More workers will be taking strike action, officially, today than on any date since 30th of November 2011.
Following the defeat of the defence of public service pensions in the early years of the last decade, many of us felt that it would be years before our movement was fit and ready to take such action again.
The combination of rising price inflation (which can certainly not be attributed to a "wage-price spiral”) with a vicious and declining Tory government prepared to launch unprecedented attacks upon the civil rights of workers and trade union members, has returned the class struggle to centre stage.
Even the draconian restrictions now imposed, by the 2016 Act, on the limited protection from civil liability when trade unions call strikes, have not prevented the calling of mass strike action at a national level (albeit some of our trade unions have a way to go to catch up).
Much of what has gone wrong in this country (and many others) over the past generation has been associated with the decline in strength and combat liberty of the trade union movement. Those of you who are still at work, and whose health permits you to participate in these vital struggles, I wish you all the luck in the world.
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