Tens of thousands of Royal Mail workers will be staging 24 hour strikes over the next two days. We would encourage anyone who is able to visit picket lines, and talk to workers, as well as looking to set up local strike support groups.
First, from midnight tonight, workers will begin strikes in Mail Centres – the fifty or so large sorting and distribution depots around the country. Then, from early Friday morning workers in Delivery Offices will be on strike (except where Delivery Offices are based in Mail Centres, in which case they will be out at the same time as Mail Centre staff). Your local delivery office is where you may have been to pick up a parcel if it could not be delivered. If you do not know where it is, Royal Mail provides a service you can use to find out: call 08457 740 740.
The best times to visit Delivery Offices on Friday morning will be between 6am and 10am, though pickets may be on site from as early as 4.30am and as late as 11.30am. Where Delivery Offices have a night shift, there may be picket lines from 9pm on Thursday night. At Mail Centres, peak times for picketing are reportedly 6am, 2pm and 10pm.
Solidarity is vital to this dispute! The postal workers are under attack in the mainstream media, but are fighting the most. Members of The Commune will be visiting picket lines in several areas of the country. Get in touch with us if you would like to join us, or if you would be interested in attending meetings to organise solidarity for postal workers.
Find out more about the reasons behind this dispute here and here.
We urgently need to begin to relate to the workers who Royal Mail is hiring to clear the backlog of mail related to the dispute. If any readers have information about where replacement workers are being trained, hired, or working, please get in touch and let us know.
There are now three Mail Centres in London:
South London Mail Centre, 53 9 Elms Ln, Wandsworth, London SW8 5BB
Mount Pleasant Mail Centre, Farringdon Road London, EC1A 1BB
East London Mail Centre, Twelvetrees Crescent London, E3 3TT
Post worker support groups…
The setting up of a Southwark Postal Workers Support Group has been proposed, and an inaugural meeting has been arranged for Thursday 22nd October 6.30pm at the Unison Office, Walworth Road. STUC previously ran a successful Print Workers Support Group in the 80s, which provided financial and moral support to the Wapping strikers, including leading many major demonstrations outside of the plant; running stalls in local markets etc.
Haringey Postal Workers Support Group: Next meeting, Wednesday October 28th, 7.30pm, At the North London Community Centre, Moorefield Rd N17 – behind Bruce Grove BR
The SWP has published a list of contacts for strike support groups: it would be worth making contact with your nearest group, whilst being wary of potential limits in the SWP approach to solidarity. The SWP are organising a “London wide solidarity meeting” on Monday, 26th Oct at 7pm at Friends Mtg House, Euston Rd. There will be a Commune presence there, contact us if you would like to meet.
Strike supporters are planning to hamper Royal Mail’s scabbing plans next week by mass leafleting a strike-breaking mail centre in Dartford, Kent. The Right to Work campaign group will explain to casual workers at the centre that they are being used to break a strike, and encourage them to stop work and join the CWU union. Activists will meet outside the warehouse in Dartford on Wednesday 28 October. For more information, phone 07961 337 640. (From Socialist Worker.)
Send us reports from picket lines or info about solidarity activities: uncaptiveminds@gmail.com or post below.
the commune 
Hi Comrades
Unable to make the picket this morning at the main sorting office in sheffield which is in the middle of nowhere or on an old industrial estate with few public transport links. But I Will be at the pond street depot in the city centre tomorrow morning. Tonight I attended the picket of the BBC Radio Sheffield protesting the BNP presence on question time. Mainly SWP students and their teachers with an NUT Banner. The rest were mostly my age and members of the SP. Interesting enough I sold the paper to two young people who were the only non white people on the picket. They were not members of the sects but had joined the picket in passing when they saw the anti BNP slogans. The local sheffield paper has picked up on the mood with the banner headline. Three strikes and out. (striking local firefighters,posties and busdrivers.)
Barry
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