'We are the working class and we are back': Mick Lynch addresses rally

2023-02-02

‘We are the working class and we are back’: Rail union firebrand Mick Lynch addresses 40,000-strong rally on day of strikes

40,000 people went to Whitehall yesterday during nationwide demonstrations
The RMT Union leader spread a message of unity for all workers across sectors
Mr Lynch was joined at the protests by Labour MPs despite Starmer’s warning

Mick Lynch, the headline act at a huge rally in central London yesterday, told the crowd: ‘We are the working class and we are back.’

Forty thousand people crammed into Whitehall as union members across the country staged demonstrations in support of striking teachers, public workers and civil servants.

In London, the RMT rail boss, whose members were also on strike, had a message of unity for workers from all industries.

Mr Lynch said ministers were ‘trying to ban the working class’ and ‘our message is every worker needs a pay rise’.

He continued: ‘And our message is, sod this, we demand, and we are united. We will not be divided on the basis of who we work for.

Mick Lynch, the headline act at a huge rally in central London yesterday, told the crowd: ‘We are the working class and we are back’

‘We will not be divided on the basis of our belief, or the colour of our skin, or the part of the country we are from.

‘We are the working-class, and we are back.’

Mr Lynch was joined at the protests by Labour MPs including John McDonnell, Sam Tarry and Rebecca Long-Bailey, despite Keir Starmer’s warning that no MP should be on a picket line ‘if they want to be in government’.

Former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn was also there.

Labour MP Zarah Sultana also addressed the rally, saying: ‘When Mick Lynch said the working class is back, it’s back, it’s here and it’s fighting.

‘Enough is enough, enough of the rich getting richer while the poor get poorer.

‘This isn’t a cost-of-living crisis for everyone, the rich are not getting poorer… it’s a crisis for the working class.’

London Mayor Sadiq Khan said he couldn’t move his meetings to be there in person but sent a message of support to be read out.

Labour MP Zarah Sultana also addressed the rally, saying: ‘When Mick Lynch said the working class is back, it’s back, it’s here and it’s fighting’

Yesterday’s rallies – there were also protests in Cardiff, Newcastle and Leeds – were in part organised by the Trades Union Congress to protest the Government’s minimum service legislation which would allow ministers to force some employees to work through strikes or potentially be sacked.

They came as a rail union baron threatened a ten-day walkout in a bid to flout the proposed laws.

Mick Whelan, of Aslef, which staged walkouts yesterday and will do so again tomorrow, said drivers could stage longer periods of industrial action if the anti-strike law came into force.

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