On Wednesday, feb 1, 2023, up to 500,000 workers participated in coordinated national strikes involving six major trade unions . The largest strike on a single day since November 30, 2011, was waged against Conservative/Liberal Democrat coalition pensions cuts .
Strikers and protesters at the Trades Union Congress rally in Whitehall expressed their determination to fight against austerity measures and win improvements in wages and working conditions . The strikes were met with resistance by the government, which passed new anti-strike legislation in response .
Teachers in England and Wales were on strike, as were civil servants, members of the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS), and rail travel was hard hit . The TUC sought to keep opposition to the Bill as low key as possible, even calling some of its “Protect the right to strike” rallies on Wednesday in pubs .
The strikes and protests express the determination of millions of workers who are in a protracted struggle with a Conservative government and employers refusing to make any concessions .
The 15 February international protests that took place across the world in 2003 were unprecedented not only in terms of the size of the demonstrations but also in terms of the international coordination involved .
Organising factors included European coordination and the spread of the call to demonstrate internationally through various platforms such as the World Social Forum in Porto Alegre, Brazil which took place at the end of 2002 .
