Britain’s Communists have welcomed new additions to the growing strike wave for more pay and job security.
Teachers, Environment Agency employees and Welsh school heads and support staff are among the latest groups of workers to join the movement demanding wage raises at or above the level of inflation.
But Lorraine Douglas told the Communist Party’s political committee on Tuesday evening that the Tory government is ‘nailing its authoritarian colours to the mast’ with further attacks on rights to strike and protest.
A revamped Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Bill extends anti-strike measures to all sections of workers in the health, education, border security, transport, nuclear decommissioning and fire and rescue services.
‘This is a slaves’ charter which would make scabbing a legal requirement’, Ms Douglas declared. She welcomed the response of the TUC to call a ‘day of action’ on Wednesday, February 1, to defend the right to strike and urged the English regional, Scottish and Welsh TUCs, trades councils and unions to mobilise in communities and workplaces to support the protest.
Teachers, train drivers, airport workers, civil servants and university staff are all due to strike on February 1 and the Communist Party has urged further action at any level that can be achieved on the day, including town centre rallies and workplace meetings.
‘Ultimately this draconian legislation can only be defeated by an upsurge in mass extra-parliamentary protest and industrial action’, Ms Douglas insisted, emphasising the importance of the Campaign for Trade Union Freedom’s conference in London on January 24.
In that connection, Britain’s Communists also welcomed last Saturday’s successful conference of the People’s Assembly. More than 300 delegates and visitors agreed to support a ‘united front’ of working class organisations against the capitalist monopolies whose interests are served by the Tory central government.
In particular, the People’s Assembly decided to organise protests at central and regional offices of the energy companies whose profiteering is sending household and small business bills through the roof.
The CP political committee pointed to the soaring costs of Britain’s nuclear arsenal and arms shipments to prolong the Ukraine War, urging a big turnout for next Saturday’s Stop the War trade union conference.