Support the strikes! Local march and rally with Jeremy Corbyn on 29 April

Jeremy Corbyn will be joining a May Day march and rally in Hastings next Saturday (29 April), in the midst of renewed strike action by local teachers, nurses, ambulance workers and civil servants. Gabriel Carlyle reports on what’s happening, where and when.

Hastings Trades Council will be holding three events on or around the May Day bank holiday:

‘Remember the dead – fight for the living!’ A ceremony to honour the workers killed at work over the past year on Workers’ Memorial Day (Friday 28 April). Meet 12 noon, Cornwallis Gardens, Hastings TN34 1 LP;

‘Support the strikes!’ march & rally on Saturday 29 April, with local strikers and campaigners and guest speaker Jeremy Corbyn MP. Meet 11am at Hastings Pier. 12 noon rally at the Observer Building, 53 Cambridge Road, TN34 1DT;

and

‘May Day – International Workers’ Day’ A celebration with music and speakers from around the world on Monday 1 May. Meet 12 noon, Warrior Square Gardens, St Leonards, TN37 6DF.

Moreover:

• local teachers will be striking again on Thursday 27 April and Tuesday 2 May. Picket lines are expected 7.30–9am on both dates outside The Hastings Academy, St Leonards Academy, Little Common Primary and The Workplace (Down Road, Bexhill, TN39 4HS);
• local nurses will be striking again 8pm, Sunday 30 April – 11.59pm, Monday 1 May. There is expected to be a picket line outside the Conquest Hospital on Monday 1 May between 9am – 5pm;
• local ambulance workers represented by Unite will be on strike on Tuesday 2 May; and
• local civil servants working for the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and Department for Transport (DfT) will be on strike on Friday 28 April, with picket lines 7 – 11am at Havelock Road and Priory Square in Hastings (TN37 7GA).

Defending our schools and our NHS

All of these strikes are as much to do with defending a public sector that is on its knees after years of cuts austerity, as they are to do with obtaining ‘pay’ (though the two things are connected).

Both teachers and nurses have recently rejected ‘pay offers’ from the Government that amounted to real-terms pay cuts, given the current rate of inflation. However, both professions have also seen substantial real-terms pay cuts since 2010 – a major factor in retaining staff in these professions, both of which have been haemorrhaging workers.

For example, earlier this year, Dr Mary Bousted and Kevin Courtney – Joint General Secretaries of the National Education Union (NEU) said: “Teachers have lost 23% in real-terms since 2010, and support staff 27% over the same period. Teachers are leaving in droves, a third gone within five years of qualifying. This is a scandalous waste of talent and taxpayers’ money, yet the Government seems unbothered about the conditions they are allowing schools and colleges to slide into.”

International Workers Day has its origins in 19th-century workers’ struggles for an eight-hour work day. And Workers’ Memorial Day has its origins in 20th-century workers’ struggles over workplace safety.

So it’s highly appropriate that this year’s events are taking place in the context of 21st-century workers struggles for fair pay, decent conditions and properly funded public services.

We should support them!

Pay Up! Save Our Schools campaign hub: https://www.payupsos.com/?UA-1767876-39

Royal College of Nursing strike hub: https://www.rcn.org.uk/Get-Involved/Campaign-with-us/Fair-Pay-for-Nursing/Strike-hub

 

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