Solidarity 227, 1 December 2011

“Our plan B”, so some Treasury official was recently quoted, “is to do plan A, but for longer”. And maybe with even more destructive cuts. The international economic organisation OECD reckons that the UK is already into a double-dip recession, at least for the end of 2011 and the start of 2012. The government’s claims that its cuts would close the budget deficit are way off the mark. In his autumn statement on 29 November, chancellor George Osborne responded with some feeble “growth” stunts, and renewed cuts; • Public sector pay rises will be frozen at one per cent, amidst 5% inflation. • The...

The 30 November public sector strike was the biggest single piece of industrial action in Britain for a generation. Millions of workers from 25 different trade unions took part, organising lively picket lines, marches, and rallies across the UK. Despite Prime Minister David Cameron characterising the strike as “a damp squib”, the government’s own figures admit that the strike shut or partially closed over 16,000 schools (nearly 75% of all state schools in the country) and led to the cancellation of 7,000 routine (non-emergency) NHS procedures. In Scotland, only 30 schools out of thousands...

By Theodora Polenta The paperwork has now been sent out and 16,000 Greek public sector workers within two years of retirement have been placed in "reserve" ("efedreia"). This version of the article is longer than in the printed paper. Their wage have been reduced to 60% of newly-reduced public sector wages. Even the meagre 700 to 800 euros per month that a public sector worker in "reserve" is expected to receive is not guaranteed for the whole of the two years until retirement. The government can cut off any "reserve" worker at any time, with the excuse that government cash is running short...

A young Irish Labour Party activist from Dublin spoke to Solidarity about discontent against the party leadership's cuts policies. Q: What is the attitude of grassroots Party activists to what the LP is doing in government, in particular young activists? There’s huge frustration among young activists, verging on despair. As each new story comes out about what’s going to be in the budget (student fees, cuts in social welfare, increase in VAT etc.) it just becomes harder and harder to have any faith in the party leadership, or to ration.alise the role the party is playing in government. There’s...