Thousands of teachers and health workers walked out of their jobs throughout the North today. They joined Housing Executive workers who have been on indefinite strike. Seven mass rallies were held to highlight the claim for higher wages as well as the deterioration of public services.
The chair at the Belfast rally won thunderous applause when he said ‘The union is strong but unions together are a risen people’.
The scale of anger against the Tory government was palpable. The Ulster Teachers Union, for example, is joining a strike for the first time ever in its history.
Gerry Murphy of the INTO tackled two questions constantly thrown at the unions. ‘Was it pointless?’ he asked and replied that the current strikes were only the start of turning pressure on the government. Padraig Mulholland of NIPSA came out even more clearly calling for a general strike.
Murphy went on to deal with the issue of ‘where is the money going to come from’? He pointed to the €32 million tax gap that was not collected from rich tax evaders. He noted a windfall tax on energy companies would help pay for wage rises.
Throughout the rallies the anger was directed at the Northern Ireland Office, the representatives of the London government over the North.
But the local mainstream parties are doing little to oppose them. They have just voted in local councils to increase rates by over 8%, pleading the usual ‘there is nothing that can be done’.
Yet if these council had been willing to defy the Tories, they could have joined in a wave of workers revolts.
February 28th was a big day of strike action but March 16th will be even bigger. Many more public sector workers are lining up to come on strike and this will be another step forward on the way to a general strike.
But even while momentum is building for a general strike, it should not be an alibi for doing little now. So while NIPSA was right to call for a general escalation, they should also bring out the clerical workers, alongside the maintenance workers who are on strike in the Housing Executive.
A set back came when the general secretary of the UCU, the lecturers’ union, unilaterally called off a planned strike for a ‘pause’ to enter negotiations.
Workers need to stick together to defeat the Tories. A crucial element of this will be transforming a strike which is run from the top into a grassroots movement where workers gather in assemblies to determine the direction of action.
