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SHOCK, bewilderment, anger. Those words sum up the emotions FBU members felt when our executive suspended the strike due to start this week. Calling off the strike for "exploratory talks at ACAS" is a major mistake. There is a serious danger that our pay campaign will not deliver, and could even end in defeat.

I feel betrayed by the Labour Party As a firefighter I am at the end of my tether with the Labour Party, a party which I have been a member of for around 18 years since I left the Royal Navy. At our last FBU union conference our general secretary, Andy Gilchrist, argued strongly that the union had to continue to fund Labour, and only Labour. We voted loyally to stick with Labour.

The firefighters' strike has put class struggle back on the agenda.

A STOP the war demonstration drew around 1,000 people on to the streets of Sheffield last Saturday. The march was led by a delegation from South Yorkshire FBU and addressed by CND, trade unionists, socialists and students. Later the same night a massive Stop the War Coalition benefit raised £1,800 as DJs from across Sheffield's club scene attracted hundreds of people. Greg Challis

"SCARGILLITE" is how Tony Blair attacks the firefighters' union. But it is not Scargillism that is threatening our livelihoods and public services - it is Thatcherism, the doctrine of Blair's New Labour government. On every front those at the core of this government are pushing right wing policies animated by the spirit of the former Tory leader. Education secretary Charles Clarke and his sidekick Margaret Hodge are two of New Labour's "ultras". They are determined to force students to pay "top-up" fees of up to £10,000 to go to some colleges. Clarke also wants to force every student to pay fees, regardless of their or their parents' income.

THE TWO-day firefighters' strike last week, and the support it got, rattled the government. Large sections of the capital's tube system shut during the strike when workers took impressive action over health and safety (see below). The strike also transformed the 55,000 members of the Fire Brigades Union (FBU). FBU general secretary Andy Gilchrist told over 600 people at a fundraising gig in west London on Friday of last week that his tour of mass meetings showed a deepening confidence among firefighters that they will win.

A WAVE of support and solidarity greeted firefighters and emergency control room staff from the minute they walked out the door. "The vast majority of our people have never been on strike before," Tam McFarlane, secretary of the south west England region of the Fire Brigades Union (FBU), told Socialist Worker. "The support they have got from other trade unionists and the public has been just overwhelming. And we are talking about areas like Somerset, Cornwall and Devon. It's given them confidence to stand up to the press attacks. No one in the fire service wants to be on strike. But the solidarity we are getting convinces us we are right to take this difficult step, and that we will w

Add up housing costs and average wages and £30k looks modest.

"THERE'S NO way we should be suspending strikes with so little on the table. It is creating demoralisation among the activists." That's what Del Godfrey, chair of the Fire Brigades Union (FBU) in Essex, told Socialist Worker on Monday.

TONY BLAIR restated his hard line against the firefighters on the very day leaders of the Fire Brigades Union (FBU) suspended another strike in the hope of getting a pay offer in talks. He said on Monday of this week, "If people make excessive wage claims we will have to resist them."

FIRE BRIGADES Union (FBU) officials and reps were meeting throughout this week to discuss their pay campaign. Those meetings of core members of the union expressed a renewed determination to win a clear-cut victory after the government has shown it can be budged. There were loud calls that the union nationally should maintain the momentum it has built up over the last few months.

THE government is desperate to avoid a confrontation with 55,000 firefighters and emergency control room staff. That's why it went from accusing the Fire Brigades Union (FBU) of "Scargillism" on Wednesday of last week to sending deputy prime minister John Prescott into talks with union leaders the following day.