OVER ten thousand workers, students, and youth marched from Clerkenwell Green to Trafalgar Square on the TUC May Day march in London yesterday afternoon.
There were banners from the RMT, PCS, Aslef, Unite, GMB, Unison, NEU and other unions.
The loud and lively delegation behind the Workers Revolutionary Party and Young Socialist banner kept up constant chants of ‘Down with Capitalism. We Want Socialism,’ and ‘Victory to Palestine. Down with Imperialism.’
A large delegation of Unite members in the migrant domestic workers branch marched behind their Voice of Domestic Workers banner and their leader Marissa Begonia spoke to News Line: ‘There are over fifty of us here today,’ she said.
‘We built the branch ourselves. We are standing for the rights of domestic workers.
‘We are the workers in private households.
‘We clean, we care for children, the elderly and families, we enable other workers to work.
‘We demand the rights of domestic workers be restored. They were taken away in 2012.
‘Domestic workers are no longer allowed to renew their visa, that means that after six months, domestic workers become undocumented and unprotected.
‘No human should be without rights. Domestic workers are workers.’
Other workers spoke to News Line as the march was assembling.
Mehmet Manwar, a vet said: ‘If you want your rights you have to go all out, we need a general strike.
‘The ideology in the west is ready for a general strike.
‘I’ve been recommending a general strike, small strikes aren’t enough.’
Gawain Little, General Federation of Trade Unions, told News Line: ‘We are a federation of 29 specialist trade unions and we are part of the General Strike 100 Partnership of over 50 organisations, trade unions, museums and libraries, which have come together to mark the significance of the general strike of 1926.
‘For nine days in 1926 workers ran this country through Councils of Action in every town and city, – democratic workers organisations.
‘In the current economic crisis, we need the spirit of 1926 again.’
Sarah Woolley, general secretary of the Bakers, Food and Allied Workers Union (BFAWU) said: ‘It’s imperative we know the history of our movement.
‘Far too many people don’t know about the history of the general strike because it’s not taught in schools. there is a lot we could learn from it, and we are not in a dissimilar position today.
‘We are in a cost-of-living crisis, I favour a general strike, today. Now’s the time to build the movement for it.’
Roy Aird, Communication Workers Union (CWU) south London and Surrey branch, said: ‘We need to build for a general strike to defend working conditions, which are under constant and increasing attack.’
Lee Ray, Hackney GMB Local Government Branch secretary, told News Line: ‘The deal for the Birmingham bin strikers, does not look like a good deal.
‘It’s been rushed through just before the local elections. They have may have thrown them a few crumbs, but what about the £8,000 pay cut.
‘When we had our terms and conditions cut in 2001, we lost £1,700, plus we had to work an extra hour a week and we also lost five days.’
Eleanor Davies, joint secretary of Lewisham National Education Union (NEU) said: ‘I think we have to learn the lessons of the general strike and develop a strategy. In my own union we are discussing whether we should ballot for national strike action. The Department for Education (DfE) wants to lock us into a three-year deal when inflation is likely to soar, we must challenge it with industrial action.
‘Since 2010, average teachers’ pay is down around £20,000 so we identify strongly with the resident doctors. I would support a general strike.
