[The decision by the national leadership of NALGO…]

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The decision by the national leadership of NALGO, the largest white collar union in the public sector, to declare official any strike by its members in support of the November 17th Day of Action against the cuts in public spending is a concession to the militant moves of workers -and an avoidance of a strike call.

For while NUPE, NALGO and other unions and staff associations, have declared official support for the Day of Action and its lobby of Parliament, only the Civil Servants action for that day, and that only CPSA, has called strike in the most half-hearted way.

TRAINS

So as they trumpet their ambitious plans and lay out thousands of pounds of union funds booking prestige trains to bring members to London on the 17th, the union leaders are dodging the key move needed to produce a far bigger impact than thirty. lobbies of Parliament - a complete one-day stoppage in the public sector and the social services.

This, of course, would embarass the Labour government on the one nand, and Jones, scanlon and other 1UC leaders (who are completely in support of the spending cuts) on the other.

Instead the November 17th events stand in danger of becoming a harmless jamboree of protest, conducted inder the eye of the union bureal Icracy But it is not too late to take up the fight at local level through trade union branches and Trades Councils for stoppages on that day.

Only if a firm base of resistance to the cuts at local level is built can the ground be made ready for a wide-sweeping united struggle of all social service and public sector workers, around the demand for government spending to be not cut, but increased step-by-step with inflation, as assessed by trade union committees - a sliding scale of spending.

Vor.

PUBTE CUTS STOP EMPLOYMNT Fiane s the Ret CASUALTIES