Workers' Fight workplace bulletin editorials, 21 July 2009

Last Friday, thousands of postal workers in London, Scotland, and other offices dotted around the country staged a solid 24-hour strike - the 3rd in a series of strikes against job cuts, heavy workloads and the replacement of full-time jobs by part-time (temp) jobs. Another 4 days of "rolling" action, starting Saturday, may involve even more workers, as another 400 offices (out of 1,600) have now been balloted for official strike.

The postal workers have every reason to strike. While the government shelved (temporarily) the sale of 30% of Royal Mail, it hasn't shelved its cuts agenda, nor has it stopped using the large pensions deficit it created by taking a 13-year long pension contribution holiday, as blackmail against the workforce.

That is why this is an urgent fight. The postal service is obviously a much needed public service and more workers are needed, not less, for it to work properly! On the other hand, the leadership of the postal workers' union, the CWU, has been dragging its feet over the fight, to say the least. It has only managed to organise scattered one-day strikes - and did not even organise a national demonstration last Friday, when workers expected it. It is only now, under pressure from the offices all around the country that it is finally planning a national ballot - but after months of delay!

As for the London strike, sections are called to strike one after the other for 24 hours each, according to the old argument of causing the "maximum disruption" at "minimum cost" to the strikers. Yet it is obvious that, on the contrary, hitting hard, using maximum force gives the best chance of winning in the least time!

Indeed, so far, the CWU leaders seem to be doing their best to organise a disruption - not of the mail - but of the fight back! But of course, there is no need for the workers to go along with this crazy and ineffective way of doing things. What's more they know from past experience that it is only when they take their strike into their own hands that the government and RM bosses back down. Let the strikers lead the battle themselves! That will be the first step towards stopping the endless barrage of attacks they - and we - are facing today!

Last week a special report commissioned by the Irish government came up with a "menu" of public sector spending cuts, supposedly to pay for a £17bn budget deficit - which arose from its bank-bailout!

It is pretty shocking: it recommends cuts across the board, including a 5% cut in the welfare budget! In other words, the most blatant measure by any government yet, to force the very poorest in this society to pay for "saving" the bankers'!

Ireland is just one small step ahead of Britain on the recessionary road. Proportionally speaking, its aid to the banks was at a similar level; it had a housing bubble slightly bigger than Britain's. And then, on top of it all, a large part of the capital invested in Ireland is British - and much of Ireland's so-called "affluence" of the past two decades was based on finance - directly linked to London's City.

This is why these proposals could be seen as a blueprint for Brown and who ever comes after him. And they would be emanating from exactly the same source - London's financiers.

For the Irish population, the measures would entail cuts in child benefit, unemployment benefit, carers' benefits; and retirement age would be increased - although a cut in state pensions per se is not spelt out - for obvious reasons! Some benefits would just be discontinued - like that for dental and optical treatments and for hearing aids.

As for health, 6,168 staff would be sacked, nurses would have to do doctors' work, eligibility for free prescriptions would be limited further. All levels of education would have cuts, but first for the chop would be special needs teachers!

A 5% cut in public sector jobs means 17,500 civil service workers, teachers and nurses - and even police. It doesn't make sense even from capital's own point of view as it cuts purchasing power.

But never mind. While the Irish businessmen insist that the public sector pays, this is exactly what is being pushed for by the CBI over here. Bowing to their every demand, Brown, Darling and Mandelson have already begun implementing job cuts and have announced NHS spending cuts.

Will the Irish government get away with this unprecedented austerity package? That remains to be seen. Just this February it tried to impose a 10% levy on public sector pensions and was met by 120,000 angry workers, who surrounded parliament, threatening a general strike. This in itself forced a partial climb down and the Irish TUC called off the strike. Which only goes to show, once more, that it is quite possible to stop the bosses and their governments in their tracks - but only if we prevent union leaderships from scuppering the fight.