| COMMUNISTS: 'Unions need strategy to win pensions fight' |
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''The battle to defend public sector pensions has reached a critical point', Robert Griffiths told the Communist Party of Britain executive committee at the weekend, 'Much more is at stake than a secure and dignified retirement for millions of workers who do such vital jobs'.
'The Con-Dem government's real agenda is not to reduce the state's financial deficit, but to clear away the obstacles to wholesale privatisation of our public services in the interests of the banks, hedge funds and venture capitalists', the CPB general secretary warned.
Mr Griffiths urged the public sector unions to meet urgently and draw up a clear strategy for winning the pensions dispute, including plans for collective and coordinated industrial action before the imposition of higher pension contributions on April 1.
'Nobody should be under any illusion: the attack on public sector pensions, jobs and wages is only the first wave in an offensive that will include the erosion of trade union rights as well as privatisation', Mr Griffiths declared.
He argued that continuing battles over wages and pensions in the private sector, together with the need to defend the victims of benefit cuts, showed the potential for building a 'popular, democratic anti-monopoly alliance' against the government and its 'big business paymasters'.
'Women will be particularly hard hit by vicious policies that will destroy a million jobs across the economy, as part-time and temporary workers are shed first, and punish single parents and carers who rely upon housing and disability benefits', the CPB leader pointed out.
Britain's communists urged the labour movement to campaign for the policies of the People's Charter and the Alternative Economic Strategy, both endorsed by TUC annual conferences, including those for a wealth tax on the super-rich and public ownership of the financial sector, the energy utilities and public transport.
'How to fight on the defensive and go over on to the offensive should be one of the themes discussed by trade union and anti-cuts delegates to the conference on March 31 in London organised by Morning Star readers and supporters', Mr Griffiths proposed.
At the weekend, the Communist Party executive committee also decided to:
* Publish pamphlets on the pensions fight and the European Union within the next few weeks.
* Urge support for the Stop the War Coalition's 'Hands Off Iran and Syria' picket at the US embassy on January 28.
* Congratulate Morning Star readers and supporters for raising £134,000 in response to an emergency appeal.
* Finalise plans for its Trade Union Cadre School in Croydon on February 11-12.
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