PCS strike

I attended the PCS Swansea strike action meeting today. There was about 30-40 people there along with Stop the War, Defend Council Housing campaigners who contribute to many an interesting meeting!

It's disgraceful that Gordon Brown is intending to cull 100,000 Civil Service jobs over the UK. We are no doubt going to suffer disproportionately as Wales employs a large percentage of Civil Servants. The job losses are very worrying, especially given that it will affect Welsh economic vitality, and will undoubtedly hit many Objective 1 areas of Wales hard. Gordon Brown has been portrayed as this new Socialist Leader that is set to follow on from the right wing Tony, but it is Brown who has been prioritising the said job cuts without compromise, or thought for the workers on the ground.

One of the best speakers today was the Department of Work and Pensions National Executive rep. He spoke passionately about his experiences of unfair pay, unfair treatment in the workplace, and his fight to retain the Civil Service jobs. He, (as did many of the speakers) mentioned the hypocrisy of the Labour Party in Wales- with Sue Essex and Val Lloyd AM attending picket lines today, while silently refusing to challenge their colleagues actions in Westminster on the issue.

Nevertheless, the point that resonated most with me was that his fight was less against cash for peerages, but against cash for privatisation. At the end of the day, this is the core reasoning behind Brown's plans. Unions, along with opposition Politicians alike must campaign together to put a halt to this right wing agenda.