New Yor K- General Strike?
Socialist Press1975 1975-10-15Read it in the scan (PDF), scan page 8 →
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The decision of Mayor Beame of New York to bring in further austerity measures meaning 47,000 jobs lost, and a 3 year wage freeze has brought a response from the trade unions.
Local Teamsters President, Barry Fennstein, said "I'm in favour of a general strike in this city at this time. We have given our blood. The unions are bleeding to death" Police union leader Ken McFeeley said that he had been "ready for a strike in the last couple of months" The strike call is being discussed at the Municipal Labor Committee meeting on Tuesday - this body is a joint body of all the city's major unions.
The background to these moves is the financial state of New York City which is described by the Governor as facing an "economic Pearl Harbour". It is about to default on several huge payments, which will afect financial centres all over the world.
Clearly the call for a general strike is immediately faced with the questisin of political direction, because it will be confronted with the question of the collapse of whote sections of capitalism. The necessity for the fight within the unions for a break from the capitalist politicians of the Democratic party and for an independent party of the working class with a socialist programme is clearly posed.
The unions of New York could give a lead to workers all over the world in action against the social welfare cuts or we could have a repetition of the recent teachers strike there, against increased classes and other cutbacks, which ended in defeat precisely because no direction was given.
The campaigns begun by the WSt on unemployment and against the implementation of the Ryder report in BLMC are a new development for our movement. It is not " an accident that no other group on the left is campaigning on these questions. All of them shrink from the fight for principled leadership in the working class.
Such a leadership must be built.
For this reason we ask you to send a donation towards our monthly £500 development fund. , Send to: Socialist Press, 31, Dartmouth Park Hill, London, NW5,1HR.
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