NSSN builds mood for 24 hour general strike on october 20th

Below i publish the report by the NSSN from the 20th of october “Blimey!” was the reaction of one railway worker as he heard about Lennie McCluskey’s call for a general strike in Hyde Park on the massive TUC demo last Saturday. We expected Mark Serwotka and Bob Crow to do that, and they did. The RMT, PCS together with POA had committed to campaigning for a general strike even before the TUC Congress in early September. But here was Len, leader of the gigantic Unite union, asking the crowd to raise their hands if they were in agreement. A forest of hands went up with a roar of approval. The fact that three general secretaries of some of the most militant trade unions put out this call from the podium is extremely significant. So significant, in fact, that the main stream news media have blacked it out! The rich and powerful are terrified of a mass movement building up against their cuts agenda. Even the reporting of the actual fact that more than 150,00 trade unionist were marching through central London, Glasgow and Belfast. This seems to have stuck in the throat of those in control of the media. They would have us believe there is no opposition to austerity or alternative to cuts. NSSN is proud to have assisted in the campaign to persuade TUC delegates to adopt Motion 5 from POA and seconded by the RMT which called for the TUC to look into the practicalities of organising mass national public/private sector action. It now looks like the general council has been ‘nudged’ to contact unions to start that discussion. All over the country this week there are follow-up NSSN regional meetings (see list below) to discuss how we can add further mass pressure from below to ensure that the TUC carries out this democratically decided policy. It will not happen if we leave it to the general council alone. As one woman shouted on the demo, “We want a future that works………not a TUC that shirks!” So come to your regional meeting to discuss with fellow campaigners in your area how to take the struggle forward; get your union branch to adopt the NSSN model motion ; if your union is inactive take it to a meeting of your colleagues at work, send round a petition; send an individual letter; organise a local debate and get the matter raised in your local paper; do whatever you can to add force to the idea that marching on demos is one thing, and we have done that in huge numbers - twice – but it is mass action A 24-HOUR PUBLIC/PRIVATE SECTOR STRIKE that this millionaire government cannot avoid reacting to. Everyone can play a part. So, get stuck in, brothers and sisters! Linda Taaffe NSSN National Secretary ************************************** NSSN Meetings & Conferences coming up: Bristol Defend NHS Workers! SW NSSN Bristol Public meeting Tuesday October 23, 7.30pm As almost all NHS Trusts in the South West are planning to break away from national collective bargaining, this is an important regional campaign with national implications. Cheltenham Road Library, Bristol, BS6 5OX Reading Build a one day general strike! Wednesday October 24, 7:30pm Speakers include Dave Gorton. Reading International Solidarity Centre (RISC), Room 1, 35-39 London Street, Reading, RG1 4PS Caerphilly Fight the NHS cuts! Wednesday October 24, 7.30pm Tower Room, Twyn Community Centre, Caerphilly London Build a 24 hour general strike. Wednesday October 24, 7pm Speakers include Chris Baugh - PCS Assistant General Secretary, Steve Hedley - RMT Assistant General Secretary, Suzanne Muna - Unite LE 1111 housing branch secretary & CYWNFP NISC, Frank Morris - sacked Unite Crossrail shop steward ULU, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HY North West Build for a 24-hour general strike. Saturday October 27, 1pm-3pm Speakers include Steve Acheson - Unite Construction NISC and Sparks rank & file and Alex Davidson - PCS North West vice-chair Town Hall Tavern (upstairs), 20 Tib Lane, Manchester City Centre M2 4JA Scotland Shop Stewards network conference. Saturday October 27, 11am-4pm speakers include Janice Godrich PCS President & Rob Williams NSSN national chair Glasgow Unison Offices, 84 Bell Street Swindon Defend the NHS & Build for a 24 general Strike! Saturday October 27, 12noon-4pm Great Western Hotel, Station Road, opposite entrance to the railway station Midlands Midlands NSSN Conference (Birmingham) Saturday 17th November, 12-4pm Speakers include: Lee Barron CWU Midlands regional secretary , Joe Simpson POA assistant general secretary, Kevin Greenway PCS national executive, Linda Taaffe National Secretary NSSN, Dave Auger UNISON & Nick Harrison FBU & afternoon workshops on organising the workplace, fighting to save our NHS & organising against the cuts. Unite offices, 211 Broad Street, Birmingham, B15 1AY. 1200-1600 Yorkshire & Humer Regional Conference Saturday 24th Nov, 10-4pm Conference sessions will include sessions to discuss the fight back against austerity and plans to develop the NSSN in Yorkshire, as well as the following workshops: Trade Unions and the Media, Building Trades Councils, Organising Youth & in the Community & Anti-Union Laws, Blacklisting & Victimisation. Cosmopolitan Hotel, 2 Lower Bridgate, Leeds, LS1 4AE *************************************** Twitter NSSN_Anticuts Facebook main group ‘National Shop Stewards Network’ & ‘Stop the cuts’ New website: www.shopstewards.net Email: info@shopstewards.net Phone: 07952 283 558 Post: NSSN, PO Box 54498, London E10 9D ***************************************

Europe’s car industry another crisis in the making

Below I republish an excellent article posted a few months back by the CWI detailing the slowing down of the European car market. What has always been thought of an ever expanding market now appears to have dark clouds on the horizon for German, French and Italian car manufacturers. Europe’s car industry Another crisis in the making www.socialistworld.net, 27/09/2012 website of the committee for a workers' international, CWI For a European-wide and international strategy of the trade unions to defend factories, jobs and working conditions Stephan Kimmerle, CWI “It’s a bloodbath of pricing and it’s a bloodbath on margins”, Sergio Marchionne, boss of troubled Fiat and chair of the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA) wails about the European markets. “Europe’s auto industry has reached day of reckoning”, was the headline in the New York Times. With the slowdown of growth in China the car industry internationally faces harder times. But for Europe it’s a disaster. Sales in Europe went down from more than 15 million in 2007 to approximately 12.4 million in 2012. A further clogging up of the outlet of exports to Chinese markets will drown the European plants in overcapacity. Given the fact, that huge over-capacity already existed before the crisis, the constant cost of maintaining the factories puts enormous pressure towards the closure of around 8 to 10 plants, according to capitalist commentators. This implies getting rid of the capacity to produce at least 3 million vehicles in Europe - an equivalent of around 250,000 jobs. According to analysts, factories must operate at 75% at least to be profitable. The destruction of that capability to produce goods – not necessarily cars – and the sacking of a very skilled workforce, lining up in the ranks of the mass unemployed – is the capitalist ‘solution’ to this problem. However, so far in the course of this crisis, only a very few plants have been closed in Europe (e.g. Opel Antwerp, Fiat in Sicily) and, at the same time, new capacity has been built up in Eastern Europe and internationally. Winners and losers The developing car crisis is hitting the different mass producers in very dissimilar ways. While Volkswagen appears to have increased its share of the market (despite some problems for its Seat arm), the Peugeot group (PSA) and General Motors in Europe (Opel, Vauxhall) seem to have suffered the most. Opel has losses of €938 per car sold, Peugeot-Citroen €789. Opel is discussing whether to close factories either in Eisenach (eastern Germany) or Bochum (western Germany). Ford is considering the closure of its plant in Genk, Belgium. Peugeot announced a reduction of its 100,000-strong workforce in France by 8,000 including the closure of its plant in Aulnay-sous-Bois near Paris (in total 14,000 jobs will be lost from the global 210,000 workforce according to this plan). While the workers at Aulnay took to the streets in protest and to demand that their jobs are safeguarded, a so-called expert, on behalf of the French government, just argued to close Peugeot’s Madrid plant instead and sack the workers there. The announcement to make the workers redundant in France’s Peugeot plants in June immediately triggered protest actions across the country. On 9 October, the CGT trade union federation has called for a demonstration of car workers in Paris, confronting the bosses presenting the new models on the same day. However, delegates coming together from the different factories of Peugeot had to push the trade union leaders to take this and more decisive action, and there is no strategy to fully use the power of the combined workforce in Aulnay and other plants. While the Aulnay workers went on strike, others were not called to join in. The differences between companies also reflect the uneven effects of the economic crisis in Europe and the devastating effects of the austerity measures imposed on Southern Europe. While German car sales are stagnant, France saw a decline of 14%, Italy minus 20%, while the number of purchases went down over 40% in Greece and Portugal. The decline in sales in Southern Europe had a much bigger effect on Peugeot and Ford purchases given their car fleet and traditional markets. Ford implemented short-time work, for example, at its plant in Cologne, Germany, which produces for these markets. At the same time, workers are being blackmailed to accept worsening working conditions in a race to the bottom. The current problems in Bochum reflect GM’s decision in May in favor of their Vauxhall plant in Ellesmere Port, Britain. They forced workers to accept longer hours, losses in real wages and more flexibility, with the company dictating the times of work even on the weekend in order that production would be continued there. With this, the internal competition between the Opel plants in Germany (Rüsselsheim, Bochum) and Vauxhall in Ellesmere Port was used again in a successful way by the bosses against the workers. A whole series of deals involving workers giving concessions to save their jobs have been implemented in the past. Now, despite the ‘guarantees’ given to the workers that their jobs would be safe until 2016, the Bochum factory is faced with the danger of closure, and Rüsselsheim will see huge over-capacity as soon as the next changes of models are fully introduced. Unfortunately, instead of developing a joint fight back, the trade union leaders in Britain and Germany always justified the concessions, sharing a very narrow view on defending jobs in the framework of their nation state or even only looking towards saving one plant against another. Strategy of the bosses: following the US example? The bosses’ attempts to make workers pay for this crisis are obvious. But what is their plan to organize a way out? Billions of euros were spent after the crisis hit in 2009 to bail out the car industry in Europe. Looking from a US point of view the New York Times commented: “But instead of using that money to ease painful downsizing of plants and payrolls, governments provided financial incentives for people to trade in older models for new ones, or subsidized worker salaries to dissuade companies from cutting jobs.” (New York Times, 26 July) That’s what happened in the US. In an act of state intervention, the Obama administration took effective control of GM and Chrysler, two of the three big US car companies and organized a massive restructuring in order to restore profitability to the shareholders. The restructuring involved the shutting down of dozens of plants across the Midwest, the loss of thousands of jobs and getting rid of the historic gains of decent wages, pensions and health care for newly hired workers. Their wages of new hires are now at half the previous scale. This ‘restructuring’, at the expense of auto workers, was only possible with the active cooperation of the leadership of the United Auto Workers (UAW), the once mighty trade union of US car workers. A part of the trade union bureaucracy has turned more into managers to run the shares controlled by the UAW at GM and Chrysler, as well as the management of their $1bn Wall Street ‘strike fund’, and of the health plan for retirees which is controlled by the UAW. As part of the longer process of reorganizing the terms of exploitation, a sharp decrease of the wages of US car workers was implemented. The traditional factory bases in the north of the US, with a high level of trade union organization and traditions, have been gutted with production moving towards the US south, where trade unions are hardly present in the auto industry. Several Japanese and German companies now have low-wage car manufacturing plants in the US, which increasingly is seen as a low-wage manufacturing centre. That is the actual restructuring plan that is taking place under the Obama administration – a devastating blow to the living standards and conditions of US workers in the auto industry under the pretext of ‘saving jobs’. But the main objective was to cut costs in order to restore profits for the shareholders. Given the huge over-capacity in this industry in Europe, Sergio Marchionne, Fiat chief and current president of the European auto makers’ association, Acea, called for such a US-style method on an EU level to deal with the problem: “[Europe] needs to provide a unified, concerted road map to get this done,” Marchionne said. “Look at what happened with the steel industries in the ’90s, and copy that example.” That means factory closures, sackings and worsening working conditions for those who keep their jobs, organized by the governments of Europe. Will the European capitalists implement a US-style plan? Unable to solve the fundamental crisis of the car industry, will the European bosses be able to go the way of the US? The different nation states will try to act as in 2009. But it’s more than unlikely that the European capitalists could find a joint approach. In 2009, the different nation states put forward schemes like ‘cash for clunkers’. Formally they dealt with the different producers in a neutral way, but the design of the different schemes was made up of competing national interests. If Fiat and Peugeot are the losers of this crisis, the German state, from a capitalist point of view, does not bother too much. It may even open up new opportunities for Volkswagen. In the logic of capitalism, the tensions and differences between nation states and the companies based on nation states increase. That does not rule out that, in a joint interest to stabilize the economy or to prevent an escalation of protests, some joint actions could be decided on. But, as the euro crisis shows, the nation states in Europe are the tools of the different capitalist classes. They cooperate as far as it is in their interest, but the contradictions are increasing. And the use of their nation state is a one way street for them and does not oblige them to do anything. Two-and-a-half years ago, Fiat chief Marchione argued for what he called an ‘investment plan’ in Fiat’s Italian factories under the name ‘Fabbrica Italia’ (Factory Italy). (The origin of the word ‘Fiat’ is: Fabbrica Italiana di Automobili – Torino). Playing on the Italian card, he argued for state help and massive concessions by the workers in the working conditions and wages. Today, he just argues that an international company (now making more money with the Chrysler arm) needs to re-adjust the plans according to the market developments, despite some repetition of empty phrases of protecting Italian interests. Workers in Italian factories have already been forced onto short-time working linked to loss in pay – some even down to only 4 days of work a month. Perspectives However, it is far from certain that the current winners, e.g. German car producers, will just continue to be on the gain. After the crisis in 2009, it was mainly the Chinese markets that helped to overcome the problems for European car makers. Given the sales in Asia, the higher range cars – the German Daimler, BMW and Audi – has still not been hurt by a new crisis yet, but a slowdown is there. Even booming Volkswagen announced to its suppliers in Germany the possibility of a fall of 10% in production. Daimler announced further programmers to reduce costs. The attempts at increased cooperation between companies increased (e.g. Opel with PSA, Daimler with Nissan). The failure of the Daimler-Chrysler fusion is still a warning, however, that the pressure on companies is immense and that further fusions, as well as the collapse of whole companies, are on the table. The best option the companies are hoping for at the moment is that the decline in Europe is cushioned by markets in the rest of the world. It is very open as to whether this scenario materializes. Even then, it would be linked to further reductions of plants and jobs. An even more severe development cannot be ruled out with a hard landing in China (a growth rate falling to 5%) and other emerging markets being hit by global downturn. Trade union strategy In the first days of horror that greeted the car crisis in 2009 the fear of losing jobs and factories enforced a debate about a change of the whole industry towards electro cars and ‘green mobility’. However, this was quickly forgotten as soon as sales in China increased and cash-for-clunker schemes evolved. Trade unions like the mighty IG Metal in Germany signed agreements that workers had to accept short-time working with severe losses of pay. Contract workers lost their jobs and the core workforce paid a heavy price. Trade union leaders accepted a continuation of a "two-tier system", where younger or new workers are employed on much lower wages and worse working conditions. Trade union bureaucrats in Germany accepted – off the record – to play the same role as their counterparts during the decline of the German steel and coal industries: organize the end of jobs and companies with some minor concessions, avoiding bigger upheavals. The crisis is starting again to bite for car workers. It’s urgent to avoid a repetition of these developments on an even worse economic basis compared to 2009. A trade union strategy is needed to coordinate resistance all over Europe and internationally to defend all jobs and factories and to end the playing-off of workers in one plant or country against others. A unified struggle is needed to fight against all cuts, concessions, job losses and closures. All factories where workers are threatened with redundancies have to be taken over by the states and run under workers’ control and management. But, given the links between the factories, the inter-dependencies and the over-capacity in the industry in general, the struggle for nationalisation cannot be limited to those factories the bosses do not need any more. The whole industry needs to be put under state ownership and democratic management by the workers, the unions and the state to start a transformation. A plan is needed for how to reorganise the car industry and use this well-educated and skilled workforce in the interests of working people in Europe and internationally. If necessary, that might require switching the production to other socially necessary products, reducing the hours of the working week and linking it to a plan to overcome the economic crisis in general – not by cuts, unemployment and poverty but by reorganising the production in the needs of working people. When Marchione calls for a “unified, concerted road map” to slaughter jobs and plants, the workers’ and trade unions’ answer should be united and concerted. To open this road, the trade unions also have to be transformed into fighting organisations, based on internal democracy, building close links of workers European-wide and internationally. A militant movement in the workplaces and trade unions is needed to struggle for these changes, developing direct links of workers’ representatives between factories and countries and overcome the barriers towards a joint fight back.

Grim picture for private renters in Herts time to cap rents now!

With the ever deepening housing crisis in Britain and with no political party prepared to do anything about the private sector which they bend over backwards to please. There is very little hope for young people today ever owning a property or being able to afford a rent. In Herts and Essex recent figures out are staggering. PRIVATE rents in Herts and Essex are set to see some of the steepest increases nationwide in the next decade, rising faster than property prices according to a new report from the National Housing Federation. The organization says years of not building enough homes will push charges in the East of England up by nearly two thirds (64 per cent) in just 10 years, compared to a 59 per cent rise nationwide. In Herts, this would mean rents rising from £902 per month to £1,478 per month – an extra £577 every month. Meanwhile, house prices in the East will rise 52 per cent, compared to 50 per cent nationwide. The picture is already bleak for the county’s renters: average rents in seven out of 10 districts – including East Herts - rose faster than incomes in 2012. Across the county, average private rents rose by four per cent while incomes actually dropped by two per cent. Three Rivers was hardest hit, with rents rising six per cent while incomes dropped 10 per cent, but in East Herts, rents rose from £839 in January, 2011 to £865 in Jan 2012, up three per cent while incomes dropped an average of six per cent. The NHF predicts monthly rents will hit £1,419 in 2022. In Essex rents are set to rise from £773 per month to £1,267 per month in the next decade. In Uttlesford costs have jumped from £832 in January last year to £834 this year – a hike of 0.3 per cent and monthly charges are estimated to hit £1,368 by 2022. Claire Astbury, East of England lead manager for the National Housing Federation, said it was crunch time for Herts and Essex’s “unsustainable housing market”, She said: “One in 16 East of England families is currently on the waiting list for social housing and it looks like the situation is going to get far worse. “Successive governments have failed to tackle the under-supply of housing. Now time is running out to fix the problem and a whole generation are at risk of being priced out of renting a home, let alone buying one. “Being unable to afford the homes they need can stop people from moving for work. It also prevents young couples from starting families, having a huge impact on people’s aspirations and ultimately affecting the economy. “Even working families are becoming more and more reliant on housing benefit to help pay their private rent. It’s clear that the chronic undersupply of new homes … needs to be tackled now, to ease the financial pressure for families and Government.” With extracts taken from http://www.hertfordshiremercury.co.uk/Homes-and-Gardens/Property/Rent-rise-gloom-for-Herts-and-Essex-families-19102012.htm According to the National Housing Federation there has been an 86% rise in employed people claiming housing benefit over the last 3 years- 417,830 more since 2009 Its time rent caps were introduced and properly enforced to make sure rents are always affordable to working class people. With a 37% increase in rents over the last 5 years. The Main cause is housing shortage. The case for massive council house building now is overwhelming

20th October how I saw it and where next

I like many other trade unionists made my way with other socialist party comrades yesterday to London we luckily don’t vie too far away. We took a different strategy this year instead of going on the march we stayed at Hyde Park all day and leafleted and held stalls as the march reached the end. Early estimates reckon the march was around 200,000 I’d say that would be about right it felt big still very big but the march did seem to thin out the nearer it got to 4 pm whereas last year there were still loads of marchers still making their way to Hyde park at a similar time. The atmosphere on the march was very Good lots of people hardened since last year and the betrayals of the right wing trade union leaders. There was a sense of we have been here before though and that may have played a part in the lower turnout perhaps. The NSSN and the socialist party’s calls for a 24 hour general strike were taken up very well by the workers on the demo lots of leaflets handed out many by me and lots of socialist papers sold too have no figures as yet but we made a terrific intervention I thought. Lots of positive comments coming our way when people came up to our stalls. I wasn’t sure how the demo would go before hand but was pleased with our efforts in the end. Clearly our calls for a 24 hour general strike caught an echo as several trade union speakers like Bob Crow, Mark Serwotka and Len Mcklusky all endorsing the NSSN’s calls. It’s clear now the TUC has to act and if not the left lead unions need to take the lead for further co-ordinated action. Len McCluskey, general secretary of the union Unite, got the overwhelming endorsement of the crowd when he asked all those who supported the organising of a general strike to raise their hands. Bob Crow, general secretary of the RMT and seconder of the motion to 'consider a general strike' that was passed at the recent TUC congress, got massive applause when he called for a 24-hour general strike. Mark Serwotka, general secretary of the PCS union, also called for coordination of strike action across the trade union movement. Huge support was received for the campaign by the Socialist Party and the National Shop Stewards Network (NSSN) to demand that the TUC name a day for a 24-hour general strike and then launch a massive campaign to mobilise the working class behind this call. What I was glad bout was the fact that Ed Miliband was roundly booed for his speech which I was disgusted to hear he was even there in the first place. He said he and his labour government if elected had to make tough decisions and they won’t be popular, dam right Ed you won’t be. SO its clear that labour will not be on our side if elected as if we didn’t know that before but some clearly still need reminding. As a result of this our stall could not give away TUSC leaflets quickly enough there was a big thirst to find about a alternative and TUSC can be that alternative in the coming by elections and beyond. All together the 20th of October must be remembered for being used as a springboard to further action this autumn or as soon as possible. Trade unions need to link their common disputes pensions, pay, privatisation you name it could be one of many issues and name the day for action. This demonstration opened a new phase in the war against austerity, giving a glimpse of a more hardened and militant working class. There was a widespread interest in socialist ideas, with many applying to join the Socialist Party. It’s now time to take the ideas forward and win the arguments; no cuts are necessary and must be fought.

17 Fire stations at risk with 600 jobs on line too, fight all cuts!

In London plans have been revealed to close 17 fire stations across inner and central London with the loss of about 600 jobs. Some of these stations only have one fire engine others have two. Boris Johnson the London Mayor who I think behind his stupid bafoonary is a very dangerous anti workers Tory. Boris thinks these cuts will not have any impact on the fire service and will not put lives at risk. I beg to differ and I’m glad to say the FBU do too. The Fire Brigades union who are a strong left militant union especially in London have gone to war before over cuts and I have no doubt will lead their members in yet another battle this time of a bigger degree. In the FBU’s press release today it sounds very clear its view and that it will be opposing these dangerous cuts which are wrong but not even necessary, are we seriously saying that too many fires were put out which lead to the global economic crisis? No way Jose! The plans, which were revealed in a leaked document, look set to be put before a meeting of the London fire authority on 22 November. The brigade was told by the mayor of London, Boris Johnson, to save £65m over two years, and senior managers have been working on proposals to meet that demand. The FBU’s regional secretary for London, Paul Embery, said: “These proposals present the biggest threat to the London Fire Brigade since the days of the Luftwaffe and would lead to the decimation of fire cover in London. The stations under threat of closure have stood proudly for generations, protecting local residents from bombs, fire and terrorism, yet Boris Johnson is about to hammer a ‘For Sale’ sign on to their front doors. “Such a huge cut cannot be made without there being an impact on public safety, and we call on Londoners to join with us in defending our fire service. “All around the country, chief fire officers are beginning to warn publicly of the danger of catastrophic cuts. So far, the commissioner of the London Fire Brigade, Ron Dobson, has remained silent, but surely now it is time for him speak up. “The London Fire Brigade is a proud organization with a fine history. But it is now facing possibly its greatest challenge. Its leaders must do the right thing and tell the politicians these cuts are wrong and dangerous. If they don’t do it, the FBU will.”

20th October and where next after it?

This Saturday I will be marching against the cuts. But I’m under no illusion that this will change the government’s austerity agenda. I am disgusted that Ed Miliband is being invited to the demonstration to speak in Hyde Park. He agrees the need for cuts like the Tories all be it at a slower pace. No doubt the ever delusional labour left will claim it as they did with the Durham Miners Gala that Ed is winging labour back to the left. This will be nothing of the sort as labour councils up and down the land pass on Tory cuts to the tune of millions. I will be marching and intervening in the demonstration with the clear message we march today but we strike together another day and the NSSN’s calls for a 24 hour general strike must be taken up by the property of the rank-and-file. We will have thousands of leaflets, placards, papers and posters on the day and having our own alternative platform for the NSSN and the socialist party if you wish to hear the real alternative to austerity and are sick of labour and Miliband telling you the cuts are too far and too fast. It’s not that Ed it’s the fact the cuts are happening at all. We have only seen around 15 % of the cuts with a future labour government refusing to reverse any of the cuts and will continue on the deficit reduction path which in reality is not reducing any deficit only increasing the deficit. But all trade unionists, anti cuts activists community campaigners and more will have only heard from the bureaucracy on Saturday many will come in contact with us for the first time and wish to know more. I urge any who are interested in finding out more to contact us on the day and after. After the demonstration the NSSN has public meetings and conferences planned up and down the country you can find a listing of thse at www.shopstewards.net Many will ask is march enough and what can we do next to bring this gov down and end the cuts. Firstly we must build workers confidence which a march against the cuts can do. But arm them with the militant programme to own their own struggle. Giving rank-and-file workers a voice. The NSSN does exactly this and our calls for a 24 hour general strike will start to gain traction on the demonstration and beyond. We want the calls for a 24 hour general strike to become the property of the working class as I said earlier but this must be followed up with motions being passed at trades councils, union branch’s, community groups and so on. Of course 24 hours may not be enough but it’s a start and even if just 6 million who are in a union at present go on strike at once the political ground will never be the same again. For the motion you need to put forward in your union, trades council or wherever you can you can copy this below .................... NSSN model motion This.... [trade union body] is alarmed that a relentless barrage of even more austerity cuts is coming down the line, and will continue into the foreseeable future. Millions of workers, young people, the sick and the disabled face a lifetime of severe hardship through cuts to pay, conditions, benefits and services - the horrendous situation facing working people in Greece could be our future if we don't stop the Con-Dem attacks. We believe austerity cuts must be stopped, and that the labour movement has the potential to force a massive U-turn on this Coalition government of the rich, IF our trade unions were to organise action decisively together. We urge all members, friends and families to come to the TUC demo on 20th October, and that this day is seen as the beginning of a new stage of action. We urge all unions participating in the demo to follow up with a further coordinated 24-hour national strike of both public and private sector workers, making direct calls to youth and students, the unemployed, and community campaigns to join in. We, therefore, agree that this branch will organise a local/regional meeting to discuss how to progress these ideas put forward by the PCS and POA at the TUC. We also call on the national executive of our union to work together with other unions to find the most appropriate way to coordinate the biggest possible joint strike.