How to fight back against austerity cuts

Unions, get set for battle

"We must join students in a broad strike movement to combat attempts to strangle the welfare state."

Len McCluskey [assistant general secretary of Unite the Union]
in

The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/dec/19/unions-students-strike-fight-cuts?INTCMP=SRCH

Some interesting responses to this article in Guardian letters today:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2010/dec/21/fight-back-against-austerity-cuts

Especially:

As Len McCluskey noted, the Conservative attack on the welfare state and public services is driven by ideology (Unions, get set for battle, 20 December). They would, if they could, cut services back to the bone and then outsource everything to private sector vultures.

It's also personal. This millionaire cabinet wasn't educated at the state schools that 93% of pupils attend, but at elite fee-paying private schools. Social housing? Not likely. And the NHS queues are bypassed courtesy of Bupa.

With the Conservatives, we welcome back the old ruling class, re-packaged and re-imaged, but still remote and removed from the reality of ordinary people's lives. Len McCluskey is right, we have to stop them completing the job that Thatcherism started – the shattering of the welfare state and selling the remnants off to the lowest bidder.

Richard Knights