Witney woken (Ox-Fly)
The Ox-Fly | 13.02.2011 18:24 | Public sector cuts | Workers' Movements | Oxford
On Sunday 9th January, anarchists from Oxford joined a march in Witney, David Cameron's constituency.
Article taken from Issue 3 of The Ox-Fly - Oxford's radical newsletter:
http://oxfly.theoarc.org.uk
Article taken from Issue 3 of The Ox-Fly - Oxford's radical newsletter:
http://oxfly.theoarc.org.uk
The demo, against postal privatisation and cuts, was organised by the Communication Worker's Union (CWU). With other like-minded folks from Liverpool and London we handed out leaflets arguing for workers control of struggles:
http://libcom.org/files/fwc.pdf
The demo was lively with 500-1000 people taking part. However, the rally afterwards killed off the energy. It featured trade union leaders and a Labour Party bigwig, who met a chilly reception. People began to drift away. The exception to the usual speeches came from 12yr old Nicky Wishart and his sister Beth.
Nicky organised a protest against the closure of his youth centre. He was taken out of school by antiterrorism police and threatened that if anything went wrong he'd be arrested as the organiser! The protest went ahead, and clearly inspired them; they spoke with more passion than the rest of the speakers combined, and got by far the biggest cheers.
One aim of the protest was to build up to 12th January, when plans to privatise the Royal Mail had a 3rd reading in Parliament. They will probably be approved, resulting in job cuts, attacks on working conditions and a less reliable service for the public. But the fight to defeat it must not end there - direct action could make it impossible to enforce.
http://libcom.org/files/fwc.pdf The demo was lively with 500-1000 people taking part. However, the rally afterwards killed off the energy. It featured trade union leaders and a Labour Party bigwig, who met a chilly reception. People began to drift away. The exception to the usual speeches came from 12yr old Nicky Wishart and his sister Beth.
Nicky organised a protest against the closure of his youth centre. He was taken out of school by antiterrorism police and threatened that if anything went wrong he'd be arrested as the organiser! The protest went ahead, and clearly inspired them; they spoke with more passion than the rest of the speakers combined, and got by far the biggest cheers.
One aim of the protest was to build up to 12th January, when plans to privatise the Royal Mail had a 3rd reading in Parliament. They will probably be approved, resulting in job cuts, attacks on working conditions and a less reliable service for the public. But the fight to defeat it must not end there - direct action could make it impossible to enforce.
The Ox-Fly
Comments
Hide the following 3 comments
If not a rally?
14.02.2011 13:47
ANon2
A better rally
14.02.2011 21:07
I work for a mainstream NGO, and we have recently been exploring the concept of using our public profile and large supporter database to get people out on actions. But then not talking at the event (other than a low profile stall), but creating the space for people from the grassroots to do so. So far, this tactic has been very successful and we are getting very good feedback from people that come to our events.
Another (A)
Leave the kids alone
15.02.2011 11:23
The speaker should know that most of what Nicki and Beth said was inspired by their association with trade unionists who rallied round Nicki when he was intimidated by police to call off the Witney demo against youth club cuts so he felt confident enough to go ahead in the face of the police threats to hold him responsible for any trouble.
Inspiring though they were they Nicki and Beth are not in a position to lead CWU workers to strike, that is why it is importatnt to have the likes of Paul Garraway on the platform who has helped to lead Royal Mail strikes in Oxford. Boring to the commentator but essential to any meaningful struggle aganst privatisation - which was the main point of the demo.
Anon2