The head of the Trades Union Congress, Paul Nowak, has just been made a director in the Bank of England. He is not the first trade-union turncoat. The sooner these labour fakers are driven out of our movement the better.
Britain’s biggest car manufacturer, Jaguar Land Rover, is slashing thousands of jobs. This is a graphic illustration of Britain’s industrial decline, and a humiliation for Burnham’s ‘pro-industry’ Labour government. Workers can have no trust in these sellouts!
Disappointingly, Unison’s recent ballot of 200,000 council and school workers failed to pass the threshold set by the anti-union laws. Elsewhere, the trade union leaders are prevaricating. In issue 54 of The Communist, our readers discuss the way forward.
RMT members at East Midlands Railway (EMR) have been on strike over the forced rollout of new unsafe trains. EMR claims these trains meet “rigorous safety standards” – but on the tracks they regularly fail mid-service. We say, enough of these rail bosses putting their profits over our lives and our safety!
The Communist’s industrial correspondents discuss the peerage of Unison’s former top-dog bureaucrat, Christina McAnea; Unite’s general secretary elections; and the announced NEU teachers’ ballot. Plus: the latest bastard bosses of the week, luxury hotels and construction!
The election of Andrea Egan as Unison general secretary earlier this year could be acting as a major turning point for the class struggle in Britain. However, her first 180 days leave much to be desired. Egan must pivot and take the fight to the government.
Last Saturday was the 140th annual Durham Miners gala. This year was marked by a visible lack of political direction or ideas. Nevertheless, union members have been taking individual initiatives and the RCP in the North-East had our largest ever fringe meeting.
Tomorrow is the Durham Miners’ Gala, the largest trade union event in Europe. The annual gala however has become a talking shop for leaders of the left and trade unions. What we really need is not just talk, but real action!
After three years of backbreaking and bitter strikes, the leadership of the BMA has sold out the resident doctors’ struggle for full pay restoration. The anger swelling among the ranks is a harbinger of things to come for the wider labour movement.
Since the local elections in May, the Greens have been running into difficulties where they have been elected. Implementing a radical-sounding manifesto is evidently not so easy without a programme to break with capitalism, and mobilise the masses.
A recently published poll highlights Reform’s rising popularity amongst union members. Is Reform the “new party of the working class” – as Farage would like to boast? And if not, what does it represent for the future? How should the trade union leaders respond?
It is often said that those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it. On the 100-year anniversary of the General Strike, Britain’s trade union leaders have chosen to ignore, gloss over, and consciously hide the clearly revolutionary character of this momentous class battle.