Labour hail Andy Burnham’s Bee Network as a “bus revolution” – but workers see otherwise. TfGM tram and bus workers have gone on strike and will be taking further action later in December. Manchester RCP members report from on the ground.
The Birmingham bin strike has escalated: agency workers formerly used by the Labour council to break the strike have balloted to join it! Unite should seize this opportunity to broaden the movement further: against all austerity, job cuts and anti-worker attacks!
Workers at Britain’s biggest arms manufacturer are set to strike in the coming weeks, over below-inflation pay offers. However, Unite’s leadership is dragging its heels. Their class collaboration is tied up with their support for British militarism.
In the latest issue of The Communist, we hear from our readers about the UCU’s ballot over job cuts and below-inflation wage increases; nearly 3,000 arms workers going on strike; and more!
Not content with supporting arch-bureaucrat Christina McAnea in Unison’s elections, the misnamed ‘Communist Party’ of Britain have backed Starmer’s favourite Bridget Phillipson in Labour’s deputy leader challenge.
The European mass movement must act as a wake-up call for the British trade union leaders, who have so far been passive. We invite our members and supporters to pass this motion at all levels of the labour movement.
The first question on the mind of people radicalised by capitalism is: “what can I do?” A Bolshevik worker tells us her experience: using ideas, patient explanation and organisation to turn her union branch from passivity to militancy.
Since ‘working-class warrior’ Angela Rayner was ditched from Starmer’s cabinet, the union leaders have been inconsolable. Their ‘woman on the inside’ is gone, their Employment Rights Bill is being butchered, and their strategy of cosying up to Labour is bankrupt.
Next month, ballots open for the general secretary election in Unison, Britain’s largest trade union. Scandalously, the so-called ‘Communist’ Party of Britain is supporting right-wing incumbent and arch-bureaucrat Christina McAnea against left candidate Andrea Egan.
RMT Tube strikes are due to start 5 September. The bosses clearly feel threatened, predicting an Autumn of Discontent as ballot victories multiply. Let’s give them something to tremble about! Victory to the RMT, for joint action across the public sector!
In the first online instalment of ‘Bastard Boss of the Week’, a worker in the “best airport bar in the world” exposes his bosses’ profit-hungry practices; while a coffee shop worker in London tells us about his successes organising in the workplace.
Several unions representing NHS workers have come out emphatically against Labour’s poor pay offer. The next step is to unite strike action across the unions, with a mass campaign against austerity and privatisation, and for bold socialist policies.