Link to this page: https://secure.socialistparty.org.uk/issue/1064/29851
From The Socialist newspaper, 13 November 2019
Strike, protest, vote
to
Kick the Tories out
- Corbyn in with anti-austerity socialist policies
Rob Williams, Socialist Party industrial organiser
As MPs move onto the general election campaign trail, increasing numbers of workers are moving onto the picket lines.
Literally days before polling day, there could be national strikes by postal workers and university lecturers and staff. McDonald's workers in south London have already been on strike. And workers on South Western Railway, and many others, will be also taking action in the coming days and weeks.
The right-wing Tory-supporting press are raging about workers having the effrontery to take strike action during the general election - adding the usual comments that strikers are out to ruin people's holidays and education.
But strikers struggling to get by on tight budgets aren't in the business of losing pay and standing in the cold for no good reason. These walkouts are the result of long-suffering workers saying "enough is enough" over the issues of falling wages, low pay, pension cuts, safety and working conditions, and bullying bosses.
The right-wing capitalist media sense that these disputes threaten to expose Boris Johnson's fake pro-worker populism.
This is the same party that, when in government, launched the biggest austerity offensive for a century - devastating public services, sacking a million public sector workers and inflicting a lost decade of wage cuts on those still in work.
Tory cutters
Boris tries to portray himself as a 'fresh start', but as Tory London mayor he was a willing cutter of public services on behalf of his Bullingdon buddies Cameron and Osborne.
Never forget that, three years before the Grenfell Tower tragedy, he closed ten London fire stations with the loss of over 500 firefighter posts.
In contrast, Jeremy Corbyn must seize the chance to show how he is the real alternative for workers.
These disputes offer him the chance to present his anti-austerity, pro-worker programme of policies in the most concrete of ways. He could have a daily election press conference on each picket line!
He could talk about renationalising Royal Mail on a posties' picket, and how he will bring in a £10 minimum wage for all workers of all ages and scrap zero-hour contracts with the McDonald's workers.
He could promise to stop privatisation and to bring all outsourced workers in-house at a strike rally at three hospitals in Surrey and Berkshire who are taking action over being transferred out of the NHS.
He could not only stand with the university strikes, but announce a real above-inflation pay rise across the public sector and that university workers' pensions will be left alone. He could tell the RMT union pickets that all guards will be left on the train in a renationalised rail industry.
Corbyn has the opportunity to align himself with the workers in dispute and to hammer home what his programme would do to better workers' lives. He must embrace this fightback.
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In The Socialist 13 November 2019:
What we think
Attacks show elite fear a Corbyn election win
News
Strike, protest, vote - Kick the Tories out
Labour MP targeted by right wing stands as independent
Green Party offers no alternative for young people and climate change chaos
International socialist news and analysis
Bolivia: Right-wing coup ousts Morales
Kshama Sawant reelected in Seattle
Workplace news
'McStrikers' demand £15 an hour
UCU strikes: Union means business in fight against employers
Postal union determined to resist bosses' attacks
PCS union general secretary election: Enthusiastic support for Marion Lloyd
Frimley NHS Trust strikes: Health workers walkout against privatisation
Bradford libraries and museums: Unite members escalate action against cuts
RMT union members at SWR to walk out in December
Transport for London - Justice for cleaners!
Education
Save education - Kick out the Tories
Socialist Party reports and campaigns
Leicester campaigns to save our NHS
Fighting for free education, jobs, homes, and a future worth living
Socialism 2019 rally: "Socialist change needed to end climate change"
Trade union conference to force secret police disclosure
Barking: protest brings pledge to remove dangerous decking
Help socialist ideas spread this election: donate!
We saved Chatsworth Ward - two years on
Readers' opinion
Readers' opinion: Twitter's banning of political ads threatens workers' voice
Theatre: On Bear Ridge - an examination of loss, set in a post-apocalyptic world
Socialism 2019 - what you thought
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