Striking workers are providing the opposition that Britain desperately needs | Andy Beckett

The strikes are gaining momentum, and public opinion is behind them - could they transform our economic landscape?

In Britain, more than in most democratic countries, going on strike is a risk. Your employer, the government, most of the media, much of the public and often the opposition parties are likely to be against you - or, at best, unsupportive. Your loss of income is unlikely to be made up by strike pay. Your behaviour on the picket line will be subject to what Tony Blair described approvingly in 1997 as the most restrictive" trade union laws in the western world".

In very public ways, you will be breaking the rules of the modern economy: refusing to work, inconveniencing consumers, acting collectively rather than individually, and making demands for more money openly - rather than in private, as more powerful people do. If you are on the left, you are likely to be told again and again that your strike is politically counterproductive.