www.socialistworker.co.

uk
I
n the last fortnight weve seen
the potential to smash the Tories
austerity project.
On Monday of last week health
workers took to picket lines across
England to defend the NHS and
protest over poverty pay.
Tere was anger at the hypocrisy of
MPs who lecture us about tightening
our belts, but then get a 10 percent rise
while most health workers wont even
get 1 percent!
Two days later civil service workers
also struck over pay.
And on Saturday 100,000 people
joined the TUCs Britain needs a pay
rise demo in London. Tousands more
joined anti-government protests in
Glasgow and Belfast.
Tis Monday saw lively strikes by
hospital radiographers.

I would like to get Socialist Worker regularly

I want to join the Socialist Workers Party

Name ................................................................................................
Address .............................................................................................
.........................................................................................................
Phone............................................. ..................................................
Email.................................................................................................
Return to Membership, PO Box 42184, London SW8 2WD or email membership@swp.org.uk
Have you got a stor y for us? Use the email address above, or call 020 7819 1180 (Editorial)
Step up strikes 22/10/14
And hundreds of housing workers at
St Mungos Broadway have struck for
seven days against management attacks.

Rotten
To see so many dierent groups
of workers ghting back is really
encouraging. If these battles were
widened and united then this rotten,
government would be on its way out.
But far from widening the battle,
some key trade union leaders recently
halted a strike by 750,000 local
government workers on the basis of an
oer that, if anything, was worse than
the original paltry 1 percent!
Many union members were outraged
by this decision to call o their strikes.
In Unison a big campaign is underway
to get the strikes back on.
Instead of winding down the ght
over pay and austerity, the unions
should be stepping it up.
Workers face the most sustained
squeeze on their living standards since the
1860s. Disgracefully, Labour has already
said the squeeze on pay and the spending
cuts will continue if it is re-elected.
We cant allow our trade union
leaders to retreat from the ght as most
of them did after the mass pensions
strikes in 2011.
Health unions are saying they may
strike again in November and Welsh
NHS workers could join in this time, as
they have now voted to ght.
If NHS workers strike, then others
who are ghting over pay should strike
alongside them, like the civil service
union PCS and the National Union of
Teachers.
And if workers in local government
reject their lousy oer then they should
strike too. We need a united ghtback.

Divide
Some are keen to divide our side. UKIP
wants us to blame migrants for the years
of recession and pay freezes. Te big
parties have been quick to tail them, and
adopt some of the same racist rhetoric.
But as we saw on the NHS pickets
and Saturdays demos, when working
class people ght back together we
focus on what unites us, and we are
stronger because of it.
Tats another good reason why we
need more strikes to beat the Tories.
STEP UP STRIKES
TO BEAT THE TORIES
Striking together
& organising to win
Saturday
15 November,
12 - 5pm
@ Bloomsbury
Central Baptist
Church, 235
Shaf tesbury Avenue,
London WC2H 8EP
UNITE THE RESISTANCE CONFERENCE
Sessions include
Strategies to win:
How do we beat the
austerity agenda?
The ght against
zero hours contracts
and organising the
unorganised
Migrant workers:
part of the union,
part of the solution
The law and
multinationals:
Do workers still
have the power to
beat the bosses?
For more info and to book go to uniteresist.org
Speakers include
Mags Dalton & Roger
Hutt Care UK strikers
John McDonnell MP
Ian Hodson BFAWU
national president
Peter Pinkney
RMT president
Fast food strikers
from the US
Karen Howell
Support Stafford
Hospital campaign
Matt Wrack
FBU general secretary
Paula Peters
Disabled People
Against the Cuts
Ian Lawrence
NAPO general
secretary
Barbara Pokryszka
Unite, hotel worker
organiser
NHS radiographers strike Photo: Ben Windsor