Spring is in the air. The sun is coming up over the trenches and the mist has rolled away. Again we see No Man's Land and the low hills beyond it and the wan trees, and the broken spires of the distant villages and a silent plain. But in the dugouts there's a new sense of urgency with the news that the cease-fire is over and the big push starts on 8th March.

Despite the wails of the white-flag merchants the result of the strike ballot was a decisive 63.4 per cent in favour and only 36.6 against while the turn-out of 31.7 per cent is respectable when compared to similar votes in other unions. But on the DWP frontline, which is after all where half the membership work, there is considerable unease at the tactics and the timing of the new offensive.

Some wonder why the grandees have chosen to fight over pensions when they did nothing over pay last year and why the leadership has decided to launch a national two day protest in the run-up to what is clearly going to be a closely fought general election.

Well the first question is partially answered by the fact that the changes in the Civil Service Compensation Scheme (CSCS) are grossly unfair to younger members and those recruited into the civil service since 2007 while redundancy terms will be cut by up to a third (though this is partly a red-herring as the days of the golden handshakes are long gone and those who stood to make a packet were never going to get it in the first place).

The second is more problematic. The two other civil service unions, FDA and Prospect, have reached agreement with Management along with the general unions (GMB, POA, Unite) who organise in sectors covered by the CSCS. They've won "reserved rights" for those over 50 which covers most of the high-castes and their leaders clearly wanted to settle before the election, which at the time looked like being a Tory walk-over.

Now with the Tory lead slashed to five per cent in the opinion polls there's the prospect of a Labour/Lib Dem coalition or even an outright Labour victory on the horizon.

But PCS is between a rock and a hard place. First of all the Brown government isn't going to make any concessions in the run-up to the election, least of all to a non-affiliated union representing civil servants who are not regarded as a traditional Labour voting sector. Nor will the new government, whatever its hue, be sympathetic to civil service claims. Labour and the Liberal Democrats are both committed to the current reduction of the civil service budget while the Tories want even more.

The union's other problem is organisational. Over a third of the DWP's staff are on fixed termed contracts these days. This will be the first taste of industrial action for many of these workers - victims of the slump who joined the department without any expectation of making a career in the service but with a very real fear, encouraged by some managers, that their term will be shorter than they think if they get mixed up with unions, strikes and overtime bans.

Some have joined PCS but there must be a real organisational drive led from the top to get the rest to sign up rather than leaving it to overworked and inexperienced reps in the field. Management already believe that they can keep every office open in March by using high-caste cover and contractors. The union must take up the issue of contract workers and fight to win their right to permanent employment or risk providing a Trojan Horse for Management to use whenever a strike is called.

The purpose of the two-day strike is, as usual, attrition. If the strike is solid, PCS 's hand will be eventually strengthened at the negotiating table. But this is never openly explained to the members whose are clearly being led to believe that a short, sharp punch will be the key to victory. Victory, of course, can only mean a good draw - which the postal workers obtained through their protracted struggle last December. Whether PCS can do it depends on what comes next.

The grandee strategy may be obtuse and obfuscating but at least they have one, which is more than can be said for 4TM. During the ballot 4TM remained silent apart from some anonymous postings on the Indie while their main thrust in the run-up to the NEC elections is focusing on PCS 's alleged official support for fringe left candidates in the general election (by extension from Motion A72). This variation of the Red Scare implies that vast amounts of union money will be frittered away in pointless gestures. Maybe, but not yet.

The former MENDICANTS in the "Socialist Party" on the NEC are, indeed, endorsing the new "Trade Union and Socialist Coalition" (TUSC) which is comprised almost entirely of Socialist Party members and a handful of others from what's left of the SOCIALIST WANKERS. But it is not getting any of our money; Serwotka is on record for saying that.

This pathetic platform is little more than a propaganda exercise to justify the existence of the "Socialist Party" to their members fortunate enough not to be employed in the civil service and boost the vanity of maverick RMT leader, BOB CROW, a former COMMISSAR and SCARGILLITE, who likes the idea of being leader of a political party no matter how tiny and irrelevant it may be.

MARK SERWOTKA has a slightly different agenda which he spelt out at a fringe meeting during the Plaid Cymru Pre-Election Conference in February. At the meeting organised by UNDEB, the Welsh nationalists' trade union section, MAREK repeated his usual anti-Labour mantra, took a swipe at the Tories and Lib/Dems and naturally praised the Plaid. But he stressed that party politics was not as high a priority as is gearing up PCS 's membership to fight against the cuts in the service. He then went on to say that after the general election PCS will be organising union-supported independent candidates to stand in seats where there is no "left" alternative.

MAREK may dream of being a mover and shaker on the Westminster stage but back at Falconcrest a much more banal game is played all the time.

Finance Director DAVE NEWLYN may have left the books in a fine old mess when he left the chateau but that hasn't stopped him taking legal action for six days leave he says he wasn't paid for. Nor did it deter him from creeping along to TOM GRINYER's farewell bash, though he soon scampered off when his successor, CHRISTINE GRANT, arrived. CHRISTINE was later seen comparing notes on DAVE with old Moderati front man and CPSA National Treasurer, ace accountant KEITH MILLS.

And there's lots going on in BIS / BERR. It appears that restructuring (Augean stable cleansing) is on the cards in HR. The Current PCS Group President KEVIN ETHERIDGE (also assistant DTUS) has been made surplus to requirements together with SHAUN HARTIGAN (Prospect) and currently the BIS /BERR DTUS.  KEVIN is returning to the surplus pool, which is euphemistically called the "Career Transition Centre", in Cardiff and SHAUN to the "sin bin" in London . Even the Official Side secretaries have been put in the surplus pool together with the Assistant Official side secretary....so industrial relations would appear to be low on the Departmental agenda!

MARION LLOYD has also been duly out-manouvred by Prospect and the FDA who refused to accept her as DTUS and she's now in the surplus bin as well. What will happen next? Well MARION has been a MENDICANT and "Socialist Party" supporter all her life and she knows where all the skeletons lie. Expect a suitable vacancy to appear at PCS anytime soon.

One door opens and another closes.or not in GEOFF LEWTAS's case. He formally retired last month but he's carrying on at Falconcrest on a part-time basis. Pity he didn't tell his staff - though they suspected something had happened when they saw GLENYS driving a brand new soft top MERC.

For old Jockocrat MICK McCANN Westminster beckons as he's been selected by as Labour Party candidate for the safe East Kilbride seat following the retirement of ADAM INGRAM.

And it's the WOMBLE PASS for TERRY HOBBS, who is leaving the office for the last time this month. The SECRET LEFT's last surviving DWP member is having a retirement bash at a seedy pub in Purley on his last day which is appropriately, April 1st.

Meanwhile JOEL HERSH's plan to build an SWP revolutionary cell amongst the old gits in the Associate and Retired Members section of PCS (ARMS) has moved one step further with the nomination of himself (by himself) for the regional committee.

And hats off to MARTIN SMITH, the CPSA SOCIALIST WANKER who is on the verge of becoming undisputed heavyweight champion and leader of the SWP following a purge of LINDSEY GERMAN, JOHN REES and a number of their followers last month. For details of SMIFF's glorious career in CPSA see PFL's passim. I daresay we'll all have the privilege of meeting the ugly old brute on the Conference fringe in Brighton this year.

Men are so simple and so much inclined to obey immediate needs that a deceiver will never lack victims for his deceptions.  Niccolo Machiavelli 1469 - 1527

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