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Issue: 2107 dated: 28 June 2008 News
posted: 6.51pm Tue 24 Jun 2008

We can strike back

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Local government workers striking in Birmingham (Pic: Pete Jackson)

Gordon Brown, chancellor Alistair Darling, and Bank of England governor Mervyn King lined up last week to deliver pious lectures on why workers must accept wage cuts to help stop inflation.

But it is not wages that are pushing up prices. The cost of food has risen by 8 percent in a year and utility bills are up 10 percent. The energy companies are threatening rises of up to 40 percent this autumn.

The only way for us to keep food on the table is to fight back against the government’s pay limits.

Shell tanker drivers struck this month and won a 14 percent pay rise over two years. They showed that workers have the power to beat both bosses and Brown.

This week local government workers also voted for strikes. That means in the weeks to come hundreds of thousands of workers could strike a blow for all those struggling to get by.

The battle lines are being drawn and striking back is the best defence we have against the attacks on our living standards.

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