Breakthrough Party launches RMT Christmas strike fundraiser

 16th December 2022

The festive period is usually a time for reflection and to think about what we’re thankful for.

Whether it’s friends, family, loved ones, good health or just a break from the stresses of daily life.

But the holidays have made us thankful for something else. We are thankful for the trade union movement and the workers fighting back, especially the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT) and Mick Lynch.

With others, they helped kickstart hot-strike summer, which has continued into this winter. We’ve seen industrial action from nurses, paramedics, hospital staff, postal workers, university and college staff, telecoms engineers, civil servants, dockers, train drivers and refuse workers, with teachers and firefighters currently balloting too.

Lynch has destroyed every mainstream media hack, brushing the likes of Richard Madeley and Piers Morgan aside with ease.

This has fuelled more brutal and sustained attacks from the right-wing press, as they have stooped to new lows, whether it is making personal attacks towards Lynch or even inventing fake sob stories about disrupting Christmas travel plans for workers.

The government has blocked Network Rail at every turn from offering any meaningful deal, with RMT members emphatically rejecting the latest offer, which would have meant thousands of job losses.

And it’s not only the Tories that are seemingly against working people. As well as refusing to support the RMT and its demands publicly, the Labour Party leadership have also refused to promise to repeal all of the Conservatives’ proposed anti-strike laws, making effective strike action illegal in Britain.

While our main political parties are on the side of bosses, Breakthrough will always stand in solidarity with workers. Not just through our words but through our actions too.

That’s why we are starting an emergency strike fundraiser this Christmas for railway workers.

RMT members have already lost thousands of pounds in their fight for a decent pay rise and good working conditions. They need our support.

We appreciate that times are tough, so any amount, however big or small, would be greatly appreciated.

You can donate to the fundraiser here.