The September 20th meeting of the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) national steering committee sent its full solidarity to the Birmingham bin workers in their increasingly high-profile dispute with the Labour-led council over plans to end safety-critical jobs on its bins service and cut workers’ wages.

The workers, members of the Labour-affiliated Unite the Union, recently voted by 92% to 8% to re-affirm their strike mandate. Subsequently the High Court ordered the council to withdraw its redundancy notices, pending a full hearing. Austerity can be beaten back from whatever quarter it comes from, including so-called Labour councillors who so obviously oppose Jeremy Corbyn’s anti-cuts stance.

We carry below a video of the speech by Unite assistant general secretary Howard Beckett moving an emergency motion at the recent TUC conference, which was carried unanimously. If Labour councillors “act like Tories we should treat them like Tories”, he said. Who could disagree?