‘TUC GET OFF YOUR KNEES, CALL A GENERAL STRIKE!’ rang out outside the Brighton conference centre as the TUC three-day Congress opened yesterday.
Hundreds of delegates, representing millions of trade union members, were lobbied by a powerful delegation from the Workers Revolutionary Party and the Young Socialists as they entered.
Some delegates spoke to News Line before going in.
Jane Stewart, a Liverpool Unilever delegate and Unite member, said: ‘It’s about time that we mobilised as a class.
‘Where I work there are more than a thousand. We just settled a 6% pay claim which is now way below inflation – although, it wasn’t when we initiated the claim.
‘The working class wants action to bring down the Tories.’
Steve Frank, a CWU (postal) delegate from Northamptonshire, said: ‘Our strike is solid. We’re out again tomorrow (Thursday). We’re fighting to defend jobs, pay and the postal service. We need to get rid of the Tories now.’
Kevin Coombes, a Southampton Aerospace worker and Unite delegate, said: ‘The Tories have to be brought down, they are behind this whole crisis.’
Moira Cahill, a Sainsbury’s USDAW delegate from Brighton, said: ‘Have you seen how the rich have their taxes cut while the workers have theirs increased. The Tories have to go.’
Cheryl Wilson, USDAW vice chair Telford, Midlands, said: ‘A general strike would be a cracking idea. The Tories must be kicked out. The Tories don’t appreciate how people feel, we are so worried about the future.
‘It’s not just low pay, it’s the long hours too. Some of our members have two or three jobs and they still can’t make it work. The TUC should call a general strike here today.’
Lesley Ballard, Unite community delegate, said: ‘We represent the justice sector. The prison service and border force should all be brought back in-house. Our employer CIRCO is low pay, no overtime, just flat rates. Under the Tories the rich are getting richer, they must be brought down.’
Tracey Hylton, from civil servants’ union PCS Liverpool said: ‘The Tories are cutting some 91,000 of our jobs. As far as a general strike is concerned, I agree with Malcolm X. Whatever means necessary.’
Mick Pimblett, assistant general secretary of the prison officers’ union POA, said: ‘Our union called for a general strike ten years ago. That call is being brought back this year but in a different form.
‘We are calling for co-ordinated action, which as far as I am concerned is exactly the same thing, or it should be. ASLEF is moving the motion and we are seconding it.’
Most delegates understand that co-ordinated strike action is not the same thing, and many agreed that the TUC must call a general strike to kick the Tories out now.
Retired firefighter Jimmy told News Line: ‘I think that a general strike is a very good idea. The Tories are in a state of absolute disarray. What this moment calls for is education of the working classes. Mortgages have risen to an extraordinary level. People are already feeling the crunch – they can’t heat their homes, feed their children. If this is not a time for action, there never will be.
‘When there is trade union unity good things can happen. In my own union, which has been hit by several bouts of austerity, the firefighters fought against being forced to work till 60 and defeated the people trying to raise the retirement age.
‘The Tories have no regard for things like democracy. The Tories say Liz Truss’s mini-budget was her idea. Well, what about the democratic process, where was she elected to make these policies? Truss says actually the plan was Kwarteng’s, well then why are you the PM?
‘My problem with the Labour Party right now is their insistence on talking about rights of “hard-working” people. Who will answer for people who are old, young, or disabled? Do they not have any value in Labour’s eyes? It really does seem like they don’t.’
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