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Crown Office strikers show how to beat back the bosses and the Tories...

WU MEMBERS AT CROWN POST Offices are absolutely right to move straight back to the picket lines after talks with bosses failed to deliver on the key issues. The fact that the union managed to secure an outstanding 100 payment for staff at a meeting last week shows that strikes can force the bosses to shift. But they want to get away with conceding as little as possible. By escalating the action, strikers can make sure they dont get away with this. No progress was made on the bigger issues of pay and the Post Offices plans to close or franchise 76 Crown offices affecting over 800 jobs. With the fifth day of action, these strikes are showing its possible to stand up to the Tories and the bosses who think working class people should pay for a crisis caused by the rich. Why should 76 offices be threatened with franchise or closure? Why should some 800 workers face job loss? Why should members have to bear a continued pay freeze which in effect amounts to a pay cut in real terms against inflation? They shouldnt. The money is there if the rich are made to pay for the crisis they caused. Strikes are still the most effective way to halt the attacks, so it is vital that the union escalates action after today if management still refuse to budge. Post Office workers are not alone in their fight. In CWU, members at Royal Mail are starting a mass campaign for the biggest YES vote possible in the ballot to take on the bosses for decent pay, conditions and against privatisation. This could see these members striking back too.

DEFEND OFFICES AND JOBS, ESCALATE STRIKES TO WIN!

Strikers stand firm at Crown Post Office

November. Meanwhile, firefighters in the FBU look set to fight over pensions. All these national scale strikes are opportunities to coordinate strikes and hit back together. We need these fights to be coordinated at a national level. We cannot simply wait for Labour to get re-elected. Miliband has repeatedly condemned strikes and reinforced the Tory mantra that cuts are necessary.

Rhetoric

The 2011 pensions strike of 2.6 million workers revealed the collective power we have to beat the attacks. Had the strikes been escalated and spread to the private sector, we could have won an important victory. Despite the lack of lead at a national level from union leaders and setbacks in the coordinated action of 2011, there is a resilient mood for resistance. One example of this is the recent result in the Unite general secretary election. Jerry Hicks managed to win 36 percent of the vote on a platform calling for action, not just rhetoric, to fight the Tories. He also called for the general secretary of Unite to take a workers wage.

Big demonstrations in local areas against hospital closures, and widespread resistance in response to the Tories nasty and ideologically driven Bedroom Tax show the potential to take the attacks head on. We cannot allow our unity to be broken by moves to scapegoat one section of the working class break, whether thats racism or an attempt to blame those on benefits. We must stand together and fight the real enemiesthe Tories and the rich they represent. We can smash Tory austerity, but itll take a serious programme of coordinated strikes.

Linking

Clearly

Linking struggles and pushing for escalation can mount pressure on union leaders to call coordinated strikes at a national level. This is how we can bring down the Tories. The public support for the last CWU strike was fantastic. People understand that the attacks post office workers face are linked to a wider austerity agenda. Workers should make sure that strikes are escalated into a hard-hitting programme of action if bosses dont back down.

Recent weeks have seen local or sectional strikes across the country as workers stand up to the savage austerity agenda being pushed by the Tories and bosses. A quarter of a million PCS civil service workers have started a programme of strikes against austerity. This week, the cultures sector of the union will be out, and the first week of June will see joint rolling regional action by DWP and tax workers. At the end of June, PCS will strike nationally as teachers across NUT and NASUWT walk out in the north west region, with a national joint union teachers strike planned for

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