Workers' Liberty

By Patrick Murphy, Leeds NUT branch secretary

A local public sector unity committee was set up in Leeds in June, as a result of contact between myself and John McDermott, the city's Unison Local Government convenor (and a member of the Unison NEC). The idea was to bring activists from as many public sector unions as possible together to co-ordinate opposition to the 2% pay limit announced by Gordon Brown when he was still Chancellor. The initial organising meeting was attended by about a dozen activists from a range of unions including Unison, NUT, PCS, FBU and UCU.

Our first major action was to organise a public rally to launch the campaign. There was some debate about whether we could deliver this properly before the summer break, but agreement in the end that we could not afford to delay. On 12 July we held a rally around the slogan "No to Brown's Pay Freeze", with speakers from Unison LG and Health, NUT, CWU, PCS and UCU. Over 100 people attended and it was clearly a vindication of the idea behind the project.

Since then the committee has focused on the immediate priority of supporting the postal workers. A report of their stepped-up rolling action was given by CWU branch secretary Dave Walton at the last meeting on 24 July, and it was agreed that petitions and other material would be circulated and picket lines supported. There are plans to have a day of city centre campaigning with stalls run by each union before the end of August. The committee will also produce a newsletter which individual branches will circulate to workplaces to ensure that basic information about the different pays claim and campaigns is available to all Leeds public sector workers.

With the postal workers' dispute, the need to build public sector unity committees has become even more pressing. Properly organised solidarity can make a real difference to the CWU strike - and Leeds is not the only place it has happening. In Bristol, for instance, a local support group meets in the CWU offices, and has called a march and rally for 31 July. In SW London, union activists are making moves to set up a similar group. Such groups must of course discuss support for the CWU as their first priority, but the logic of them is surely to move towards public sector union coordination on a wider basis.

● For more information or to get involved in the Leeds public sector committee, email newrypatrick@ntlworld.com
● The Bristol march assembles at Castle Green, 2pm, Tuesday 31 July
● If you would like to find out more about or support plans for a postal workers' support group in SW London, email kit.leary@gmail.com