By Logan Williams
The TUC day of action on February 1st will see one of the largest coordinated days of action within the British labour movement in decades. Around 300,000 NEU teaching staff members, 100,000 PCS civil service members, 70,000 UCU lecturers, 13,000 ASLEF and RMT train drivers and 1,000 Unite London and Eastern Abellio bus drivers will be taking strike action in the fight to gain an above- inflation pay rise. These valued key workers have been forced to undertake strike action to ensure they are able to deal with the ever-worsening cost of living crisis affecting Britain.
Arise Festival are hosting an event on the evening of the TUC day of action called Building the fightback in 2023 which will see striking workers, leading figures from across the labour movement, community campaigns and the left come together to discuss how we as a movement can build the growing fightback, co-ordinate the resistance and popularise policies that put people before profit.
The event will feature key figures of the labour movement, such as Diane Abbott MP who argues that “the current strike wave that has been unleashed is as a direct result of government policies to benefit big business by impoverishing workers in recent years” and goes on to call on all those in the progressive and labour movement to “now do everything we can in terms of moral, political and financial support for the strikers because they really are fighting for us all.”
Diane will be joined by Holly Turner of NHS Workers Say No! who argues that February 1st “is a pivotal moment… We are coming together and rejecting this governments divisive tactics, and rejecting their attempts on our right to strike. ” She emphasises the need to unite the current wave of action with all the “various stands of the campaign against Tory attacks on our right to resist – from campaigns like this against the attacks on our right to strike, to climate protesters, the ongoing BLM movement and many others.”
The event will also hear from the Secretary of the Socialist Campaign Group, Richard Burgon MP, who recently attacked the Tories ‘strikes bill’ as it seeks to “restrict the rights of both individual workers and of the collective trade union movement.” Richard adds: “This bill is not about providing a basic level of service to the public – it is about breaking the growing trade union strength. It is part of a plan to defeat workers who are simply trying to protect their pay, terms and conditions.”
We will also hear from Matt Willgress of Arise, who will focus on the role the Labour left can play in supporting the growing wave of action against the Tory government. Matt argues that the “Labour left needs to look at ways that its different elements can work much better together to win support for these struggles in the Labour Party and indeed expose the front bench’s failure to get behind them.”
He goes on to argue that one key method of completing this could be through key organisations circulating “a model motion each month on the same key issue, or even better, the same model motion, that could then be taken to CLPs across the country,” to ensure the Labour Left is putting its values into practice.
As well as these fantastic speakers we will be joined by Nabeela Mowlana, Chair of Young Labour, who argues that “each day the cost-of-living emergency deepens – but rather than give workers a decent pay rise, the Tories are criminalising striking workers and their unions.” Nabeela adds: “The stark choice we face is that we resist the Tory offensive, or we all suffer – and that means the movement as a whole needs to get fully behind all those taking industrial action.”
Arise’s Building the fightback event promises to be a key step in uniting the industrial and political wings of movement against the against the Tories’ reactionary agenda as a whole.
Join us on February 1st to discuss how we win a Labour government and how we as a movement win policies that put people before profit!
- You can follow Arise – A Festival of Left Ideas at https://www.facebook.com/ariseleftfestival and https://twitter.com/arise_festival
- Online Rally Building the Fightback in 2023. 18.30, Wednesday February 1st. With Mark Serwotka, PCS General Secretary // Diane Abbott MP // Dave Ward, CWU General Secretary // Richard Burgon MP // Helen O’Connor, GMB Southern Region & Peoples Assembly // Liz Cabeza, Acorn (Haringey) // Nabeela Mowlana, Young Labour // Holly Turner, NHS Workers Say No! // Riccardo La Torre, FBU // John McDonnell MP and more. Get your tickets at bit.ly/fightback23
Logan Williams is an NEU activist and Arise Festival Volunteer
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