Polly Smythe: As the UK's strike wave continues, with teachers and firefighters becoming the latest to join in on the action, there's been considerable talk – and substantial confusion – around the idea of a general strike.
1 February, the TUC's 'protect the right to strike' day, will see up to half a million workers walk out together, with civil servants, teachers, university staff and train drivers all taking action. While far from a general strike, the day of action is a definite step up in the current wave of disputes.
The coordinating function of the TUC has been neglected over the past 30 years. However, a motion was passed last October at the TUC conference that recognised "the need for unions to focus on collective action" and called on the TUC to "actively encourage, facilitate, organise, support industrial coordination and a united campaign of coordinated industrial action between unions."
As Tony Kearns, the senior deputy general secretary of the CWU, said in an interview on Monday: "The TUC is the sum of its parts, so that's up to the general secretaries, including my own, Dave Ward [to push for that]."
So, almost 100 years on from the last general strike, are we moving towards another? | |
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