"We can all retaliate against Rich Rishi Sunak in the local elections and oust the Tories"

Government won't listen to strikers' cries of anguish, says Paul Routledge, but they'll be scared of local elections, where we can make them all sweat
Puppet Prime Minister Rishi Sunak (
Image: Getty Images)

Wednesday's walkout was billed as "a general strike in all but name" by those who wanted it to fail.

It was nothing like that. Millions of people went to work normally, especially in the private sector.

In terrible weather, I walked to the two schools in my village. No picket lines of striking teachers in what were once car-filled playgrounds. Action, what action?

But the day was still a demonstration of momentous anger at the government's indifference to the plight of workers suffering from a Tory cost-of-living crisis.

In all public services, in universities, on the railways and even customs officers in stormy Shetland, they came out to protest against Rich Rishi Sunak's austerity.

In a way, I wish it had been a general strike, even though that would be illegal under Conservative anti-union laws. This government will not listen to the cries of anguish from parents, workers and the vast underpaid class, most of whom do not have the protection of a union.

Like Thatcher and her poll tax, they will only yield when forced to do so by public unrest.

Strikers today need to understand - like the miners seized in 1984 - that if you take on the state, the state will use all coercive means to defeat you.

Who is the state? "It's me" said Louis XIV of France. "It's me." Here is Sunak.

But he's not a monarch.

He is a puppet of the staunchly anti-union, anti-worker Conservative Party, and he can be defeated by unrest - at the ballot box.

The strike season is expected to continue at least until spring.

Local elections are due on May 4, less than 100 days from now. Each voice must then be mobilized to chase the conservatives from town halls, everywhere. Electoral annihilation is something even this brutal and indifferent group fears.

Politics Feb 3, 2023 0 56 Add to Reading List

"We can all retaliate against Rich Rishi Sunak in the local elections and oust the Tories"

Government won't listen to strikers' cries of anguish, says Paul Routledge, but they'll be scared of local elections, where we can make them all sweat

Puppet Prime Minister Rishi Sunak (

Image: Getty Images)

Wednesday's walkout was billed as "a general strike in all but name" by those who wanted it to fail.

It was nothing like that. Millions of people went to work normally, especially in the private sector.

In terrible weather, I walked to the two schools in my village. No picket lines of striking teachers in what were once car-filled playgrounds. Action, what action?

But the day was still a demonstration of momentous anger at the government's indifference to the plight of workers suffering from a Tory cost-of-living crisis.

In all public services, in universities, on the railways and even customs officers in stormy Shetland, they came out to protest against Rich Rishi Sunak's austerity.

In a way, I wish it had been a general strike, even though that would be illegal under Conservative anti-union laws. This government will not listen to the cries of anguish from parents, workers and the vast underpaid class, most of whom do not have the protection of a union.

Like Thatcher and her poll tax, they will only yield when forced to do so by public unrest.

Strikers today need to understand - like the miners seized in 1984 - that if you take on the state, the state will use all coercive means to defeat you.

Who is the state? "It's me" said Louis XIV of France. "It's me." Here is Sunak.

But he's not a monarch.

He is a puppet of the staunchly anti-union, anti-worker Conservative Party, and he can be defeated by unrest - at the ballot box.

The strike season is expected to continue at least until spring.

Local elections are due on May 4, less than 100 days from now. Each voice must then be mobilized to chase the conservatives from town halls, everywhere. Electoral annihilation is something even this brutal and indifferent group fears.