Socialist Resistance

An archive of socialistresistance.org, 2002–2022

Rallying behind the firefighters

Socialist Resistance no2  |  page 5

This is scanned newsprint, not web text. The original PDFs carried no text layer at all, so every word here was read off the page by OCR. Expect dropped opening letters, run-together words and wrong characters. There was no contents page to cut the paper up by, so the articles were found from the size of their headlines: a headline may carry its kicker, and where an article ran beside a boxed panel a few lines of the neighbour can appear. The scanned issue is the authority; this text is here so the words can be found at all.

Support for the firefighters is growing, as firefighters support groups are being set-up across the country.

Andy Richards and Sally Morawetz report from Brighton that theTrades Council have set up a support group with weekly meetings and activities Local activists from the Stop The War group, trade unionists and Socialist Alliance supporters are all raising col

So far they have organised street and pub collections. The firefighters are getting a constant stream of food parcels and money from passers-by. tions range between £100 and £500, whilst in Southend, Norman Traub writes that a well-attended meeting called for the setting up of a support group, sponsored by the local branches of UNISON and Amicus. activists have raised hundreds of pounds doing regular street collections with local firefighters.

The actions are co-ordinated by the support committee, which held a pubIn Manchester regular street collec addressed by Tony Benn

weeks. In Southwark, South London, local

be huge. fic meeting at the end of November

Plans are being made to do collections at local workplaces in the coming The Fire Brigades Union, backed by the TUC are calling for trade unionists and activists to support a demonstration for fair pay in the fire service, in Central London on 7th December Support groups are organising transport for the demo, which looks set to

WL ARE ALL uniting in common action to do so.

But the strike also showed the weakness in the unions' response: the teachers' I-day strike action followed a gap of six months since the last action and began with the unions telling the employers that they would quickly be back at work.

Further industrial action is planned in pursuit of the claim for an increase in the London and fringe allowance. The School Teachers Review Body recommendations on pay and conditions in january, has to include substantial increases in London and fringe weighting to stop the mass exodus of teachers out of the South East of England to areas where housing is more affordable.

The teaching unions are divided over how to resolve the question of workload The Government wants to use classroom