What a Day!

“What a day” – “we never expected such a brilliant turn-out” – “it’s revitalised my thinking about the union” These were just some of the comments made by a fantastic crowd of protesters last Thursday.

I had the privilege of being a steward at the event, although, fair dos to the Old Bill, they had it so well set up there wasn’t much for us to do! I walked past one big beefy motor-bike cop and he asked for a look at one of the leaflets I was handing out. As I handed it over, I remarked “It tells you why we’re striking.” Came the wonderfully unexpected reply, “I know why. It’s because this government’s full of sh**!” which just confirmed the feeling that there was more than just a token support from the boys and girls in blue! (They’d already given us an awesome route for the march)

If this is the kind of support we can expect from them (and let’s face it – they’re not generally regarded as the most radical group of unionists!) just think what we can expect from the rest of the public service unions. Let’s hope our executive takes this sort of message on board and goes ahead with further ballots for discontinuous action. Why not aim for June 9th? What a message THAT would send.

But back to the opening line – What a day! I was buzzing for the rest of the day, filled with the feeling – no – the KNOWLEDGE – that the masses CAN change the world.
Let’s get them out again.
SOON!

David Plews (NUT rep, Deptford Park Primary)