The text of the leaflet produced by the South London local being distributed on the London anti-cuts march on Saturday 23rd October 2010.
The working class across Europe is facing the worst attacks on our standard of living, jobs and services for decades. We have been forced to pay for capitalism’s crisis since it began; redundancies, pay cuts, benefit cuts, increasing workloads for those who kept their jobs... the private and public sector alike.
As the scale of the cut-backs begins to sink in, there are signs of a growing
movement against the cuts, with hundreds attending public meetings across the country. Many, disenchanted with the anti-war marches and the lethargy of the unions, are arguing for more direct methods in this struggle.
We need to respond to the government’s attack with industrial direct action - strikes, occupations, work-to-rules, sabotage - as well as street-based civil disobedience. In France, there is indefinite strike action and workers have blockaded oil refineries. The Greek workers have been standing their ground for months. The strikes in Spain are picking up. This starts to sound like something which really could force the government to back down as europe-wide, the “necessity” for the cuts is revealed as naked class war.
With sufficient rank-and-file anger, the unions may be pushed into calling only the second general strike in British history. However, it’s us, not the union bosses who can stop cuts. We can’t put our faith in anything other than our solidarity and ability to organise. We must take a lead in organising ourselves rather than waiting on the TUC or anyone else to do it for us.
Most importantly, we need to recognise that stopping the cuts is more than just a numbers game. The biggest imaginable march past parliament won’t reverse policy. Only mass direct action, especially industrial action will.