Keep the 'people's Post Office' public

TV ADVERTS call it the "People's Post Office" but the Post Office's top management want to wrest this public service from the people's hands and give it to the private sector.

Rob Windsor, Coventry Socialist councillor

Hertford St Crown Post Office in Coventry is one of dozens scheduled to be closed and the business transferred to WH Smith where workers can be paid less and queues for a worse service will be endless.

Now the communications union the CWU are holding a march this Saturday to protest the closure. We are hoping for a large and angry turnout.

New Labour MPs supported the "market freedom reforms" in the Postal Services Act 2000 which paved the way for complete privatisation of the Post Office. But of course, Coventry's three New Labour MPs don't mention this when declaring "support" for those fighting closures.

Let's hope this demo is the start of the expression of "the people's anger" against the post office robbery and that New Labour's role is exposed. We need real "people's representatives" as part of a new workers party, not a party that takes CWU members' funds while kicking those same trade unionists in the teeth.

Coventry demo against Post Office closures. Saturday 8 December. Assemble Bishop Street Sorting Office 11am. March to Hertford Street Crown Post Office for 12.15pm

Brighton

BRIGHTON SOCIALIST Party has launched a campaign against the town's six post office closures, that will hit elderly and disabled people who rely on the local post offices to collect their benefits.

Suzanne Beishon

Petitioning on our Saturday sales, one student told us her 90-year-old grandmother relies on the post office to collect her pension and it is completely unrealistic for her to travel into Brighton city centre. We sold over 30 copies of the socialist.

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In The Socialist 6 December 2007:

System change not climate change