Yesterday there was a 24 hour general strike in Belgium by public sector workers.

Public sector workers in Belgium are experiencing very similar attacks on their pensions that British public sector workers are facing.

Yesterday, public sector workers staged a huge twenty four hour strike. Not only did schools, hospitals, and local government services close, but the entire national transport infrastructure was crippled, buses, trains, trams and ports, all experienced serious disruption.

A government official stated, “Reforms are long overdue, and they are key to overcoming intergenerational conflict and absolutely necessary to the re-establishment of health public finances”.

Just like the British government, the Belgian ruling elite are ‘creaming’ themselves as the have been offered the banking collapse as the perfect smokescreen to push through their attacks on working people.

Another similarity with the UK situation is the farcical negotiations that the government has embarked on with unions, negotiation in name only, as the decisions have already been made.

The ABVV trade union said that workers "are striking against the government retirement measures because they are being imposed on us in the absence of any kind of social negotiations."

The current socialist government is also playing the same divide and conquer game that the Conservatives are. They pit worker against worker by constantly making reference to the disparity between private and public sector pension provision.