No to austerity! - Turn anger into action

Build for a 24-hour general strike

National Shop Stewards Network demonstration and lobby of the TUC 11 September 2011 , photo by Paul Mattsson (Click to enlarge)

Striking Spanish civil servants interviewed on BBC Newsnight asked why the huge cash injection into Spanish banks is referred to as a bailout for Spain - workers would not see a penny!

They, like workers everywhere, will wonder why such amounts can't be found to prevent wage cuts, joblessness, evictions from their homes, loss of vital services and support, and on and on.

Even with Spain a favourite for the Euro 2012 football competition, a survey found 76% of Spaniards would favour an improvement in the economic situation over a victory.

Here in Britain it seems like the 'summer circus calendar' has been designed to distract angry workers and young people from ongoing austerity! But no amount of jubilees and sporting events will hide the fact that behind it all a burning anger is growing.

The sixth conference of the National Shop Stewards Network (NSSN) was a showcase for the rising number of workers' struggles taking place.

Over the summer we can expect to see workers taking action in a number of sectors on national, sectoral and local bases including doctors, civil servants and construction and transport workers, to name a few. That could be just the warm-up though, with a hot autumn to follow.

Mark Serwotka, PCS general secretary, addresses NSSN conference 2012, photo by Suzanne Beishon (Click to enlarge)

The NSSN conference, with hundreds of workers' representatives there, agreed a guide to action which advocates that the next step after the TUC's planned demonstration on 20 October should be a 24-hour general strike against austerity. This should involve workers in the public and the private sectors. Campaigning for this in every workplace, union branch and anti-cuts campaign is now a vital task.

But when workers strike, if they do not also have a political voice and an alternative to capitalism, they are fighting with one hand tied behind their backs. A standing ovation greeted this argument when Tony Mulhearn, Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition candidate in Liverpool's mayoral contest last month, spoke at the GMB union's manufacturing conference on 12 June. He argued for the building of a mass working class party to oppose all cuts and privatisation and for a socialist alternative.

If you also agree, as those trade union members did, get in touch and join the Socialist Party.

Report on 2012 NSSN conference: www.socialistparty.org.uk/articles/14657/09-06-2012/nssn-calls-for-one-day-general-strike-against-austerity

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In The Socialist 13 June 2012:

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No to austerity! - Turn anger into action