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Strike!

MellySingsDoom said:
What froggy said, satbp - welcome, and please stick around here :)
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Thankyou Mell and Thankyou Froggy also for the welcomes .

I would also like to make a point on why i put the posts i put . There is a well known saying that 95% of people know Tis the one about never judging a book by its cover .Through this thread i have read of people outing suspected benefit frauds along with so many people (Especially mentally ill sufferers ) to which are constantly judged on the lack of there visible disability , nobody knows what there next door neighbour has gone through , or the guy down the street , or even the girl who is at a club at 2.am out with friends ( would you still judge her if she had been in some tragic life changing situation where she had suffered for the last say 5 years of her life and finally after all that time her friends had finally convinced her to go out , after promising that they would stay by her side throughout the night . Would you then praise this girl for doing this after such a long time or still complain that she is on D.L.A and out in a club ???? But yes I wonder how many thought yea just another spounger scabbing of hard working people after my 1st post .

So many people are so quick to judge in this thread and even in this world without even knowing what the person they are judging has been through. I am all for the hardworkin people of this society who strike for shit pay and equallity with a decent wage Especially the public sector where they work all gods given hours for pennies.I support them 110% tis the harsh words of some people and the stereotypical judgemental opinion towards people and there lack of non understanding of " Not all disabilities can been seen with the eye" It takes a heart sometimes to see when the eyes are clouded .
 
ViolentPanda said:
Each chancer who pulls a fast one on the DWP makes it harder for the next genuinely disabled person to claim successfully.
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Here, do you mean generating data of compliance to the criteria set by the state for worthiness for welfare, by 'interrogation' by whatever means – assessment, reporting, polls? Data used by media outlets to work up the narratives you're on about in the benefit uprating thread (Which catgirl maybe out to have a look at)? The common perception feeding back into policy etc.?
A Latvian (unemployment 20%) enters the UK and comes by cash in hand without meeting legal criteria and bypassing contributions taken from formal pay. From the point of view of uncritical 'realism,' this person's actions may undermine local unemployed, 'legit' migrant or native, to earn at a minimum wage rate etc. The wider unemployment situation he managed to flee, relatively, is prior to his cash in hand means of sustaining himself. The wretched life he essentially shares with the unemployed working class in the scenario, their means of sustaining themselves totally mediated and access to those means not guaranteed, is prior to that international unemployment context. The guy potentially adds to a data set, which could be turned on migrants better meeting the dictated criteria, through, basically, divising hatemongering.
Should he be exposed and made to materially suffer a penalty?

I know it's a shite analogy, but I'm interested in what you think.
(As for the angle I'm coming at this from, I don't believe there is such a thing as a working class benefit 'cheat,' that the only meaningful ethical calculation is one between means of subsistance versus risk of penalty for the individual claimant, that the whole machinery of assessment of claimants isn't be be respected, and that there are no uses for ideas like 'laziness' that aren't deeply ideological. And so on, and so on.)

-------------
That aside – I'd hoped to use picketing to make contacts across department and unions, but the split-up arrangement and sectarian undercurrent on the day mean it wasn't going to happen. I've heard of a few people managing to work out general meetings and even strike committees, and wondered if anyone has made (now or in the past) any progress that way? A network that crosses union lines (both inter-union, and union-nonunion) to collectively monitor the situation, follow up any strike repurcussions and allow real engagement. Talking from somewhere where the local formal union branches are stone dead. It'd be a great basis from which to let the strikebreakers know maybe there's redemption waiting in round 2...
 
shaun balls said:
Here, do you mean generating data of compliance to the criteria set by the state for worthiness for welfare, by 'interrogation' by whatever means – assessment, reporting, polls? Data used by media outlets to work up the narratives you're on about in the benefit uprating thread (Which catgirl maybe out to have a look at)? The common perception feeding back into policy etc.?
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Through all of the above, plus the stark fact that there is targeted selective use of data to generate a discourse which contains a "common perception" favourable to the policy preferences of those in power.

A Latvian (unemployment 20%) enters the UK and comes by cash in hand without meeting legal criteria and bypassing contributions taken from formal pay. From the point of view of uncritical 'realism,' this person's actions may undermine local unemployed, 'legit' migrant or native, to earn at a minimum wage rate etc. The wider unemployment situation he managed to flee, relatively, is prior to his cash in hand means of sustaining himself. The wretched life he essentially shares with the unemployed working class in the scenario, their means of sustaining themselves totally mediated and access to those means not guaranteed, is prior to that international unemployment context. The guy potentially adds to a data set, which could be turned on migrants better meeting the dictated criteria, through, basically, divising hatemongering.
Should he be exposed and made to materially suffer a penalty?
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My opinion? He shouldn't suffer any more penalty than a "native" might for working cash-in-hand, especially if he's from an EU member-state with a reciprocal agreement in place.
Hate-mongering against internal EU migration for employment purposes is pointless while we're part of the EU. What tends to get forgotten in the rush to condemn the in-flow of mostly eastern European workers is that this country has an out-flow to many of those same countries in the form of expatriate settlers.
We also need to examine something that much of the media studiously ignores - the cui bono? in the equation - who benefits from immigration? Often it's the very same class that most loudly condemns immigration.
That's not to say that immigration isn't an issue for the working class, but working-class anti-immigrationism seems, at least to me, to be episodic in nature, arising during times of extreme pressure on the working class environment, and subsiding thereafter. It's reactive to circumstance rather than an ingrained POV for (IMO) many w/c people.

I know it's a shite analogy, but I'm interested in what you think.
(As for the angle I'm coming at this from, I don't believe there is such a thing as a working class benefit 'cheat,' that the only meaningful ethical calculation is one between means of subsistance versus risk of penalty for the individual claimant, that the whole machinery of assessment of claimants isn't be be respected, and that there are no uses for ideas like 'laziness' that aren't deeply ideological. And so on, and so on.)
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Basic labelling theory, in other words. :) Labelling someone a "claimant" or a "thief" assigns the entirety of the discourse on the subject of "claimant" or "thief" to the individual, so if you call me a "claimant", then an observer will make assumptions about me based on the current discourse on claimants. They may conclude that I live in particular circumstances at one of a series of particular locations and that I'm of morally dubious character, based entirely on the label "claimant".

That aside – I'd hoped to use picketing to make contacts across department and unions, but the split-up arrangement and sectarian undercurrent on the day mean it wasn't going to happen. I've heard of a few people managing to work out general meetings and even strike committees, and wondered if anyone has made (now or in the past) any progress that way? A network that crosses union lines (both inter-union, and union-nonunion) to collectively monitor the situation, follow up any strike repurcussions and allow real engagement. Talking from somewhere where the local formal union branches are stone dead. It'd be a great basis from which to let the strikebreakers know maybe there's redemption waiting in round 2...
Click to expand...

There's a lot of inertia, and indeed resistance, within the various TUs to any kind of "general" action outisde of their control, unfortunately. :(
 
I fucking hate all that canting on about "UK PLC". I know that our pols are in thrall to business, and tend to think in instrumental terms, i.e. the sort of directorships they can wrangle post-parliament from the firms they arselick while they're there, but the UK isn't a fucking business, you daft out-of-touch neo-liberal cunts, and treating it as such only harms society. :mad:
 
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moar photos from the speechifying in the market square- is that balbi rocking a movember there in the bottom right?
 
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Hats were popular among those more sensitive to cold but several bald pates braved the freezing temperatures without coverage
 
heard some feedback at a branch meeting last night - someone reported that Management had 'Picket line Monitors' out and about :hmm:

and a steward reported that younger workers seemed happy enough to scab - presumably because they aren't that arsed yet about pensions....also several stewards reported seeing members scab - who they had previously defended at disciplinaries:mad:
 
Balbi said:
That's definitely me, striking my 'looking forward to a brighter tomorrow' soviet poster gaze.
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Both your tash and my imbibing of weed on a lunchtime break meant I completely didn't even spot you while me bred took photos. Jack fucking frost was out that day, and no mistake. It was icy from 7am till lunchtime then turned that way again around 2-3pm. The cunt
 
Rumours coming out of the TUC today that Prentis and Barber want to settle on the govts 'new' terms on Monday.
 
Thanks for that, very interesting blog, just read it -- albeit quickly ;)

Good to see that PCS are rated as non compromisers, but scary information overall nonetheless ....
 
From the SP

Today the TUC’s Public Sector Liaison Group (PSLG) met for the first time since the magnificent 30 November public sector strike. Disgracefully, Brendan Barber, general secretary of the TUC, argued that all of the trade unions should sign up to the government’s latest ‘heads of agreement’ on pensions, which would then allow Francis Maude to announce before Christmas that the strike has been settled. This was met with outrage by many of the public sector trade unions present.

Not one of the central demands of public sector workers has been met. All public sector workers are still being told to work longer, pay more and get less. The teaching unions NUT and NASUWT reported that they had been offered no serious concessions by the government, as did the civil servants’ union PCS, the Fire Brigades Union and representatives of workers in the NHS. In local government the only concession is to delay the attacks on pensions until 2014, provided that local government unions promise to accept the pain without a fight when it comes. Yet Dave Prentis - general secretary for UNISON – the biggest union in health and local government – argued for accepting this rotten deal. Hundreds of thousands of UNISON members who struck on 30 November will not agree.

November 30 showed the potential power of the working class in Britain. We can force this weak divided government to retreat, but only if the action is stepped up. The leadership of the TUC and UNISON were only forced to support N30 because of the pressure of rank and file trade unionists – now we need to do the same again. At the PSLG PCS demanded that the meeting name the day for the next day of national co-ordinated strike action. In Scotland UNISON delegates have already unanimously proposed 25 January as the day of the next strike. NSSN supporters need to pile on the pressure for the date of the next strike to be set before Christmas, to take place in January.

We immediately need to:

· Flood the TUC and UNISON leaderships with letters, resolutions and petitions of protest demanding that they do not sell-out the pensions struggle and immediately set the date for a strike in January in co-ordination with the other public sector unions.

· Members of all other public sector unions to send letters, resolutions and petitions to their National Executives demanding that they set the date for a strike in January in co-ordination with the other unions.

· Organise a mass lobby the next meeting of the TUC, which is taking place in early January.
 
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