Lindsey German: Despite Cameron’s attempt to play down the success of today’s strikes and protests over pensions, they could be the beginning of movement that can defeat the government.

David Cameron described today’s strikes as a ‘damp squib’. How wrong can you be? Even some of Cameron’s own staff in Downing Street walked out, while others had to be sent off to check passports at Heathrow, scabbing on striking border staff. My own experiences today and the stories I have heard from across the country suggest a solid strike of around 2 million people, thousands of well supported and determined picket lines, widespread public support from young and old. There were demonstrations in most cities and in towns such as Hertford, Luton and King’s Lynn. The wall to wall news coverage also shows that taking action does force the trade union agenda into the public domain.

As NUT general Secretary Christine Blower said, this was a women’s strike, with probably the largest number of women on strike ever in Britain. The strength of the strikes was their breadth and the determination of the strikers to take action over this issue. In many areas they had a big impact with many schools, local and central government offices, health services and other public services, closed. The demonstrations brought together trade unionists and their families, students, pensioners and campaigners.

It was not the general strike some pretended – 2 million out of a workforce of 30 million is an important demonstration of power but it represents a minority of less than 10 percent. Nor was it the most significant or largest strike since the General Strike of 1926. But it did represent the largest stoppage of work in Britain for more than a generation and was comparable with the series of strikes during the Winter of Discontent in 1978-9. And whereas those strikes came at the end of well over a decade of militant strike action and a substantial rise in union membership (at over 13 million 1979’s trade union membership was the highest point ever in British history), this time workers are striking after years of union membership falls, attacks on workplace conditions and greater pressure on workers.

It has therefore been harder to get to this point, and it shows the strength of feeling over the issue that so many have come out today in coordinated action. This strike marks the beginning of a recovery in the working class movement. But, like a patient recovering from a long and serious illness, that recovery can be patchy.

If the trade union movement is going to defeat the government it has to recognise that this is not simply about pensions, or indeed about the British government, but is part of a class attack being waged by those who have paved the way for increased inequality and exploitation over the past decades. In short, the rich and their allies in government want working class people to pay for a crisis which was not of their making.

The immediate  reason for the strikes – attempts to force public sector workers to pay more for worse pensions and to work longer until they qualify for them – are only one part of the growing list of grievances which public sector workers now have with the government. The Chancellor’s autumn statement made absolutely clear the feral hatred that these rich Tories have for some of the lowest paid and most valuable workers. Public sector pay will be capped at 1% for two years following three years of pay freeze. With inflation running at 5% – and much higher than that for many essentials including fuel, transport and food – this will amount to a pay cut of up to 20% over five years.

The extra money for infrastructure Osborne announced will go to private companies for projects such as road building and some private house building while there will be nothing for council house building. Jobs in the public sector are under attack.

All of this is against a background of dire economic projections and the expectation that Britain will enter a double dip recession early next year. Already, most working people simply do not have the money to maintain levels of consumption which they were encouraged to develop in the years of easy credit. Many still have high levels of personal debt. They are being promised years of austerity, misery and savage cuts in living standards. They are also being made to work until at least 67 and even 70. Household incomes in 2015 are projected to be lower than they were in 2002.

The Coalition government is shamelessly promoting policies which help the rich and which penalise the already poor. It is enthusiastically enforcing an austerity programme similar to those being enforced across Europe. The autumn statement is predicted to put another 100,000 children into poverty. It will hit the poorest third hardest and will redistribute some of their income to the richest.

Government refusal to seriously address the unions’ concerns means we need to develop the next steps in this campaign very seriously. There are some in the TUC and in the leadership of the unions who will now want to bring the dispute to a negotiated settlement. They saw the strikes today as an important political demonstration which will extract more concessions over pensions. But it is clear that the government will try to divide and rule the different unions on this, offering small changes while leaving the major plans intact, and while they continue to wage equally serious offensives on other fronts.

The unions therefore have to step up their actions, not de-escalate them. We need plans for further strikes to send the message that public sector workers are serious about defending their conditions. The TUC and national unions should make clear now their implacable opposition to the pay cap which means a savage wage cut for their members. We need another mass demonstration like March 26th when half a million trade unionists and their supporters marched. There should be more of the very large local demonstrations, direct action, linking up with the Occupy movement and other ways of broadening the campaign. European trade unions are discussing holding a Europe-wide day of action against austerity. We have to link up across Europe to fight this international attack.

There also has to be a political response to the crisis. How is the money to be found? Cut wars and Trident, tax the rich, introduce a Tobin tax on financial transactions. Shift the balance of wealth and power from the rich to the poor. Fund an emergency campaign of public housing construction to create jobs and end the housing shortage. Stop raising the retirement age and create jobs for the million plus young unemployed.

The unions, while many of their members may be sympathetic to such demands, tend to raise much more narrow and sectional demands than this. Sectional responses won’t win against this government. The importance of the Coalition of Resistance in presenting an international, political alternative to the crisis cannot be overstated. The COR demand of ‘no cuts’ is consistently the most popular placard on demonstrations, and as a genuine broad united organisation can help to provide that political link.

It is urgent to build on the success of today. The movement is potentially strong enough to defeat the government, but it has to deepen and grow. It faces a strong political enemy. It has to build a political strength which can challenge that enemy.

Lindsey will be speaking at the meeting ‘Europe in Crisis: Alternatives to Austerity‘ next Wednesday 7 December at the Richmix, Bethnal Green Road, 7pm, hosted by Counterfire (East London)