On Sunday, February 21, 2010 fellow workers from Notts IWW joined trades unionists, community campaigners, service users and members of left Parties in a protest against the forthcoming Notts County Council cuts programme on Saturday 20th February. The small but angry protest in Mansfield Market place appeared to attract a crowd of between 1 and 2 hundred (not bad for a small market town) but speakers were keen to stress that this is just the start of a campaign of resistance and protest against the Tory Council’s attacks on jobs and services. The idea of a County wide anti-cuts campaign was floated, to work alongside the Trades Council and unite the various concerned groups. A second protest took place outside the Council budget agreement meeting at County Hall, West Bridgford, Nottingham on Thursday 25th.

Contact: notts [at] iww.org.uk

Notts IWW demonstration in Mansfield - Sunday, February 21, 2010Notts IWW demonstration in Mansfield – Sunday, February 21, 2010

Read more for text of leaflet:

 

Unite To Fight Cuts In Jobs And Services!

 

Nottinghamshire IWW (“The Wobblies”) offer our solidarity and support to all those struggling against the threat of cuts in jobs and services in Nottinghamshire and stand shoulder to shoulder with all those demonstrating here today.

 

The cuts proposed by the County Council target some of the most vulnerable people in our community, services that they need and workers that provide them. 

 

These proposed cuts are not an isolated case but part of a pattern of attacks on working class people around the country by Councils determined to make sure that the rich and powerful do not pay the price for the problems that they are largely responsible for.  And this is before the general election, so all the parties are trying hard not to reveal who will be targeted to pay the price of bailing out the banks.  If they are starting attacks at a local level now, imagine what will come from a party that has just won a general election!

 

But we should not be afraid or defeatist.  The politicians have picked on services for elderly people and focussed their attacks in the North and West of the County because they think that this is where they will encounter little resistance and lose few votes.  We need to show them that we will not take these attacks, nor any future waves of attacks lying down.

 

Workers need to unite with service users in a strong campaign of defiance and resistance.  We can take encouragement from many parts of the world where resistance to local and national government cutbacks is well underway.

 

Everywhere, people are beginning to fight back – strikes, occupations, militant demonstrations are growing across what were previously held up as countries of capitalist triumph.  Many of the tactics and strategies being employed have a long and glorious history – some are those that were employed from the start by the Industrial Workers of the World, the international Union set up in North America at the beginning of the Twentieth Century.  Despite a marvellous period of struggle that union was diminished by repression, war and the false hopes upheld by business unions and dogmatic “Communists” alike. Nevertheless it survived, and now in the first decades of the Twenty First Century the IWW, or Wobblies as they are affectionately known, have enjoyed renewed growth as working people seek effective and militant forms of organisation untainted by soggy sell-outs or links to failed models of 20th Century regimes.

 

The IWW has particularly grown in Britain, with new groups and branches springing up across the country – Including locally in Nottinghamshire and South Yorkshire.  Many who attended the Put People First demonstration in London in March last year were surprised and impressed to see the many flags and banners of the IWW, with a block of marchers to rival many of the TUC unions.

 

The IWW is not exclusive, you can hold dual card membership with a TUC union if they are the main organisation in your workplace – we are not about dividing, but uniting workers around a militant platform. We are not about splitting workers and sectionalism, but about uniting all workers in each industry and all industries.  We are about workers, not bureaucrats, calling the shots, about democracy and direct action rather than credit cards and funding neo-liberal political parties.  We are not about narrow nationalism, but international workers’ solidarity that recognises that, as ever, UNITY IS STRENGTH!

 

Join with us and begin the task of building the new society within the shell of the old.  Defend the gains that working people have made and look forward to a just, sustainable and dynamic society where all are engaged in democracy at every level, in every community and workplace.

 

Forward to the future – forward to ONE BIG UNION!

 

Contact IWW (Nottinghamshire General Membership Branch): notts [at] iww.org.uk

British Isles IWW website – http://iww.org.uk/

US/International website – http://www.iww.org/

About the IWW

Why the IWW?
We are a grassroots and democratic union helping to organize all workers in all workplaces. The IWW differs from traditional trade unions. We believe that workers have greater voice if we are organized within our own industries. For example, teachers, cleaners and secretaries who work in a school should be classed as education workers and all be in the same union. Furthermore, unions in one industry are far stronger if they are in the same organisation as all other industrial unions. Our aim is to see society re-organized to meet the interests of all people, and not just shareholders and corporations.
We are NOT:

·         Full of stifling bureaucracy or linked to any political party or group.

·         Led by fat cat salary earners who carry out deals with bosses behind your back.

·         Going to sell you services, life insurance or credit cards.

We are:

·         Led by membership. We make all decisions and we all have the final say.

·         For uniting all workers across trades, industries and countries.

·         Able to offer practical support for members in their workplace.

·         Flexible so you are still a member even when you change job or contract.

Who is the IWW for?
We are for ALL workers who do not have the power to hire or fire. This also includes workers who are retired, students, unemployed, part-time, temporary or those working at home. Workers who are members of other unions are also welcome.