Posted on Facebook on Friday, 1 July 2011

It is absolutely clear what the Tories want, namely a massive increase in the reserve army of labour so that wages will be forced downwards and their privatising pals can make massive profits on back of the emisseration of the masses. I listen to their measly words on the BBC saying they want to make sure the lowest paid public sector workers get the very best pensions. That is such a lie and is insulting. As a low paid civil servant I take home £702 a month, I will get about £800 per year as a pittance pension from my job. What would really help here is for a campaign on wage levels across the country to increase, for tax avoiders like Phillip Green to be disenfranchised, for part time workers to be given equal rights no matter how many hours they work, for all defence spending to be frozen pending a referendum on what we need it for, and for a state pension that really reflects the respect we owe to our senior citizens, as they do in Germany and other European Countries. And let us not believe that the country can’t afford it, it can if it taxes the rich until the pips squeek (to coin a phrase), and if the rich bastards try to hold us to ransom by saying they will leave, then nationalise them, seize their assets and send them off on a boat to a destination of their choice. It is time we stood up for ourselves. The teachers and other public sector workers who struck yesterday are heroes in my view, and I hope the rest of the workers in this country have the will to join them in solidarity when the current talks inevitably break down (as they surely will as I believe it is Camerons plan to take on the Public Sector unions in a fight to a finish). This current dispute is not like the Miners Strike in one major way, Margaret Thatcher was able to stockpile millions of tons of coal in the heart of the Yorkshire coalfields prior to the miner’s strike, thus enabling the power supplies to remain turned on. Cameron however does not have the luxury of hundreds of thousands of trained public sector workers waiting in the wings to step in and keep the services running. This is why I believe the current dispute is winnable, what it needs is for all of us to mobilise support and have the argument with as many people as possible. I want a pay rise, a decent pension and decent publicly owned and run services, and I will fight tooth and nail for them. Public opinion is our opinion, we are the public so when you hear people trotting out the Tory propaganda, don’t just stand there, take them on in argument, we have right on our side this time, it is time to make a stand.