Callum Williamson reports from Southampton on the day four public sector unions walked out

Thursday 30th June saw the largest-scale industrial action in Britain for decades, in the context of intensifying class struggle throughout Europe and beyond. At the heart of this conflict is an attempt on the part of the capitalists and their governments to make the workers pay for a crisis of the system. Hundreds of thousands of workers in the public sector took part in the co-ordinated strike action, with the government’s planned reforms to the pensions of state workers being the main bone of contention. This will see people working longer and contributing more in order to receive less when they finally do retire.

Photo: Paul Mattsson

The government and the right wing have tried to evoke ‘fairness’ in their arguments, and attempted to pit public and private sector workers against one another with talk of how the latter supposedly subsidise the pensions of the former. The government has also carped on about the current settlement for public sector workers being unaffordable, despite the Hutton report indicating that the cost of these pensions is actually falling as a percentage of national income. There is simply no justification for what is taking place. Attacking the pensions of one group of workers in order to get them in line with the shoddy pensions of another group only makes sense to a capitalist. Indeed, the attacks on the welfare state and on wages in the public and private sector are taking place to protect the profits of big business. Through the use of such tactics the rich can protect their wealth for the moment, and indications such as the 2011 Times rich list (which saw the ‘super-rich’ regain their wealth lost in the recession) show that this may be working for them. The left must make the argument that pensions should be levelled up in both the public and private sectors of the economy.

On Thursday morning I was at Peter Symonds College in Winchester, which saw 600 students walk out on the day of action against tuition fees and cuts to EMA in November last year. The strike taking place there was pretty solid and had caused the college to close for the day. The vast majority of the NUT members at the college had voted for action and the teachers on the picket lines said that most of their absent colleagues that morning had given their support. The staff I talked to were indignant (a word increasingly used in the press these days) at having 10% of their pay going towards a pension which they are having to wait longer and longer to receive. There was a general feeling that this was about more than pensions and not your ‘average’ industrial action. Those I spoke to didn’t see what they were doing as simply an act of self preservation (they were not the spoilt and self-serving workers depicted in the Daily Mail). There was a belief amongst the teachers that there is an alternative to the government’s austerity programme and that this is what the fight is about. What I heard from them sounded much like ‘Old Labour’, referring to progressive taxation, public investment and welfare provision. The belief that the capitalists can be made to pay ‘their fair share’ within capitalism is one that we as communists see as misguided (tax avoidance figures speak for themselves). However it has to be welcomed when workers reject the ideas of neoliberalism and start to look for alternatives. Furthermore, I witnessed an encouraging appetite to continue fighting, as union members prepare for the likelihood of a strike wave in the autumn. For those taking part there was no doubt as to the worthiness of their cause. My former economics teacher, who I was glad to see on the picket line, said that “most people will be made worse off by this sustained ideological attack on the public sector”. In other words we, meaning our class, are all in it together.

Striking workers from around the area, including members of UCU, NUT, PCS and the ATL later descended on Southampton Guildhall for a rally. Speakers from these unions addressed a crowd of around 500 people. All highlighted the blatant injustices of the proposed reforms to the angry workers (who were probably already aware of the details). Head teacher John Thorpe of Hampshire NUT asked at one point if “the child who wrecked the economy” was present and whether they could wait in his office. This remark would have been funnier if the reality were not so tragic. Children will indeed be paying for the crisis through cuts to education and children’s services. Then there is the cuts to benefits that will result in a surge in child poverty. As the time approached 1pm, the crowd in the Guildhall could faintly hear a chant of “The workers united will never be defeated!” in the distance. It was a group of around 300 council workers who have been engaged in a bitter dispute with Southamptons’ Tory-led council, infamous for its disregard for workers rights and its vicious cuts to elderly care earlier this year. The council is attempting to sack the workforce and then re-employ them on inferior contracts. Evidence of the rolling strike by the embattled workers could be seen all over the streets as a result of refuse workers withdrawing their labour. The council workers, waving Unite and Unison flags, swelled the crowd which was then addressed by the head of Unison, Dave Prentis. Prentis praised the unity and fighting spirit of the Southampton workers, claiming that not one union member had crossed the picket lines during the dispute with the city council, which has now gone on for weeks. He proceeded to attack Cameron and Clegg, dubbing them politics’ answer to nauseating pop duo Jedward and amusing all assembled.

Considering the present state of the trade unions and the left, Thursday’s showing was not bad at all. The action up and down the country was effective (shutting over half of all state schools) and sets the tone for things to come; more strikes and a determined effort on the part of the workers to resist. However, any effective fight back needs to be broader and it needs to have a clear alternative. Ultimately we need to address a system which sees over 2.4 million people unemployed and yet forces those in work to work longer. It is also vital to understand that the crisis which we are witnessing is one which is rooted in the structure of the economic system. It was not caused by people living beyond their means, by fiscal irresponsibility on behalf of governments or by a few greedy bankers. Rather, years of stagnant real wages in much of the west alongside a massive profit boom meant crisis was inevitable. In order for workers to buy what they have produced, and to provide an outlet for the mass of unproductive capital, massive levels of household debt have been accumulated. When the defaults came and the prospect of a banking crisis reared its head, the state had to intervene with bail-outs worth trillions of pounds, and is now trying to make the working class pay. The contradictions of capitalism make crises inevitable, and this is the fundamental reason that we face austerity. As a class we must organise for a revolution which reshapes society into one where economic life is run democratically, and according to the principle of human need, not the abstract needs of capital. In other words, we must fight for communism.