Prepare for class war!

'WORKPLACE GUERRILLA war' is predicted by the Chartered Institute for Personnel and Development (CIPD) as a result of 350,000 projected public sector job cuts over the next five years.

The double whammy of the recession and bailing out the bankers to the tune of hundreds of billions will mean that the Labour government (and its possible Tory successor) will slash spending on public services (see NHS cuts story).

According to John Philpott, chief economist and director of public policy at the CIPD: "The coming era of public sector austerity might not only witness large scale job cuts but also an ongoing 'workplace guerrilla war' marked by waves of major public sector strikes and regular bouts of unrest."

From the perspective of public sector workers, why guerrilla warfare? Surely the best defence of jobs, pay and pensions is to unite the trade unions in a generalised struggle against the government and employers?

Part of the preparation for this 'war' should be to deny the enemy resources. That means campaigning to end the trade unions' political link to New Labour - which is costing millions of pounds of union members' money every year - and instead using these funds for initiating a workers' political alternative.