Workers Solidarity Movement

Up to 200,000 public sector workers took part in the one day industrial action across Northern Ireland along with millions in the rest of the UK. Trains and buses were halted along with about 400 schools being closed with Irish Congress of Trade Unions assistant general secretary Peter Bunting predicting at the rally that ‘people are going away more determined to oppose the cuts coming down the line.’

On November 30th the Derry Trades Union Council have called on workers to rally in Derry's Guildhall Square at 1pm. Many Public Workers will be holding pickets outside their place of employment then marching to the Guildhall Square. 

WSM members & supporters in northern Ireland provided live coverage of the N30 Pension strikes  via our Twitter feed. Anarchists in Derry  put a banner up in the city centre in solidarity with today's strike and a WSM leaflet (below) was  distributed across the north.

The strike was part of the UK wide public sector strike against attacks on public sector pensions, attacks similar to those imposed on public sector workers in southern Ireland over the last couple of years.  They are part of a Europe wide offensive against the pensions rights of workers.

(Pic: Anarchist solidarity banner at Derry rally)

Today’s industrial action builds on the momentum from the education and healthcare strike last month and sends out the message that we mean business. Congratulations to all who have taken part and especially to those who have over the past few weeks and months built for today’s action.

We are relied on every day to run the hospitals, schools, fire service, and all other public services that society depends on to function. Today we have demonstrated that when we withdraw our labour and stand together in defence of our rights we have real strength.

Despite a concerted propaganda campaign waged by the mainstream media and the corrupt political class tens of thousands of public sector workers in Northern Ireland will be taking to the picket lines this Wednesday joining millions across the UK in the biggest single strike action since the 1926 general strike.

Anarchist organisation Workers Solidarity Movement (WSM) has welcomed Wednesday’s public sector strike and called for this to be “the start of a sustained campaign of opposition to the government’s attacks on workers and the unemployed.”

Millions of public sector workers will be taking to the picket lines across the UK including tens of thousands in the North on the 30^th November against the latest Government austerity measures that seek tol force workers to work for longer for less.  All the mainstream unions from NIPSA, Unison to GMB have successfully balloted their members, from teachers & council workers to bus drivers for the co-ordinated industrial action against the proposed new pension scheme. The scheme which will see people who day in, day out, care for our young, our frail, our elderly, our homes, streets and parks; the people who, after decades of service, be lucky to have £5,600 per year to live on when they retire.