FB-AUCPB CLASS STRUGGLE UK 3 MARCH

Health workers battle for NHS
Health workers in London have called a “Day X for the NHS” in response to growing NHS job losses and cuts.
They have been inspired by the student “Day X” protests that rocked the government over fees last year.
Student and staff nurses will join doctors, occupational therapists, dieticians, admin workers and radiographers on the day, Wednesday 9 March.
They will march from the Royal London hospital in Whitechapel to Bart’s in the City.

=========================
Southampton council pay offer thrown out
The Unison and Unite unions have voted by 80 percent to reject pay cuts at Southampton council.
Unison has 2,300 members at the council and Unite 750.
The unions are now calling on the council to drop its plans or face “the most serious industrial action the city has ever seen”.
Unison branch secretary Mike Tucker said, “Imposing the pay cuts will cost the council tens of thousands of pounds.
“Council workers have spoken. The turnout in the ballot is higher than in the local elections which put the Conservatives in control of the city.”

=================================================

Town halls occupied as councillors vote for cuts

Anti-cuts protesters have been occupying town halls up and down Britain as councillors vote through slasher budgets.
Up to 300 people occupied Lambeth town hall in London on Wednesday of last week.
The protesters rushed into the council meeting chanting, “That’s not what democracy looks like—this is what democracy looks like.”
The campaigners, including many council workers, then held a “people’s council” in the chamber.
They took over the meeting, elected their own chair and discussed opposition to the cuts for around two hours.
Andrew Smith, a parent, said, “The council’s got to listen to us. What’s the price of our children’s future?
“We’ll keep coming back and we won’t give up.”
Their protest is part of a growing wave of resistance.
More than 100 council workers stormed into Rhondda-Cynon-Taf council chamber the same day in protest at the Labour-led council’s cuts budget.
They chanted “Shame on you” and “Don’t do the Tories’ dirty work”.
Every worker at the council is being threatened with the sack if they don’t accept worse conditions—and the council plans to sack one in ten of them anyway.
The mayor halted the meeting and threatened to have the police evict everyone from the gallery. Plaid Cymru council members briefly left the meeting in protest.
text
bold = The anti-cuts movement marches on
“Clegg, Cameron, hear us say—make the greedy bankers pay!” That message echoed through Birmingham’s streets last Saturday as over 1,500 trade unionists, students and people from community groups marched against the cuts.
Birmingham Unison union joint branch secretary Graeme Horn said, “This is a great turn out and will give heart to activists campaigning for a yes vote in the forthcoming strike ballot of workers in Birmingham City Council.”
Some 300 demonstrators joined a Unison march through Stockport, Manchester, to the town hall on Thursday of last week.
Trade unionists rallied in Canterbury on Saturday and marched trough the city demanding an end to cuts and rejection of the Tory NHS bill.
There were also protests in Southwark, York, Reading, Weston-super-Mare and Bournemouth.
The workers’ rage was clear to see. One worker accused the council leader of “being like Mubarak—denying us a voice whilst you shit all over us.”
Over 200 protesters charged into a Leeds council meeting on Wednesday, shouting, “They say cut back, we say fight back.”
The council suspended the meeting. Although the budget was eventually passed, the protest set down a marker of militant resistance.
Tory leader Andrew Carter said, “We have had some sizeable demonstrations—over pit closures and the Iraq war—but never has a meeting of council been disrupted in such a way.”
text
In Hull the next day some 1,000 people besieged the Guildhall with a massive sound system. They disrupted and delayed the council meeting for nearly an hour.
And hundreds of protesters marched into Haringey civic centre.
The councillors went and tried to meet in a canteen—but the protesters got in there too.
In Bolton over 200 anti-cuts activists lobbied the council. Some draped a banner from the balcony saying “Cuts no way—make the bankers pay!”
And in York six activists jumped on a table as the meeting started, chanting, “No ifs, no buts, no public service cuts.”
Where there have been occupations, councillors have run off to vote through the cuts behind closed doors.
But that won’t be the end of the story.
If we can occupy the town halls, then when they come to shut down our libraries, our nurseries, our day centres and our care homes, we can occupy them too.
Thanks to Ben Rutherford, Phil Sanderson and Adam Collins
===========================================
01 MARCH – TRAIN DRIVERS OUT ON STRIKE

Arriva train drivers went out on strike on Monday, over pay and conditions. Hundreds of train services were cancelled. They also refused to work overtime on Sunday. Further strikes are planned if their demands are not met. They are angered by being paid less than train drivers of other parts of the Britain. However the union has called off a further day of strike action later this month after the company threatened the union with a court injunction.

Also. Cleaners in the RMT went out on strike at First Great Western train depots in Cardiff and Swansea on Friday last week over pensions, payment of wages and lack of communication.
=================================================
25 FEBRUARY – LONDON
A solidarity demo was held outside the US embassy in London in solidarity with the people of Iraq during their day of rage against unemployment, poverty, corruption and US occupation. Last week there were several other demos in London and other cities across Britain in solidarity with Arab people rising up against unemployment, poverty, corruption and oppression across North Africa and Middle East.

Haringey council chambers occupied
Several hundred people protested outside the budget meeting at wood green civic centre tonight. the building was occupied, and more than twenty people managed to break through a small police line and enter the council chamber, where they delayed the council meeting by nearly two hours. two were arrested after 3 van loads of TSG officers were called in to clear the building. A solidarity vigil was quickly organised outside hornsey police station where they were taken.
===========================================