Facebook event here). It’s really important that both the Scottish and British government see there’s a real mood in Scotland to fight back against the cuts, especially from young people who already are suffering completely disproportionately from unemployment and the effects of the capitalist crisis.
By McMeg, additional writing by me, blogging fae Athens on today’s demonstrations protesting the Greek parliament’s vote to bring in destructive “austerity measures” in the wake of Greece’s near-financial collapse.
PAME demonstration of around 10,000 in central Athens
Athens is a city that is acquiring a reputation for itself. When a taxi driver asked where we were headed with our suitcases, our response prompted him to ask “Athens? Will you no get caught up in they riots out there?”. It would seem that the combination of constant reporting of Greece as overtaken by bomb-strewn madness and the main Scottish reference point when it comes to riots – the Poll Tax Riots – has given people a distorted view of what’s really going on here. The fact is, the IMF are being sold Greece under the table by the ‘Socialist’ government (Read: Greek version of the Labour Party), and their conditions for giving Greece money to bail out its failed banks is that the Greek government goes about systematically destroying any vestiges of a welfare state. It’s understandable why the people are angry. But they are expressing it in a way that is altogether more concise and class conscious than any pictures of anarchists throwing Molotov cocktails at riot police while stray dogs look on cooly can convey.
What we attended today was not a Poll Tax riot. No banks were burnt down, no statues were defaced. What we attended was an eye opening experience that allowed us to see two things:
The diversity and competence of the Left in Greece
The sheer extent of the unbalanced and jaundiced way in which the international press have reported this situation.
We’re now less than a week away from the largest co-ordinated industrial action the UK has seen for decades – perhaps since the General Strike of 1926. Around three million workers will be out on strike next Wednesday – in effect, most of the public sector, from over twenty different trade unions.
“Such actions hurt the country. They are fodder for all those who are betting on Greece’s defeat and now rub their hands in glee.” [In fact Greece has been defeated and taken over by the international financial institutions, and it's his fault. Fortunately the workers are organising and mounting a resistance with their militant fightback.]
Dover Christchurch Academy was rocked this week by a school strike.
Here’s some footage as well of the protests in Huelva, Andalusia:
The flyer for the protests in Dublin can be seen 
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