Union calls for “generalised strikes”

General Secretary of the RMT union, Bob Crow, this week issued a “call to arms” to the entire labour movement for a “sustained campaign of generalised strikes across both the public and private sectors and community direct action to defend public services.”

Speaking at the union’s annual conference, Bob Crow said: “This ConDem administration has thrown down the biggest challenge to the Trade Union Movement since Margaret Thatcher took on the National Union of Mineworkers.

"I have no hesitation in saying that it will take general and co-ordinated strike action across the public and private sectors to stop their savage assault on jobs, living standards and public services.

“We have a right wing Tory Government propped up by a Liberal Party that has binned every commitment that it gave to voters in the run up to the election in order to grab power.

"That’s why we say this administration has no mandate for its cuts and that’s why we argue that bulldozing through their austerity measures amounts to fiscal fascism. It was zombie capitalism that dragged us into this mess and our people should not be made to pay to clear it up.”

He added that “waving banners and placards will not be enough”.

The civil service union PCS has already called for co-ordinated action with other unions to resist the cuts.