This has always been a purely political strike from day one just to have it confirmed by the president of the RMT is simply what most ordinary people already know.
If I may attempt to temper the hysterical reaction to this...
Any organisation, party or union, is made up of disparate individuals on different reaches of the political spectrum. Unions tend to be leftist as they are protecting members against the excesses of the free market; the Conservative party tend to be rightist, believing in the free market, minimal state intervention etc etc.
Imagine a press report saying something like Chris Grayling, SoS for Transport, has admitted he wants to outlaw all trade unions, make industrial action illegal, remove all employee protection against unfair dismissal, sick pay and workplace pensions, and allow employers to demand total flexibility from all employees, allowing hiring and firing at will without notice and working days and hours as required, to make the UK the most business friendly environment in the world.
You won't read this, because most of the press is essentially on the centre right or right, and they have pulled off a clever trick over the years of making leftist seem political and rightist seem normal and natural. Yet this will be the belief of some in the Conservative party, though probably not that many. Just like a few in the Unions still think they might see a socialist state established.
This will be a million miles from most of the members of both the Conservative party and the RMT/ASLEF members.
We haven't actually been balloted on whether we wish to bring down the government and the capitalist system.
RMT members have little to lose by striking to protect their jobs if the jobs are going anyway.
ASLEF members are angry that they are being dragged into potentially difficult waters just by doing their day to day job, extending a system that already has issues without first consulting their workforce - something, incidentally, which is in the GTR franchise spec.
Most of the discussion at work is about an increasing awareness of just how poor the view of the train can be on EXISTING DOO trains (See the photo on Sky News - and the fact that it's on Sky tells you something about how the truth is getting out) - and fear of the consequences of extending it further without trying to address the issues; with the resultant fears for themselves and the punters. Not least in terms of the delays that are going to rack up every time a driver finds himself with uncooperative cameras or crowds, necessary to avoid an unsafe scenario developing. We don't like delays either. And the dirty tricks agenda of course - the latest of which is cancelling trains unnecessarily again, presumably to make us look worse, even though if they can't run their service with an overtime ban, surely that says more about their management of the franchise than its train crew?
Funnily enough, I've not heard a solitary mention of a revolution in any mess room, thus far.
