Britain: Reports from the picket lines

Around Britain, supporters of Socialist Appeal have been on picket lines and demonstrations. Here are the reports we har received so far. [Updated 2 December with more reports]

[Newcastle] [Durham] [Glasgow] [Edinburgh] [London] [Essex] [Worcester] [Birmingham] [Coventry] [picture gallery]

Gateshead Pickets and Newcastle Demo

By Terry McPartlan. Gateshead UNISON (Personal Capacity)

I arrived at Gateshead Civic Centre just after 7.30 this morning and already there were around 20 pickets and their supporters from UNISON and the GMB on the gate. While a small number of scabs crossed the picket line, many cars turned around and left. There was a lot of support from passing cars, lorries and taxis and even two or three police cars that honked their horns in support as they went past. It's clear that the Tories have completely misjudged the mood of ordinary workers in respect of the attack on our pensions.

The main demonstration in Newcastle gathered at Gateshead Civic from about 10.30. It soon became clear that this was going to be a big demonstration. In recent years the Mayday demonstration in Newcastle has attracted some 2-300 people. Today however there were almost that many firefighters present; despite the fact that the FBU did not ballot for action.

Hundreds of local government workers, nurses, civil servants, teachers, lecturers as well as students and retired members participated. The police estimated some 8,500 participants. So it's more than likely that there were 10,000 plus. As well as the big unions such as UNISON, Unite, PCS, NASUWT, NUT, UCU and the GMB there were many physiotherapists present. As one speaker pointed out they were tired of being manipulated. The radiographers could see right through the Tories plans and the chiropodists had voted with their feet. There were a significant number of RCN members present as well.

Bob Crowe who was present to support RMT members from the Tyne and Wear Metro made a clear call for a 24 hour general strike involving all workers. This was echoed by Kevin McHugh from the PCS.

Hundreds of schools in the North East were closed today and such was the strength of the action that all council buildings in Gateshead were shut down. The few scabs who turned up for work were left huddling together in the staff canteen with no access to their computers. The entire Tyne and Wear Metro system was closed down as well. It's obvious also that there was a huge amount of disruption on the roads.

What's needed after the action today is a clear call from the trade union leaders for a one day general strike including both the public and the private sector workers. Yesterday's autumn statement demonstrated that the Tories and the Lib Dems have nothing to offer but years of misery and austerity. Anyone under the age of 52 will now have to work to the age of 67 before they can get a pension while the Tories intend to extend pay restraint for more years. This means severe cuts in the standard of living for millions of workers.

We need to fight all increases in pension contributions and all cuts in pensions.

For a 24 hour General Strike!

Newcastle report

Probabion officers in NewcastleAlthough a member of UNISON, I wasn't balloted for action as I’m not in the pension scheme, working for a small private company inside a public service. So I had to report for work at the Probation office I work at in Newcastle as normal today. All three admin staff were at work as they weren't members of a union so I was expecting to go into a quiet office to do some admin of my own and nothing else.  The Probation staff aren’t normally a militant bunch and hadn’t been discussing, as far as I was aware, any particular actions for the day, so it came as a pleasant surprise to find 4 out of 9 of them manning/womanning a picket line outside at 9am. 

This gave me the opportunity not to cross the line and stay out with them. Only one officer, who wasn't in the union, had gone into work while one other, also not in NAPO, had turned away in solidarity. 2 more turned up and stayed out with their comrades and one more was on the sick.  The one on the sick would have been out as well, he had said beforehand.  So, although this is a relatively small workplace it was almost 100% solid.  Reports were being txted and phoned over from other offices in the region and it became clear that the situation in this workplace was being mirrored in many other offices.  What was most striking (pardon the pun) was the change in outlook of the Probation officers. It was as though a weight had been lifted from their shoulders. One woman stated that “This is brilliant! I can’t believe we’ve done it!” and another said she felt so proud of her work mates and that this was only the beginning of more battles to come. Another officer was very interested in the political aspects of the struggle stating he was in greater and greater conflict with his Tory parents and right wing friends etc and wanted to hear more Marxist explanations for the crisis. I think he needs to read the Socialist Appeal now!

On to the rally...

I stood outside the law courts on Newcastle Quayside where the march was due to pass, and talked to the PCS and NAPO pickets. I met an older NAPO member who helped to get me introduced to the 10-12 staff out side the building. The strike there had been quite solid with only a few admin going in.  All were in a good determined mood.  I met a young lad who had come down for the giant DWP office at Longbenton (employs 10,000 workers, majority out) who was extremely militant from a TU perspective.  Very enthusiastic about fighting the Tories and for further action and longer strikes. The march came passed around 11:30 and it was a tremendous sight. As the march approached (video) the end could still not be seen under the Tyne bridge in the background. The police estimate 8,500 but there really must have been a good few thousand more.  The rally itself had the usual gamut of speakers and music etc.  Socialist Appeal supporters played a solid role and sold over 45 papers.

Durham Hospitals

By Amanda Martin. Tees Wear and Esk Valley UNISON (Personal Capacity) 

I have just about thawed from standing from 7.30am until about 2pm on the picket line at the hospital.  Many stewards and activists had chosen to join the marches at Newcastle and Middlesbrough, however there were still 9 of us who turned up at 7.30. Following this, others turned up to take up the placards and leafleting. There were very few cars who passed onto the premises without either stopping to take a leaflet or who turned back.  There was overwhelming support from passing motorists, especially wagon drivers, one of whom stopped to leave a large bag of toffees for us (strange, but thoughtful).  A few RCN members who hadn't been balloted turned up with supporting tee-shirts during their breaks, and brought us flasks of tea and coffee.  One worker in particular struck me as being very representative of those who were taking strike action.  He was coming off backshift at about 8 am, and was obviously not returning for his night shift.  An ex-miner who had lived through the dark times of the miners' strike and had gone into nursing afterwards, he expressed his total support for the strike action and stated that the pension issue, although very important, was only the tip of the iceberg in the public sector, citing cuts in pay and working conditions, stressful conditions and practices which were harmful to patient care and safety.

 This obviously makes a lie of the Tory/Lib Dem attitude of the irresponsible public workers taking strike action that harms patient care.  The general mood on the picket line was of optimism because workers were taking action together, and the spirit of solidarity experienced with workers and public passers-by was definitely worth the very cold stint today.  Most of the workers expressed the opinion that this was just the beginning, and this government has to watch out for the unity and strength of the workers.

Glasgow Report

by Michael Allan

At least 20,000 - perhaps as many as 30,000 – marched through Glasgow in support of the strikes.

Action began early. At Glasgow Caledonian University, security staff marched out at the stroke of midnight accompanied by a bagpiper. Elsewhere in the city, pickets began to form around 7am, with students supporting the UCU on various campuses. However, the pickets at universities and schools didn’t have much to contend with – 99% of Scottish schools were closed, and all classes at Glasgow Uni were called off with only the library remaining open with a few staff. As the uni was well covered, students roamed the west end of the city distributing tea and biscuits to pickets on a freezing morning. The picket at the Western Infirmary was particularly large, with much flag waving and chanting. At all pickets we visited, we found that most passing cars beeped their horns to show their support, with some drivers displaying clenched fists! A march at 10.45am of students, lecturers and other uni staff of around 50 strong was met with the same positive reaction from passers by, with even a shopkeeper coming out to show his enthusiasm for the strike, asking for leaflets, and, to top it off, he showed a real eagerness to attend a Glasgow Marxists meeting the following week!

The gathering at the top of Buchanan Street for the student and youth feeder march quickly accumulated demonstrators. By the time it set off at 11.45am, around 1,500 had gathered with an amazing array of UCU banners form the various universities and colleges from the surrounding area, showing the extent of support.

Meeting with the main march, we became aware of the sheer scale of it – several streets full of demonstrators, with the official gathering point of Shuttle St. completely inadequate for this number. Many demonstrators were stuck in the same place for a while as it took a considerable amount of time for the official march to filter out onto the streets along the agreed route! Row after row of banners made their way through the city centre. It took more than an hour for the entirety of the demo to reach the Barrowland Ballroom, where a rally was to be held. By this point the numbers looked to be at least, if not more than, 20,000 – this is compared to how the 20,000 strong STUC demo in October of last year looked. The amount of people was far too much for the 2,000 capacity Barrowlands, which was filled in about 10 minutes. Most demonstrators became quickly aware of this and turned back; the demo had largely dispersed by 3pm, 8 hours after N30 had begun for most of those there.

Few could have predicted how big the N30 demos were going to be. Cameron, panicking, tried to play it down, saying that the day had been a ‘damp squib’. ‘Damp squib’? Several hundred thousand protestors on the streets of Britain and several million out on strike in the single biggest day of action since 1926 would say otherwise. In Glasgow – which had probably the largest demo other than London – and elsewhere, this may well be a turning point.

Strikes have the tendency to bring about a change in consciousness in those that experience them. N30 will for many be their first experience of strike action; for others, their first experience of one so large and generalised. A developing in consciousness is to be anticipated from this, preparing workers for the struggles that lie ahead.

Nov 30^th is only the beginning; whilst workers will face attack after attack on wages and working conditions in the coming months and years, these strikes underline the strength and power that the working class has. It is this that we must use to fight back.

Historic March in Edinburgh 

by Tam Burke (Prospect member, in a personal capacity)

Tourists looking down from the Castle saw history being made below them as Johnston Terrace was jammed with clerks, cooks and cleaners, teachers, librarians, radiographers, nurses, lectures, bin men and women, jannies, curators, students, thousands more of good humoured but determined public sector workers and their bairns determined not to be “robbed of their pension”, as I was told by a First Davison Association (top management union) picket at the court.  

Unison NHS members in Canaan Lane when I joked they’d next bring the Government down , replied “We wish we could.  Students stood with their lecturers outside the University Old College, while the Unison branch there supplied tea and coffee. About twenty Prospect and PCS members united on a colourful picket at the National Museum in Chambers Street before going off to take their place amongst the thousands who filled the Royal Mile down to rally by the  Holyrood Palace and the Scottish Parliament.. Heads were high. Many people, as in my branch, were striking for the first time, but their enthusiasm to do something practical was obvious. Only 19 Socialist Appeal sold, but there was not enough time to get round that huge crowd of ordinary and decent people, from the 99% of society, out against the attacks from the rich 1%. It was a great day!

London - London College of Communication

By UAL Marxists

London College of Communication was shut down today. A handful of managerial staff went in plus one lecturer. 20 students went in who had been told they had to attend his lecture, plus maybe half a dozen more who went in then came out, this out of a total student population of 6000. There was a solid contingent of pickets from GMB, Unison and UCU - 30 or so in total. During last year's strikes most of the students crossed the picket lines. During the last week the Marxist Society had been leafletting and had posters around the college asking students to support their staff and not come in. Yesterday in the canteen when we were leafletting we told everyone the college would be closed today anyway, so there was no point in coming in. That might have helped! Anyway, whatever the reason, 20 or so going in out of 6000 is a big change. We have begun to establish the basic trade union principle that you don't cross picket lines, which didn't exist last year. That's a step forward. We received a donation of £10 to us from a UCU member, plus a very welcome jam doughnut from a GMB picket.

London - Bethnal Green

By Niklas Albin Svensson, Bethnal Green & Bow Labour Party (personal capacity)

Me and my partner ventured out in the morning and walked along Bethnal Green Road. I passed two closed schools, before reaching the Bethnal Green One Stop Shop, run by Tower Hamlets Council. The pickets were stood on the main road, handing out leaflets. They were very friendly and after we expressed our solidarity, they gave us two badges. They explained that the strike was practically solid and the union members from different unions had been really good. The only problem they had were agency staff, who could not be balloted. It's a bit of a scandal that Tower Hamlets labour-majority council employs so much of agency staff.

Further down the road we encountered a picket outside one of the main council offices on Roman Road. The pickets explained that their office was closed but they decided to have a picket anyway as it was very well placed on the main road with lots of passers-by. Indeed, many of the cars honked their horns as they passed the picket line.

Essex

By Steve Jones

Around a thousand trade unionists marched thru the centre of Chelmsford in Essex in what must have been the largest such protest since the days of the Peasant Revolt!

All the main striking unions were there alongside some school students, pensioner groups and others from the Labour movement. The mood was very upbeat with a determination to see this fight through to the end. Another protest also took place in Southend with strikers nearer London going to the march in the Capital.

Worcester Unions on the march

By Maggie Fenwick Unison Worcestershire Acute Hospitals, Personal Capacity

On the eve of the 30th November  I, like many other public sector workers in Worcester, was making sandwiches, filling flasks full of coffee and digging out themal T shirts ready for cold picket lines. The pickets were set up before sunrise at the hospitals in Worcestershire. A lot of activists turned out, but unfortunately  last minute scare emails sent out  by management told staff they would be breaking the law if more than six were picketing and that continuity of service would be broken if they participated in the strike.

However, the pickets did as much as they could to explain the case to hospital workers and maintain the picket line until 10.00. How could we measure our success or failure? Simply  look at the staff car park! The number of parking bays vacant, an unseen sight on a normal day, indicated that a large number had heeded the call to stay away.

So after a warming cup of coffee we all set off for a march and rally in Worcester city centre.  Worcester Trades Union  Council (WTUC) had organised the rally to take place in ‘Tramps’ a nightclub, more famous for a Monday night venue for eliminated X Factor contestants to perform in than a venue for the labour movement, and with a capcity of 1,250 it was a high risk strategy whether it could be filled. 

This was such an issue that it nearly split the WTUC in half with a section prefering a smaller hall with a capacity of only 155, but the trade union activists that had been involved in the 30th June strike were confident that we would need a hall larger than 250. So it was heart warming that as we reached the assembly point the street was occupied with 650 public sector workers plus families. 

The march set off with trade union  banners, flags and placards visible to all. The majority of shoppers applauded as we passed by. The only ugly insident was someone who had  swallowed  the Tory lies hanranguing  the marchers. The irony here is if his blood pressure had got any higher, he would have had to rely on the paramedics in the march to keep him going. The march snaked out along the High Street to become the biggest labour movement march ever seen in Worcester.

It took over 35 minutes for the marchers to file in and take their seats before the rally could begin. Keynote speakers addressing the packed nightclub included Kevin Greenway of the PCS NEC who told the rally that they should be proud to say enough is enough while Ian Lawrence, NAPO Assistant General Secretary, said, “Shame on the Labour Party for not backing the strikers 100%”.

Max Hyde, NUT NEC, making a return visit to Worcester after having addresed a rally of 350 in June, said. “It is not about pensions but about fairness. Public sector workers are being made to pay for a problem caused  by bankers”.  To answer the question of the public versus private workers Max said “We don’t want equallity of misery. We want equality for all public and private workers: decent pensions for all.”

The meeting finished with a rallying call that this is not the end but the start of  future actions to defend pensions, including rolling strikes.  It is unfortunate that the chair rapidly closed the meeting rather than allowing contributions from the floor.

Teachers, healthcare workers, local government workers and civil servants all sang out in Worcester with one voice that said we are not going to accept the destruction of our pension rights. Such was the harmony shown that, in the catchphase of the X Factor show, “we nailed it” and the Tories should be aware for we all have the X Factor.

The day in Birmingham

By Dr. Andy Thompson, UNITE (MPU) in a personal capacity

Here are some impressions of the Nov 30 protest from Birmingham.

08:30 Arrived at the Picket Line at the Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health Foundation NHS Trust HQ. Three entrances covered. Chief Exec came down to tell us it was the first time she had crossed a picket line and it was her pension too! At least she had a union placard in her window overlooking the gate. Lots of passing support in cars and non-unionised support going in.

10:00 Some jobsworth security officer came to ask us to take the flags off the landlord's fence. Since none of us knew who had put them there we politely declined, and firmly refused to move out of the way when he suggested he would remove them himself!

11:00 Departed for the 15 minute walk to the march through Birmingham.

11:15 Arrived at central Birmingham march location to find thousands waiting to depart. Union contingents were supported by Pensioners, Anticuts Groups and the Occupy Birmingham protestors. Apparently the march was unofficial and illegal as the Council had tried to charge the TUC for closing the streets and policing it. The TUC had therefore called it off, but had not been able to tell the members! The resulting 15,000 strong march through central Birmingham, was a model of working class discipline and organisation, and applauded almost along its whole length by patient motorists, pedestrians, students and shop and office staff.

13:30 Rally at the NIA with appearances from Brendan barber (TUC), Dave Prentis (UNISON), Tony Woodley (UNITE), Chris Keates (NASUWT), Janice Godrich (PCS) and others. Plenty of support from the platform for the ideas that there is enough money, just in the wrong hands, that the fight is for jobs and services as well as pensions, and that we as a class are rediscovering our strength and will need to strike again and again in this campaign and in others against this government that has less mandate than we had for strike action. Afterwards I was engaged in a conversation with a colleague about the need to broaden the grass roots organisation in the workplace, disregarding inter-union rivalries, to enable the membership to hold the leaders to their militant promises of further action and intransigance in the struggle betwen the 1% and the working class.

Coventry on N30. The Biggest Trade Union March since the 1970s.

On the day it turned out to be the biggest trade union demonstration in Coventry since the 1970s. They came in their hundreds from all parts of the city and from all public sector trade unions as well as from trade unions that were not on strike that day - the FBU was well represented. By the time of the rally at the end of the march through Coventry city centre some 2,500 trade unionists and their families were crammed into the area known as Speakers Corner opposite the Council House.

To ensure that the day itself would run as smoothly as possible, weeks of careful preparation had taken place. The first meeting of the loosely formed joint public sector trade union coordinating committee - Unison, Unite, NUT, PCS and UCU - took place on October 19th. Up to November 28th, five separate meetings took place where we meticulously planned a whole number of steps for us to take to ensure as massive a turnout as possible on the day. 

In the week leading up to N30 we had a full page advert in the local free paper paid for by nine trade unions. It called on trade unionists and the people of Coventry to turn out on the day. We also planned careful stewarding of the march since to have had road closures would have cost thousands of pounds. On the eve of the march we had a meeting of about 40 trade unionists, many of them shop stewards, who would act as march stewards on the day and keep good order as well as protect the marchers at potential danger spots. A risk assessment of the route had taken place and stewarding guidelines produced. There were also rumours of a possible EDL interruption so we were well prepared.

On the day itself the assembly point was the steps of Coventry Cathedral. Many gathered there but trade unions also had their own assembly points from where they marched in as feeder marches. Unite gathered outside Transport House in Short Street; Unison in the square in front of the Belgrade Theatre; PCS outside Sherbourne House off Friars Road and UCU from the entrance to City College Coventry in Hillfields. Most of those on the feeder marches had been picketing workplaces since the early hours.

Just before 11am we set off from the Cathedral and wound our way around the city centre to the rally point. We had planned for there to be trade union speakers each of whom would speak for a maximum of three minutes in order for there to be a shortish and brisk rally to enable many to go off to Birmingham afterwards for the rally there. In the end, however, a mixture of enthusiasm, nerves and anger resulted in speeches going on for longer than planned.

However, the crowd stayed and listened and clapped and cheered with the biggest cheers reserved for any mention of the banks and bankers being at fault and the need to take action against them. This chimed with the reception given in the Birmingham rally to the comments made by Brendan Barber of the TUC when he laid the fault of the crisis at the door of the bankers and their practices.

Not only in Coventry but all over the country some two million trade unionists turned out in response to the strike call of their unions after democratic balloting in favour of strike action. What a difference it makes when the official labour and trade union movement lifts its little finger. Members responded and others who were not previously unionised took the step of joining. In my union, UCU, some 2,500 new members joined in the weeks leading up to the strike.

The other notable feature of the marches and rallies was the fantastic reception given by the public on the routes. Most of them stopped and cheered and gladly took leaflets from the various trade unions that explained the reasons for the strike action. Very rare were the negative comments or boos. This augers well for the future as the government propaganda machine led by the BBC tries to drive a wedge between workers taking action to defend ALL pensions and workers in other sections of the economy.

The drivel from the BBC in the days leading up to the action was despicable. If any of the newscasters are trade union members, their own unions should take action against them. We were told that the day’s strike would lead to half a billion pound in lost production. Yet no mention was made of the minimum £10bn loss of production from there being more than one million young people on the dole. In a democratically planned economy, with the main means of production socially owned, the 2.63 million idling on the dole would find work and we could increase social wealth by at least £25bn in the first year alone.

N30 is now over. It showed the potential power that we have when we move in a united and determined manner. The main question now is… what next? This mobilisation built on the UCU/NUS national demonstration in London on N10 in 2010. We then moved on to the magnificent TUC organised demo of March 26^th 2011, followed by the smaller but more effective public sector strikes of June 30^th. Where to now?

Can we learn something from our brothers and sisters in other countries in Europe who are facing similar attacks? In Greece there have been at least 16 general strikes and many others in Ireland, Spain, Portugal and Italy. The result for Greece and Italy has been the imposition of governments at the behest of the European Central Bank and the IMF despite the democratic wishes of the peoples of these countries. When the future of capitalism is at stake even so-called democracy is brushed aside to reveal the naked rule of capital.

So what are the next steps for us? Firstly, to build on the success of the local and regional trade union links that have been formed between workers in the public sector. Secondly, to extend these links to workers and their trade unions in other sectors of the economy. Next, to work in and through the labour and trade union movement to build the call for a national one day general strike so that we as workers can feel the power of our united voice. But finally, if all we do is march and demonstrate, then we will not stop this government and its attacks on our jobs, wages, pensions and conditions.

What they do is at the behest of capital, of the rich and powerful, of the spivs and speculators in the banks and finance houses. These political representatives of capital now in government will do all possible to defend capitalism from itself. We in turn can only defend our class, the working class, by advancing a political programme that begins the process of putting an end to capitalism and begins the transformation of society towards socialism. That begins with the taking into public ownership of the banks and building societies under democratic control, together with the main monopolies which dominate our lives.

In that regard the failure of the national leadership of the political wing of the labour movement, the Labour Party, starting with Ed Miliband, to come out unequivocally in favour of the national strike on N30 has to be condemned. Yet another glorious opportunity missed to come out firmly on the side of working people and their families, to defend them from the attacks of the Tories and their henchmen in the Lib Dems.  Contrast that lack of action with LP elected representatives in Wales and Scotland as well as here in Coventry where none of the Labour councillors crossed picket lines and the leader of the Labour council spoke at the rally in support of the strike.

Darrall Cozens, UCU, Coventry TUC and Coventry NW Labour Party.

Picture gallery