From 21st to 24th April, Extinction Rebellion, as part of a coalition of many organisations, including PCS, is organising “the Big One”, an attempt to involve 100,000 people in a continuous protest outside Parliament. Broad Left Network supports this and urges all PCS members in the vicinity to attend before work, during their lunch time or after work, to give support to the demands of the protest.
Extinction Rebellion (XR) demands that the government “Tell the Truth”, “Acts Now” and that we “Decide Together” on our post-fossil fuel future, where economic activity does not damage the environment and threaten the lives of billions of people around the planet. Immediately this would mean ceasing to extract fossil fuels from the ground, while transitioning to different energy sources.
Broad Left Network supporters in PCS have played an extremely important role in devising the union’s approach to this issue. The idea of a “Just Transition”, where workers are not made to suffer or pay the cost of a move away from an economy that depends on fossil fuels, whilst the owners of that economy continue to rake in billions of pounds in profit, is crucial to PCS policies, set by Conference.
PCS Conference has rejected the argument, put forward by some trade unions, that we cannot support concrete steps to end dependency on fossil fuels because this will put jobs at risk. Every single job can be and should be protected; every worker and every skill involved in the extraction of fossil fuels can be put to work building tomorrow’s carbon-free economy, with no loss of wages.
Different parts of the UK civil service will be on strike on days between 21st and 24th April. Student Loans Company, Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority and Ofgem will all be taking action. Shortly afterwards, on 28th April, the entire UK civil service will have a further day of national strike action over pay, pensions, rights and jobs.
Our battle is linked to the battle being fought by climate change protesters outside Parliament. Our pay, our pensions, our redundancy rights and our jobs are under threat precisely so the government can avoid taxing or even moving to nationalise the energy behemoths and other corporations for whom profit depends on the continuation of pollutive practices and fossil fuels.
We are prohibited by law from striking over social and political issues – but our fight to force the government to pay up, to avoid us getting poorer, is a fight to be listened to, as working-class people. It is the same battle waged by climate change activists who want civil and public institutions that respond to popular pressure, not just to corporate lobbyists and the needs of the super-rich.
PCS policy is to demand the creation of a National Climate Service, as well as the nationalisation of the sectors involved in energy. Energy prices – and the profiteering of corporations involved at every level of energy production from extracting fossil fuels to the companies selling energy to homes – have been a crucial part of why inflation is so high, and why our wages should rise to match rising prices.
Joining the XR People’s Pickets, and other actions such as the trade union hub and bloc on the Saturday march, is an opportunity to build support for our demands as civil and public service workers. Trade unionism is built on participatory democracy and linking with XRs citizens assemblies can help to shape the discussions for the fairer future we all want.
PCS members have a proud history of leading in the trade union movement on climate change and the environment. We’ve recognised that this is fundamentally a working-class issue as the action needed to address it, will not only impact many workers jobs, but is the same action needed to end poverty pay, poor working conditions, job insecurity and inequality which is inherent to the current fossil fuel economy. To get there, we need fighting, democratic trade unions banded together and willing to act decisively and in concert, to force the government to act – even when it doesn’t want to.
PCS Broad Left Network 