On Saturday 20th October, the Trades Union Congress has called for its second march against the cuts and 'for a future that works'. South London Solidarity Federation has announced that it will join the feeder march starting at Geraldine Mary Harmsworth Park (opposite the Imperial War Museum), in support of direct action, self-organisation and solidarity towards a future without work, or at least without work for bosses who get rich off of our backs.
The last two years have seen round after round of attack on the living and working conditions of the wider working class of South London, and, with Workfare being used to fill vacancies and hound the unemployed, tuition fees increased threefold and protection against unfair dismissal and representation at work slashed, the government's plans spell disaster for all of us.
In response, there has been a series of strikes across the country, culminating in the mass public sector strike of N30, where almost 2 million people stopped work. There also been a spirited anti-Workfare campaign which has seen a large number of companies forced to withdraw from the government's scheme, and a spate of wildcat strikes and occupations, both of workplaces and neighbourhood resources threatened by the hatchet.
Now SLSF calls on anarchists, libertarian communists and militant workers from across the country who agree with these principles to join us on the demonstration to provide a visible presence and a revolutionary alternative to the weak compromise and reformist bluster of the TUC.
Many of us joined the trade unions in the N30 public sector strike last year over pensions - a great expression of working class solidarity - only to see the union head honchos fall over themselves to make backroom deals with the government, one by one. It’s only us - the working class (unionised and non-unionised, employed and unemployed) - who can stop the cuts and attacks on our quality of life, not the union bosses.
All the TUC unions can offer us is sellouts like Dave Prentiss of Unison (full of anti-banker rhetoric while accepting a directorship at the Bank of England and selling out his members' pension schemes) and Aaron Porter from the NUS (who condemned his own student movement before climbing up the careerist ladder into the pro-cuts Labour Party). We can’t put our faith in anything other than our own solidarity and ability to organise. We must take a lead in organising action ourselves rather than waiting on the TUC or anyone else to do it for us.
We also intend to argue that it is capitalism that has caused the crisis that has led to these cuts and that in response to their class war we need to reciprocate: meeting cuts with direct action - strikes, occupations and civil disobedience - whilst fighting for a different society which puts human needs first.
Bring red and black flags, banners and propaganda. Only by organising and showing that our methods work will we be able to build a mass movement that can beat the cuts, thereby laying the first foundations of a new world where we work for each other's general good, not for the bosses' profit.
Called by South London Solidarity Federation
In response, there has been a series of strikes across the country, culminating in the mass public sector strike of N30, where almost 2 million people stopped work. There also been a spirited anti-Workfare campaign which has seen a large number of companies forced to withdraw from the government's scheme, and a spate of wildcat strikes and occupations, both of workplaces and neighbourhood resources threatened by the hatchet.
Now SLSF calls on anarchists, libertarian communists and militant workers from across the country who agree with these principles to join us on the demonstration to provide a visible presence and a revolutionary alternative to the weak compromise and reformist bluster of the TUC.
Many of us joined the trade unions in the N30 public sector strike last year over pensions - a great expression of working class solidarity - only to see the union head honchos fall over themselves to make backroom deals with the government, one by one. It’s only us - the working class (unionised and non-unionised, employed and unemployed) - who can stop the cuts and attacks on our quality of life, not the union bosses.
All the TUC unions can offer us is sellouts like Dave Prentiss of Unison (full of anti-banker rhetoric while accepting a directorship at the Bank of England and selling out his members' pension schemes) and Aaron Porter from the NUS (who condemned his own student movement before climbing up the careerist ladder into the pro-cuts Labour Party). We can’t put our faith in anything other than our own solidarity and ability to organise. We must take a lead in organising action ourselves rather than waiting on the TUC or anyone else to do it for us.
We also intend to argue that it is capitalism that has caused the crisis that has led to these cuts and that in response to their class war we need to reciprocate: meeting cuts with direct action - strikes, occupations and civil disobedience - whilst fighting for a different society which puts human needs first.
Bring red and black flags, banners and propaganda. Only by organising and showing that our methods work will we be able to build a mass movement that can beat the cuts, thereby laying the first foundations of a new world where we work for each other's general good, not for the bosses' profit.
Called by South London Solidarity Federation
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