THE TUC CONGRESS is set to meet on Tuesday October 18th, just as the Truss government is poised to take the rail trade unions by the throat.
The Daily Telegraph is now patting itself on the back with the news that: ‘Ministers are forging ahead with a swathe of railway ticket office closures threatening to further inflame tensions with the trade unions by making strike breaking legal.
In fact, Whitehall officials are said to have ‘hardwired’ ticket office closures into a new contract with the East Midland Railway, with twenty-five out of 30 East Midland Railway ticket offices to be closed on the line’s more than 100 stations.
This is to be the first skirmish of a new rail war with an 83% reduction in line with the Tory government’s ‘Industry Change Programmes’ to be imposed on all of Britain’s railways.
The Daily Telegraph is ever so pleased that: ‘Britain could be left with only one-in-five of its current railway ticket offices.’ The RMT has stated that it will oppose ticket office cuts, while ASLEF notified train operators on Friday that their members will be walking out on October 1 and October 5.
It has already been spelt out that new anti-union laws are on the way that will make it illegal for workers to resist strike breakers, while giving strike breakers the full protection of the state against strikers, who are seeking to defend their wages, jobs and as far as the railways and bus transport are concerned, the safety of their passengers.
Meanwhile, an economic catastrophe is rapidly maturing with the pound falling to a 37-year low against the US dollar.
At the same time, the new Tory regime is moving to end the cap on bankers’ bonuses so that however many workers go under from the impact of galloping inflation and job losses, the rich will still be getting immeasurably richer.
The TUC is now set to meet this gathering storm head on at its Tuesday 18th October conference, having failed in the bid to have the Congress postponed indefinitely.
They will be meeting in the middle of an orgy of mass sackings, income cuts, and meal cuts with millions of trade unionists getting angrier and angrier at the TUC leaders attempts to do nothing to defend workers.
Railway workers, bus workers and NHS workers must take the lead in organising a mass lobby of the TUC Congress on October 18th at 8am.
Thousands of workers must rally outside the TUC and insist that it carries a motion for a general strike to bring down the Tories and bring in a workers’ government and socialism.
The TUC General Council must be told that they will not be allowed to stand by while tens of thousands of rail workers are sacked, while the NHS is dealt a massive blow with the transfer of part of its budget to social care and while bankers rake in unlimited bonuses.
The General Council must be confronted by thousands of trade unionists on the 18th October and told that they must call the general strike or resign at once to make way for those who will.
A general strike will see the working class establish Councils of Action to control the movement of foodstuffs nationally and to prevent an out-of-control police force launching attacks on workers.
These Councils of Action must form the basis of a workers’ government that will take power as soon as the Tories are brought down, to organise the nationalisation of the banks, the major industries and transport system under workers’ management.
Capitalism must be replaced by planned production to satisfy people’s needs.
The survival of the fittest must be replaced by a society whose maxim is: ‘From each according to their ability, to each according to their need.’
With the banks on the brink of going broke and with food prices beyond people’s purchasing power, now is the time to act, while the enormous strength of the working class is intact and ready for employment in bringing down capitalism, to go forward to socialism.
There is not a moment to lose. Lobby the TUC on October 18th and force it to call a general strike to bring down the Tories!
