J30 Assembly Movement - UK
Description
By Alex Long and Steve Walker:
"In May a group of us who had been radicalised by recent anti-cuts actions called an open meeting, advertised through Facebook and Twitter, to discuss how people who were not unionised workers could support the strike action. The purpose of the meeting was to see how we could deepen the strike and make it appeal to many more people, making it a day to link up all those fighting against the cuts and wider austerity measures. More than 100 people turned up: parents, carers, non-unionised workers, unemployed and precarious workers and a group of Spanish “indignados” who have been, since 15 May, holding protests outside the Spanish embassy in London. This meeting became the first “J30 assembly”.
Since then the concept has gone viral, and similar assemblies have been popping up across the UK including Leeds, Birmingham, Norwich and Oxford. The call to “generalise the strike” has clearly resonated with people as it suggests we all have a stake in these struggles and the strike is for all of us. The use of social media tools in this new movement have meant that ideas travel further, drawing in new and younger participants, many of whom have never been involved in a trade union or in workplaces that are unionised.
Across the country trade unionists will be on the picket lines, and we think it is crucial that as many people as possible show their support on the day. Therefore J30 assemblies have called for mass support at every picket line, and we are spreading the word with our website,www.j30strike.org.
Information has been crowdsourced via Twitter in an attempt to list as many locations of pickets, rallies, actions and marches in the lead-up to the day. UK Uncut activists will also be out in force, and have organised a “big society breakfast” for the morning. In Manchester a “J30: Wage rage!” protest is happening at the Welfare to Work Convention at theManchester Central convention centre. In New Cross, London, a “strike party street party” has been organised for 10am outside Deptford town hall with many early morning picketers and supporters heading to central London afterwards to join the trade union march to Westminster. Later on there will be a mass strikers’ assembly outside parliament supported by London-based Spanish indignados and Greek aganaktismenoi. School walkouts and marches have also been planned to link up various workplace pickets with each other.
The student movement, and the numerous autonomous and creative groups like UK Uncut have led the way. The J30 assemblies continue with this spirit in the lead up to 30 June with the intention to generalise the strikes across the UK, bringing trade unionists, students and unemployed workers together and making the case for a united show of force on 30 June." (http://www.thenewsignificance.com/2011/06/29/alex-long-and-steve-walker-j30-we-all-own-this-strike/)