THERE was a powerful May Day March from Clarkenwell Green to Trafalgar Square yesterday with more than 10,000 trade unionists, workers, youth and students demonstrating and demanding: Kick the Tories out!
There were trade union banners from RMT Paddington, Piccadilly and District Line, Met and Jubilee, and Finsbury Park.
There were banners from Wandsworth Prison Officers Association (POA), Whittington Hospital, and civil servants PCS London Region. There were also large delegations from JVP Sri Lanka, the Bolivia Solidarity Campaign and Barnet Unison plus lots of Turkish red flags and banners.
The Workers Revolutionary Party and Young Socialists delegation kept up a constant chant of ‘We will not pay for the banking crash – kick the Tories out!’ ‘Capitalism is bankrupt forward to socialism!’ – ‘End Israeli occupation Victory to Palestine’, ‘Down with capitalism – Forward to world revolution’, ‘Support the doctors and nurses – Call a general strike’, ‘Defend the NHS kick the Tories out!’
Before the march began Daniel Kabeidi, general secretary-elect of the NEU teachers union, told the marchers: ‘The Home Secretary Suella Braverman is peddling a disgusting message blaming refugees for the crisis facing the workers.
‘She’s peddling a narrative that our problems are caused by refugees. This is false and disgraceful.
‘We are on our sixth day of strike action on Tuesday 2nd May and we are fighting very much for our children. We are united.
‘All the education unions will take action together soon.
‘Stand by your leaders, go to the picket lines. Let’s fight together for a decent future.
‘We can’t allow the Tories to carry on with this. We don’t just want more bread, we want the whole bakery.’
Labour MP and former Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell said: ‘Every strike deserves our support. This government is pushing through the Minimum Service bill. The only way to defeat it is that when one worker is sacked all unions come out together to defend them.’
Workers spoke to News Line as the march was assembling and proceeding to Trafalgar Square.
Vijay Menezes-Jackson, PCS Edinburgh branch and chair of the PCS young members committee said: ‘I was on strike last Friday at the job centre where I am branch organiser.
‘The strikes have been too limited so far. We must escalate our action.
‘Unions must be prepared to defy the anti-union laws. It’s not enough for the union leaders to say the minimum service level laws will be very difficult for the Tories to implement, so we needn’t worry too much.
‘These laws must be fought and they must be defeated.’
Luminita Nicolae, RMT Harrow, was carrying the RMT Met and Jubilee railworkers banner.
She said: ‘We’ve struck six times in the past year. We went on strike to defend our pensions, our terms and conditions and against the job cuts.
‘They want to make us pay for the pandemic with our pensions. We will lose a third of our pensions if we allow their so-called reforms to go ahead.
‘The company’s own 30 page report concluded that the reform of the pensions would be detrimental to the staff, but they still want to go ahead with it.
‘We are a militant fighting trade union, we take action. Action speaks louder than words. Never on our knees!’
Wendy Butah, a nurse at Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Woolwich, said: ‘We really need to kick the Tories out.
‘We are really struggling. They are building loads of houses and flats but there is a terrible shortage of hospital beds and nurses, and people have to wait for 12 hours in A&E.
‘We should all strike together. We need a general strike to save the NHS and bring down the Tories.’
Winston Richards, postal workers union CWU assistant London region secretary said: ‘We’ve lost a number of reps who have been sacked for allegations of intimidation on the picket line which are absolutely refuted.
‘These people must be reinstated, they are solid trade union reps and the backbone of the union.
‘The offer that has been made by Royal Mail does not go far enough as far as I’m concerned.’
Laura Johnson, a Unite union officer, said: ‘I’m proud that our members voted to reject the NHS pay award. 5% is rubbish.’
Aaliyah Patel, a British student of Palestinian origin who spoke at the Workers Revolutionary Party and Young Socialists public meeting at the end of the march yesterday afternoon said on the march: ‘Workers in Britain should strike for Palestine. Britain and America created Israel and stole the Palestinian land to do so. Now’s the time for World Revolution!’
