KD Tait<\/i><\/p>\n
On Saturday 18 June, tens of thousands of people marched through central London to demand action to fight the growing cost of living crisis.<\/p>\n
Protesters gathered from across the country in the first national demonstration called by the TUC since 2018, calling for pay rises to beat inflation, better working conditions, and tax rises for the rich to fund education, health, and environmental reforms.<\/p>\n
Railway workers in the RMT union, who are striking over three days this week, received huge cheers on arrival at the rally in Parliament square. Teachers and postal workers who are preparing for action mobilised large contingents, as did many other unions across the public and private sector.<\/p>\n
Trade union leaders called for united action to win pay increases that keep pace with inflation. Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: \u2018Workers have had enough. The trade union movement needs to be reborn. We need to act together.\u2019<\/p>\n
Mark Serwotka, general secretary of the PCS, whose civil service members face 90,000 job cuts, said: \u2018If we all work together, march together and take industrial action together, we can get the pay rise we deserve\u2019.<\/p>\n
Ahead of the march, nurses\u2019 union the Royal College of Nursing pointed out the effect that more than a decade of real terms\u2019 pay cuts has had on staffing levels and the wellbeing of patients. With thousands of nurses struggling to feed their families or even fill up their cars to get to work, the union is calling for upcoming NHS pay deals to not only match inflation, but for 5 per cent above it.<\/p>\n
On Sunday, the Financial Times reported on the growing concern in government about the risk of pay restraint triggering a wave of industrial action. A cabinet minister said: \u2018If we get this wrong, we risk going into a de facto general strike that will create further turmoil that risks grinding the whole economy to a halt.\u2019<\/p>\n
This week, 40,000 members of the RMT will stage three 24-hour strikes against proposed job cuts and for pay rises that keep pace with inflation. The government, which controls the money, has refused to negotiate. They know that isolating and defeating the RMT will break the momentum of upcoming public sector pay ballots. That\u2019s why it\u2019s vital that activists mobilise the widest possible support for the strike: visit picket lines, expose the government\u2019s lies, and campaign for solidarity among the public.<\/p>\n
The demonstration showed workers are determined to prevent pay, jobs and living standards being cut to protect the employers\u2019 profits or balance the government\u2019s books. Activists need to organise now to turnout large votes for action in upcoming pay ballots. But mandates and one-day strikes will not be enough to win.<\/p>\n
Our movement is on the defensive. At British Gas and P&O, the bosses have imposed big defeats on well-organised sections of workers. Saturday\u2019s demonstration was the largest for many years \u2014 but it could have been bigger. Despite the efforts of grassroots activists, promotion of the demonstration by the TUC and some unions was lukewarm at best.<\/p>\n
RMT general secretary Mick Lynch challenged Labour to \u2018stand up and fight with us or get out of the way\u2019. But Keir Starmer, leader of the party to which most TUC unions are affiliated, stayed away. Blairite leadership contender Wes Streeting, who recently apologised to the shadow cabinet for publicly supporting the strikes, posed for selfies with TUC general secretary Frances O\u2019Grady.<\/p>\n
We must learn the lessons from the 2011 pensions\u2019 dispute which saw two million workers walk out in the biggest strike for decades \u2014 only for the TUC and Unison to agree a rotten sell-out with the coalition government.<\/p>\n
To win real pay rises for tens of millions of low paid workers, to cap bills and rents, to prevent inflation eroding our pay, we need to rebuild the labour movement from the ground up:<\/p>\n
\u00b7 In the unions, we need to build rank and file strike committees to control disputes and negotiations. Union and workplace delegates should form councils of action to coordinate local and national action.<\/p>\n
\u00b7 To mobilise the wider working class \u2014 tenants, pensioners, the unemployed, organisations of the socially oppressed, students \u2014 delegate-based people\u2019s assemblies should be formed in every town and borough.<\/p>\n
\u00b7 Trade unions should withdraw funding from MPs and councillors who refuse to unconditionally support strikes in defence of pay, jobs and conditions.<\/p>\n
We need a campaign of coordinated, escalating strike action to fight for a workers\u2019 answer to the crisis:<\/p>\n
\u00b7 a \u00a315 an hour living and a sliding scale of wages to beat inflation,<\/p>\n
\u00b7 pensions and benefits to be set at the living wage and indexed to inflation,<\/p>\n
\u00b7 controls on rent and bills pegged to a workers\u2019 cost of living index,<\/p>\n
\u00b7 nationalisation of public transport and utilities, without compensation, under workers and consumers\u2019 control.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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