On the road to a mass popular movement

Tomorrow's industrial action is a vital step in building the mass popular movement needed to challenge the Con-Dem government's attack on the people of Britain.

Three-quarters of a milion workers from the PCS, NUT, UCU and ATL will be striking in defence of their pension rights and, in the case of PCS, Civil Service jobs and pay.

But they will not be alone. Some 15,000 Unison council workers will also be out tomorrow in Birmingham and Doncaster, protesting against job losses and worse terms of service.

Their sisters and brothers in Southampton, already on strike against pay cuts, will be joined by colleagues in Unite.

NUJ members in south London will be striking against compulsory redundancies, while Camden housing workers are also likely to walk out for the same reason.

The POA is calling upon prison officers to hold lunchtime meetings in solidarity with the public-sector action.

Of course the Con-Dem government, employers' representatives and the mass media will try to downplay the strikes.

They will claim that the action lacks support from fellow workers and the general public - while bemoaning its impact on travellers, schoolchildren, parents and students.

Ministers will bluster that the strike will have no effect on government policy or ongoing public-sector pension talks.

But then, recent statements have made clear that the negotiations are having little or no impact on government policy anyhow.

Nobody should fall for these well-worn responses. There has never been a strike yet when government ministers or employers say they have been taken aback by its support and effectiveness - so much so, indeed, that they are rethinking their position and want to make an improved offer.

More serious is the propaganda drive by the big-business press to drive a wedge between public-sector and private-sector workers. The Independent's economics editor Sean O'Grady repeated the argument in slightly more upmarket language on June 20.

"Most private-sector workers gave up going on strike, decent pensions and job security decades ago. With varying degrees of resentment they do not see why those who happen to work for the state should still enjoy such luxuries, and certainly not when public-sector salaries, which used to lag way behind, have caught up."

Obviously one would not expect somebody on O'Grady's lavish salary and pension to see the connection.

But many private-sector workers might wonder whether their loss of decent pensions, job security and superior pay is not unconnected to the decline of private-sector trade unionism and strikes.

The Office for National Statistics estimates that the - its term - "trade union wage premium" in 2010 (the extra percentage in wages earned by unionised workers) was 21 per cent in the public sector and 7 per cent in private enterprise.

The problem is not the relatively high level of strikes and union density (56 per cent) in the public sector, but the low level of strikes and unionisation (14 per cent) in the private sector.

The strike rate (annual days lost in strikes per 1,000 workers) has not risen above 10 in the private sector over the past decade. Last year it was a more typical two.

In the public sector, on the other hand, the strike rate has usually been between at least 65 and often well above 100, although last year it fell back slightly to around 50.

Employers have usually viewed the lack of unionisation and militancy as signs of weakness - the green light to remove terms and conditions won by unions in the past.

Further attempts may soon be made to split private and public-sector workers through a new round of anti-union laws.

These will no doubt be justified by the "Cable Doctrine" unveiled at the recent GMB conference, whereby rights - in this case the right to strike - are not there to be used or else they will be taken away.

The Con-Dems may try to impose longer notice periods or a balloting threshold - for example that the majority for action must be of all those eligible to vote - in "essential" public services.

If so, workers in the private and "non-essential" sectors can be sure that such restrictions will be extended to them in due course.

Mass action in unity can defeat the current ruling-class offensive against public services, jobs, wages, pensions and trade union rights. Disunity will guarantee defeat.

Tomorrow must be the next step, after the great TUC demonstration of March 26, towards generalised strike action by all workers against this government's EU-backed austerity and privatisation programme.

All unions need to work together for that essential goal, with no single union arrogating to itself the "right" to lead such an alliance.

It will be vital to mobilise trade unions and trades councils locally, so that community groups, students, the unemployed, pensioners and service users understand and support the action necessary to save the essentials of a civilised society.

That's why the Communist Party supports the formation of local broad-based and non-sectarian anti-cuts campaigns, based wherever possible on the trade union movement and trades councils.

The aim should be to create the conditions where this illegitimate government, with no democratic mandate for its reactionary policies, turns in on itself, topples and falls.

We certainly can't leave this work to Labour leader Ed Miliband. He would rather sing the praises of "the free enterprise system that we all believe in" to an audience of Murdoch empire chief executives, than address the Durham Miners' Gala alongside RMT leader Bob Crow.

Bringing down the Con-Dems could bring little improvement, unless the labour movement begins to project policies like those in the People's Charter, and fights to make them the policies of the next Labour government.

Winning more support for the charter from trade unions and trades councils will ensure that in fighting the battles of the present, we also look to take care of the future.

Robert Griffiths is general secretary of the Communist Party of Britain.