Birmingham photographer and NUJ activist Stalingrad O’Neill posted the following insightful report of the TUC organised protest outside the Lib Dem Conference in Birmingham on the indymedia website yesterday:
The speakers from the platform certainly gave a good performance in reflecting the breadth of anger and resistance that exists in society, but what they failed to do was state, Labour, along with the other shower of Parliamentary fucks ain’t worth a pot to piss in
Mary Bousted from the ATL said that the unequal distribution of wealth means kids come to school anxious because parents fear losing job. Stating that November 30 will be biggest strike for generations – we have to fight to win the ballots”
Well Mary you got your work cut out if the attendance Sunday’s march is an indication of the present TUC leaderships ability to agitate and organize resistance The TUC’s 2,500 body count counterclaim, against the Police’s crowd estimate of 1,500 people joining the march along Broad Street says it all!
How anyone could stand on the platform and spout “What a splendid turn out”? Frances O’Grady you need a new pair of glasses, hang your head in shame, go back to TUC headquarters and kick the arse of yourself and everyone else involved. All this march showed was the utter inability or unwillingness of the TUC leadership to roll up their sleeves and get down to it. Fuck the bollocks of saving yourselves for the ‘Big One’!….. ‘The Tory Conference’ in October, as was made mention to me!
What is it a Day trip to Claxton coz it were no showcase highlighting any determined effort to prosecute the ongoing struggle for union members, wages, jobs, and public services?
If the ‘Big One’ is the sum total of perceived strategy to fight and confront the grinding continuation of cutting your members living standards, then you should not be in the job, for despite the spout of civil disobedience from the platform, the TUC seems to be impotent and an impediment to any such future effort
Case in point: Unite’s *Bombardier petition! Nothing wrong with that as part of a game plan but as with much else, it seems to be the be all and end all, with the TUC squatting its well rounded posterior on the side lines as usual, maybe, condescendingly allowing its offices for the organizing of a demonstration or two after the coup de grâce has been administered. It’s not rocket science knowing what needs to be done but either the TUC is afraid of its shite or it is conniving with those ‘Born to it’ to stymie its own members struggles
PCS Mark Serwotka a most left wing sounding of Union leader castigated Ed Miliband by ripping into Miliband’s TUC speech which condemned Union strike strategy against the cuts. However the continued inability of Union leaders to categorically break with Labour was unmistakably exposed when he added Milibucks “should side with workers fighting back! If he did that Labour would win by a landslide, we hope he thinks again” Whats the chances of that Mark? You think Milibucks is gonna miraculously be some Johnny Come Lately to “Fight every cut! Defend every job! Free education! Tax the rich!” ‘me arse he is!
I feel sorry for those trade unionists who attended in the hope that this would be the day the buck stops and their leaders would do what they are supposed to….. Fight and organize resistance by all means necessary to foil every government cut!
Unfortunately they found their efforts were thinly rewarded with a few rousing speeches pointing mainly to the “Fairy fellows master stroke” ….the choreographed November strike, Pish!
ENDS