1,000 POSTAL workers are on strike in Cardiff against the Royal Mail's decision to impose new shift patterns. They have been out for over two weeks.
The Cardiff workers are furious about management trying to treat them like robots introducing fixed duties without any consideration about friends. family, and social life.
The changes they want to introduce mean workers would be assigned to one shift permanently. At present most work ers rotate their shifts which means no-one works unsocable hours or in bad delivery areas all the time.
Fixed duties would make it easier for management to cut bonus payments for evening and night work.
Solidarity
Solidarity has been widespread with offices in Bristol and Bournemouth launching an unofficial overtime ban to make sure no Cardiff mail passes through their area.
Newport, Swansea, Barry they will not handle Cardiff mail and at Worcester and Oxford workers have voted to strike if asked to touch work from Cardiff.
UCW activists must push for the strike to supported nationally - Cardiff is the first to be attacked and if defeated the same will happen across Britain.
Messages of solidarity and further information from UCW Cardiff strike HQ, phone or tax 0222 456988 REVELL & GEORGE Support GPMU strikers SAT SEPT 4 Cow Lane, Salford (off Oldfield Rd)
by Peter Purton TORIES in trouble seck easy targets. Their concerted attack on single parents. driven on by the budget deficit, is a rare combination of two of their favourite themes: that poor people are parasites or the "productive" part of society, and that moral valuss can only be secured by proper family life'.
front bench has once again shown that no policy the Tories promote shall pass without being emulated by the Recent spenches by spokespersons such is Tony Blair and Fi have reflected a media campaign by hiberal columnists demanding a Labour "family po Ci-care In fact a th of all families are single-parent (involving 2.2 million chil.iren). Nine-tenths are headen sy women, and inc vas mantity woul wwk if childcare were available.
Although: the teenace berth rate is high. only 4 per cent of singic paremis on ococais are teenagers. The chief cause of single-parenthood is divorce and separation, accounting for 70 per cent.
For the Tories, this is a problem. Even though the individual benefit payments leave most of their recipients in dreadful poxerty, the total bill is large.
ane kary solution is to attack the victim, the most recent measure being the Child Support Act. But the situation also defies Tory philosophy. John Redwood (Welsh Secretary) says 'the natural state should be the two-adult family caring for their children" tional. Labour's echo of it es. tablishes a consensus which leaves the vast numbers living outside the ideal Tory family whatever further material and ideological attack comes next.
The Tories know they rely on Labour not to challenge the fundamentals, for fear of (alleged) clectoral unpopular.
Failure
Tony Blair - one of Labour's Bible-bashing declares that 'the task of a mod. em policy for the family is to develop public policy that helps for the family to prosper'. He recognises that one parent can Most people live outside the 'nuclear family' set-up be as good as two, and that the balance between men and has changed - but the fundamental question of the family itself remains unanswered.
Tories argue that and disorder and high crime rates are caused by the breakdown of the traditional family. Labour's version by the breakdown family. which is caused itself by poverty and deprivation.
The argument not only disregards all except working class crime, it also ignores the other side of the question: an im mense proportion of crimes are commitco wise the jamies, as SOCIALIST OUTLOOK No. 48, September 1993, Page 5 Bible-basher Blair has been frequently proven. Rapc, abuse of all kinds, and indeed a high proportion of assaults and murders, are committed between family members -and always have been. The idea that if we just get people jobs and better housing family life trapped into a heterosexual relationship? will be restored to its 1950's 'Persil' image is utopian.
That preaching by politicians, church and community tity of the family is demonstrably mythical.
Campaign
From the left, the response should be to campaign for • measures such as a woman's right to control her own fertility and proper childcare, and equaland gay men, and everything cise when chances the strug gle of women and of lesbians and gay men against their op Our goal is not the restoration' of family values, because the family is itself oppressive, but ultimately the liberation of opment of better forms of organicing our lives as part of a socialist society. heterosexuality, which is a no less valid question. But there is plentiful evidence-