Strike action is the right of a worker, and often the only way for a worker to fight back when they are being screwed.

The teachers are quite right, they did not cause the economic situation we are all in, that was caused, in the main, by bankers who greedily went after business without due caution or probity.  Those people are still receiving bonuses.  In the meantime, our government tells us that we are all in it together. Strange that during the good years the rich got richer and the poor stayed poor. Now, when the bubble has burst, it is not the rich who are paying, No! Not them!  they are still getting richer and richer - the gap between rich and poor is still increasing at an accelerating rate.

So why can we 'no longer afford' decent pensions for people?  Yes of course the fact that people are living longer is an important point, but this 'inability to afford' is very much a choice, a choice made by those at the top, the rich, who are pocketing money as fast as they can.  These are the people who control what you are told, these are the people who tell you that there is no longer any money to support you in your old age.

It's the low paid who are really suffering and paying for the economic crisis. Inflation for poor people is much higher than for the rich.  Why? Because the major elements are the price rises in energy and food, both of which constitute a large proportion of a poor person's spending, so a poor household spends something like 9.4% of their household income on energy and 20% on food, while a rich household spends 4.4% on energy and 10.1% on food.  While investment bankers sun themselves by their swimming pools in the Italian hills, the poor are paying for their mistakes.

It's time for a real change.  But who can you vote for who will effect it?  When every party you can realistically vote for will do exactly the same thing, when there is nothing you can do to protect yourself.  Who can blame people for protesting?  Who can blame them for striking?  Even it they lose, even if they are doomed to failure because so many dim-witted sheep who constitute 'public opinion' repeat the mantra of their rich masters, that teachers are greedy, that they should be prepared to take 'their fair share', that their retirement can 'no longer be afforded'. 

Each time they whittle away at people's pay, each time they shave a bit off someone's overtime rate or figure out a way to force them to work longer hours, they create the conditions that will mean that when it comes to your own pay and conditions, and you try to protect yourself, there will be a baying crowd telling you that you must take your 'fair share' of the misery, while the rich few quietly pocket their saving.