In support of the unions

As you all may or may not know i'm a big supporter of the union movement in this country and today reading this piece in the Guardian :

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/dec/19/unions-students-strike-fight-cuts?CMP=twt_gu

I like the language and words new Unite general secretary Len McCluskey used in his article with the paper.

The words are tough and sounds like he and his union which is the biggest in the UK are up for the battle of their lives. Len warns of a wave of strike action across the country in reply to the governments attack on working class people and the public sector. I am not a unite member but would like to be but this guy already has my support. We do need a good response and a carefully constructed response. Of course strikes would be a last resort as always but i cant see them taking long to get going next year. With hundreds if not thousands of ordinary people who didnt cause the financial crisis will be loosing their jobs no way should they sit by and just let this terribly right wing governemnt go about shrinking teh state and finnishing off Maggie Tatcher's work from the 80's.

Len heaped praise and support on the students who have started this fightback with the student protests we have seen over recent weeks in protest of the treblling of tuitian fees. I think it is time now the unions threw their weight behind the student movement and the anti cuts movement as a whole.

I feel 2011 could be a big year for unions and the reemergance of mass general strikes if this government are not careful. People will not just take these cuts lieing down. The unions have been critisised in the past for reacting slowly to these proposed cuts but i have been assured by many union people once they do stand up on their feet the unions can move very quickly and effectively.

As a worker having a huge union with the financial clout on its side would fill me with pride and confidence. If i worked ina sector where unions happened i'd defanatly join one. I think the work they do is brillianta nd standing up for workers rights of pay and conditions is amazing.

I think the movement does need the unions to join it now and add weight to the campaigns as the students lets be honest cannot overthrow this governemnt alone they need support and financial backing.

So to hear Len come out with this message should not be ignored and i hope people become confident in the movement and waht we can achieve.

The only stumbling block could be the involvement with labour with these big unions gaining labours support in these times could be key. I think if labour could back some of these moves from the unions that back them would be very appreciated with solidarity and unity.

Of course labours support is not nessesary it would just be very useful politically to provide a good PR outlook on the unions movement. I think it is one of labours jobs now to reintroduce unions and their role in society to the public at large. For so long now unions have been out of the public eye with no massive attack on workers like what we are seeing now anyway on the agenda. Now the unionsa nd their members do need labours support i feel it is time for the labour party, Ed milibanda nd all his parties members to get behind the union movement and support them in any way we can just like the unions do for labour with financial backing.

For labour to continue as a mass workers and working class party this has to happen. Whetehr it will or not considering Ed milibands stance on matters of things so far might be interesting. Then again he did recieve a big backing from the unions so he may feel he should.

Either way 2011 will be a big year for unions i feel and hope.

Stevenage against the cuts

So tonight i attended a stevenage meeting held by the trades union council and the local branch in conjunction with teh socialist party. With me being a labour party member i was fully expecting labour bashing and it didnt disapoint. There were great speechs tonight from Martin- Powell Davies from the NUT and Billy hayes from the CWu and a guy who stepped in for the guy who could not get here from teh PCSU who are the public sector union.

Now as many of you may or may not know i'm hugely in favour of the union movement so tonight encouraged me greatly that the unions are starting to move once again. The government consisting of the tories and the lib dems keep on poking the sleeping giant taht is the trade union movement putting out policy after policy against the working class's and the middle class's i might add as i dont think this is purely a attack on the working class anymore its escalated.

But waht the tory lead coalition as that is what i firmly believe it is, the role of the lib dems is to just take the flack of the tory policies almost like a human shield for the tories. A very clever tactic i must admit. But tonight i felt a start of something new. From small acons grow big trees was the line that struck me as meaning the most. A movement from the left organised and strong can take down this government of ours. They are weak, weak i tell you many many cracks are appearing in this tory lead coalition. We must aim to exploit their lies and their broken promises. Boy the lib dems could fill a whole parliament with broken promises already and we are not even a year into this sham.

There was call for a day of general strike which was debated like a hot potato, some for it heavily some not so sure. Me myself are for it and think that a day of co-ordinated strike action in the public sector hopefully followed up in the private sector too is what we are heading towards. I think labour will have nothing to do with this. Just as Ed miliband has kept out of all demo's and student protests so far i can only see that continueing.

People like John Mcdonald in the labour party have the right idea but get hammered any time they talk up a mass movement against the cuts which is unfair as he is entitled to his opinion. Even if it doesnt follow labours plan of a 4 year deficit reduction. John recognises that cuts are not nessesary and there is another way.

Ed balls also recognised this but was shouted down by other labour members and MP's sadly.
The meeting tonight was very inspirational with many gettting up and talking passionatly about their situations.
A post office worker spoke passionatly of his struggle to keep his job and the proposed threat to stevenage post office and how it is set to close. There was anger directed to the union rep of the CWu present Billy hayes. But it is difficult when your facing a situation of 69 post office sorting centres across the country and a lot needing to go. That is the situation facing the post office and its workers across teh united Kingdom right now. Billy Hayes- a labour party member and having his union still affiliated to the labour party is in a difficult situation. He wants to keep his members on side but also protect his affiliation with the labour party.

There were calls for a break away from the labour party by the unions who recognise that labour no longer represent the mass workers party it once was and going back to a post i made earlier in the week that some labour MP's have become career polititians and no longer represent the working class.

I myself am a labour party member for the time being so have to be careful what i say but i myself am becoming increasingly frustrated by labour lack of a alternative plan. Their plan still seems to be the old Alastair Darling 4 year half the deficit plan. This for me stil goes too far with cuts, even if cuts are not carried out as quickly or as deep i still am not sure the cuts are nessesary. It woudl appear labour has swalloed the idea that cuts are nessesary from George Osbourne and wont shift from that idea.

Well hwo about more growth for a start, investing in our future, investing in students and their education ? Wales has shown the way from a labour perspective and Ed miliband should be championing the idea of wales to not put up its tuitian fees.

It can be done. The capitalist system all over the world has failed and to use the anology of someone who spoke from teh audience tonight you cant carry on pouring water down the drain eventually you will run out. I really feel it is time to stop throwing our money away to these rich bankers in the elite class who seem to thinkw e have a unlimited amount of money and more money is the only answer.

One of the over riding messages to come out of tonights meeting is that we must start to ramp up the pressure on our local councillors to not impliment cuts even if they are a labour councillor. We must create a movement similar to the anti poll tax movement back in the 80's. It can be done and this government we have now is weak in so many ways. The tories wont know what has hit them once they start stirring the union movement.

Already the students have shown from their brave occupations and mass protests that the government wont get everything its own way and we must stand shoulder to shoulder with the student movement who some are so young we must protect them too.

After all it is their and our future we are fighting for we must stand up and be counted or we never will see the country the same way ever again.

The place of unions in politics

I have been reading with some disapointment at how so many labour members totally dont get the union movement and the way their party was set up in the first place.

Some seem almost to want rid of them entirely. well who would fund the party as its pretty much bankrupt as it is.
It is so easy to join with the tory lead union bashing and say they are irresponsible and strike all the time etc etc.

But when you think waht they actually do and stand for i am so frustrated with peoples attitudes towards the trade unions.
Lets get one thing straight unions dont strike for fun they strike as a last resort and for very good reasons quite often.

I myselfwoud love to join a union and help promote the union movement. I think waht people are getting confused is that back in the 80's there was this perception the unions just used to strike for fun and to disrupt the every day working of this country. This to is simply not true they were standing up for workers rights.

Afterall if there is no union who else will stand up for workers rights ? the employer certainly wont that's for sure.
I just think certain labour members need to remember who got us to where we are today and the labour party was built on the f oundation of a mass workers party movement. A party for the working class and the less well off. Well that is a far cry from todays labour party. Many of its MP's are career polititians and are not in it for representing working trades people.

This is the reason labour has lost its way, it doesnt know who it represents anymore. Is it the working class or the middle class. I'd say more the middle class these days. In which case it cant pretend it is a party of the working class anymore

There are few socialists left in the labour party any there are left are rare. I would like to think i have socialist tendancies and have a left way of thinking but since new labour took over and seems to be carrying on the party has shifted more and more towards the right.

But i am hugely in favour of unions and waht they do to represent workers rights so please lets not forget the good work they do for the party and teh country at large.