Labour Party supporting 30 November strikes - at least in Enfield!

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I rubbed my eyes in disbelief when I saw the flyer above, too much to take in at once. Labour Party in anti-cuts public meeting shocker. Labour Party public meeting with trade union speakers shocker, etc.

But it is not just happening in north London. I'm hearing rumours from up and down the country that Labour Party branches and bodies are passing motions supporting the unions' industrial action on 30 November. Labour Members of the Scottish Parliament were pledging not to go into work out of solidarity.

The Labour Party was based on trade unions, to give 'labour' - working class people - a political voice. Many have tried to push the unions out of Labour but working class people will always need a political voice, their interests are different from those of the people who employ them. Their experience of collectivity and cooperation implies a different way of running society from the competitive system we have now. So may there be many more Labour Party meetings against the cuts!

This one in Enfield is near enough for people in Barnet to get to, I reckon, if you want to hear the union bigwigs outlining the arguments for the strikes on 30 November. I very much hope to go.

It it's Wednesday, it must be pensions!

To paraphrase the title of a romantic comedy of 1969 ("If It's Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium" - the film sounds bloomin' awful, by the way). I mean that the "issues" are coming so thick and fast at the moment that I think there is a protest or meeting about something different every day.

I am in danger of missing the wood for the trees, however. This Wednesday's issue is the big one - public sector pensions, bringing with it the prospect of the UK's biggest industrial action ever in two weeks' time on Wednesday 30 November.

Barnet's trade unions and the anti-cuts Barnet Alliance for Public Services have organised a joint public meeting on pensions this Wednesday, 16 November, at the Greek Cypriot Centre, 2 Britannia Road, N12 from 7-9pm.

If you have any questions about the pensions dispute, any at all, please come to the meeting on Wednesday. All are welcome.

I should say that if anyone thinks the tabloids are right and that the unions only care about the public sector, they are wrong! We want good pensions for workers in public and private sectors - and for people who can't work at all!

We don't want levelling down but levelling up! We also stand for the rebuilding of trade unionism in the private sector as the best guarantee of a decent life for all.

Crumbs, I'm on my soapbox this morning!