Letter from Abigail Pollock
On a windy Saturday, a week into the biggest rail Strike Britain has seen since the 80s, 500 people gathered at Liverpool’s Lime Street to oppose the Tories transport policies. The atmosphere at the RMT’s solidarity protest was electric.
At the edge of the demonstration, taking place on the historic steps that overlook St George’s Hall, where four well-dressed scouse girls. Employed as hostesses by Avanti they had this to say: “we are 100% behind the strike. Us caterers earn peanuts but the RMT have given us 100% support and we will give it back to them”.
Avanti is the beleaguered franchisee who have failed to deliver an effective service from Cornwall to the top of the Scottish West Coast, due to lose the contract in 2026 and they seem determined to rinse the taxpayer of their subsidy and return the line to National Rail in tatters.
In between speeches from Ian Byrne, MP for Liverpool West Derby and Kim Johnson the new MP for Liverpool Riverside, there was a motley crew of lefts, uniformed ladies TSSA ticket sellers on a fag-break and curious students,
One of those present turned out to have been the frontman for The Dominators, a renowned Liverpool band from the 60s briefly as famous as The Beatles in Liverpool. “Obviously we support all the workers against exploitation which is getting worse everyday. But here in Liverpool we also feel that what we really need now is for Labour to step up to the mark”. He continued “I’m so proud to be a scouser; we are the City that knows how to strike. I was a jazz guitarist a Dominator, but we are a City that won’t be dominated”
That indomitable spirit was obvious in the tub-thumping speeches of the black workers who spoke, including, Chantelle Lunt, who was there to represent The Merseyside Black People’s Alliance, “when Boris Johnson said let the bodies pile high, he didn’t mean the elite; he meant us” she shouted, to rapturous applause from all assembled.
The main force behind the event was RMT Regional Organiser, Darren Pilling, and as the two-hour event died down, he was found to be over by the shops and pubs of the city centre. “They had 500,000 last weekend in Westminster for the TUC cost of living march,” he said, “but here we had 500 comrades, rock solid, with daily strike events. We are the City that dares to strike”
