A VICTORY against privatisation plans at the National Gallery could give hope to thousands of trade unionists fighting Tory austerity, a mass rally in London heard this weekend.

Artists including Patrick Brill (known as Bob and Roberta Smith) and Turner Prize winner Mark Wallinger paid tribute to the “inspirational” strike of PCS union members at the gallery, which is fighting to plans to outsource 400 staff to a private company.

Hundreds of union activists gathered just metres away from the building in Trafalgar Square to demonstrate public support for the dispute.

PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka told the crowd the struggle was “about greed, profit and treating people with enormous talent as if they were just commodities on the balance sheet.”

One gallery rep slammed bosses for their “dictatorial attitude,” and striking workers wore gags as a reminder of the ban on staff speaking to the press.

After hearing speeches from numerous supporters from other workplace disputes, the arts and politics, the crowd staged a sit-in outside the gallery’s Sainsbury wing, which is already run by private contractor CIS.

Striking Barnet Council workers addressed the crowd in solidarity, and the Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners group proudly displayed its banner.

Film director Ken Loach said managers had been “mean-spirited, narrow-minded and short-sighted” in their dealings with the union, while Mr Brill lambasted the gallery for taking “really stupid decisions.”

And he warned that attacks on cultural institutions nationwide would only get worse. “Councils will be seeing local museums not as repositories of knowledge but as treasure houses,” he said.

Calling for art to be valued as a public asset, Mr Wallinger said: “We need to move away from this talk of privatisation and ‘creative industries’.” He said outsourcing staff with a “huge wealth of knowledge” would set an “awful precedent.”

PCS activist Candy Udwin, sacked for seeking information about the cost of employing the privateer, urged the public to send in freedom of information requests on the issue. “We have a right to know,” she said.

The gallery’s trustees board, which includes hedge-fund managers, accountants and a prominent Tory donor, were branded by Labour MP John McDonnell as “philistine tossers.”