A big thanks to all who attended the successful Conference at the Guildhall in Plymouth yesterday. Plymouth Trades Union Council hosted the “Plymouth Fightback Against the Cuts” planning Conference, under the call to “Unite the Resistance”. Trade union activists from PCS, Unite, UNISON, the NUT, CWU and USDAW joined with pensioners representatives, Occupy Plymouth and UK Uncut to discuss the next few months of resistance to all cuts in Plymouth. PCS vice-President, John McNally, identified the impact of the public sector strikes against pension cuts, and offered a key note speech which you can hear in full on this link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-n--cE6vcc

We agreed a series of actions in Plymouth, including an anti-cuts protest next Thursday morning, and a picket of BBC Question Time to be held live at Plymouth Guildhall on the evening of Thursday 26^th January – Stop All Cuts Now! We are mounting a new campaign to defend the local health service, and re-launching the Plymouth Claimants Union, offering representation and advocacy for all receiving welfare benefits.

Please note the next meeting of Plymouth Trades Union Council will be held on Tuesday 3rd January 2012 at 171 Armada Way 7pm  - you can park free on the roof of  Sainsburys car park opposite (the underneath car park closes at 9pm, so don’t go there). The venue has had to be changed due to us being unable to use the Thompsons Offices any more because of a Unite meeting. Future meetings of PTUC will be at 171 unless another trade union can offer free premises.

We face a critical and deeply disturbing situation in 2012. There is no more “business as usual”.

On 1^st December, we were collectively celebrating a successful mass strike. We’d achieved superb working unity across 28 unions. We had massive public support, with people increasingly glad to see anyone fighting against a vicious Tory government. We had significant and growing support from private sector workers – for the same reasons. We got the government rattled.