TUC Women's Conference opened this afternoon in Scarborough. The agenda is a mix of resolutions, the Women's Committee report taken in paragraphs, and various speeches and presentations.
(Pic: The RMT Women's banner adorning the Conference rally)
The first issue discussed was a composite from...
Here I am at TUC Women's Conference in Scarborough. Today, I moved RMT's emergency resolution on abortion rights. Here's my speech, plus a report on the debate that followed.
(Pic: The RMT delegation pose in front of the Conference banner in defence of abortion rights)
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Until now, the...
Into the second day for only the second time (RMT's women's conference was a one-day affair until year), the Executive reported on progress with last year's resolutions. One had been ruled out of order in a heavy-handed manner, others have been "progressed" or "linked to other files" or what have...
RMT's national women's conference took place on Friday and Saturday last week (2nd and 3rd March), in Doncaster. RMT members can watch the whole thing by webcast by logging on to the members' section. There were 25 delegates - that's about average, but less than there could potentially be due to...
Following the solid and effective strike action over the last couple of days, signallers in Scotland are to step up their action with further strikes and a UK-wide ballot.
RMT signallers and supervisory staff in Scotland will strike between noon next Friday (March 16) and Sunday (March 18), and...
John Reid just gets worse every time he opens his mouth.
His latest latest pronouncements on the subject of illegal immigration are notable not just for declaring appalling, repressive policies (we're used to that), but also for the Alf-Garnett-Writes-Guest-Column-For-The-Daily-Mail language he...
Here's an awkward situation. Imagine that you are the union rep for a particular workplace (or group of workplaces). Your union accepts a crap pay offer: you disagree with it doing this. But there is another union in the workplace which is significantly worse, and which accepted the same pay offer...
On Friday, the government blocked an attempt to give equal rights to agency workers. A Private Members' Bill (The Temporary and Agency Workers (Prevention of Less Favourable Treatment) Bill) would have given equality to the thousands upon thousands of agency workers who are denied basic equal rights...
One of the many things I remember from my Christian upbringing is that it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of Heaven. So Pastor Matthew Ashimolowo must have created either a very large needle or a very small camel, or both.
Pastor...
Jon Cruddas has emailed me, asking for my support to be Labour's Deputy Leader. Perhaps no-one told him I'd been expelled.
I've copied his letter below, and you will notice the emphasis on his survey. And what a vacuous effort it is.
You are invited to indicate which policy area you think is most...
A study commissioned by the BBC has revealed that more than a third of young people given ASBOs have what the report calls a 'brain disorder'. I might prefer to call it a neurological difference, but the point is the same - young people with conditions such as autism, ADHD and Asperger's syndrome...
Apparently, private pharmaceutical companies have been ripping off the NHS by over-charging for drugs. No, really. Apparently, they are too keen to make profit. Fancy that, a private company making profits. You’d almost think that’s what they are supposed to do.
Everyone is up in arms about this...
Ruth Kelly is determined to fight the rise of the BNP. The problem is the method by which she aims to do this – by treating foreigners in a way that the BNP would heartily approve of!
Kelly wants immigrants to learn English. Problem is, she intends to achieve this not by, erm, teaching them English...
Alan Simpson MP has announced that he's standing down from Parliament at the next election - ostensibly to devote more time to the fight to save the environment.
You would think that for a socialist, a seat in Parliament would be a good place from which to fight for the environment, so Simpson's...
A few cheers to Paul Weller, who apparently turned down the offer of a CBE in the New Year's Honours list. It's also reported that he turned down a similar offer last summer.
What's a little odd, though, is the timidity of his given reason. Apparently "Paul was surprised and flattered, but it wasn...
Welfare Minister Jim Murphy has announced plans to take benefits away from people who 'refuse' to learn English. It is hard to imagine a measure more mean-spirited, more inflammatory of the current wave of prejudice against immigrants and more downright hypocritical.
In the window of the Reception...
Today, I spent some time filling in forms to get some additional services for my son Joe, who has Asperger's Syndrome.
Through Hackney Family Back-Up, we can get various services, including a monthly Saturday afternoon club for kids with "challenging behaviour".
Sign him up for 'The Key' - Hackney...
309 jobs are to go as Burberry plans to close its plant in Treorchy and relocate to China, where labour costs are cheaper because there are fewer of those pesky legal protections and union rights.
The workers' union, the GMB, is rightly campaigning against these job cuts, holding numerous...
I love the British Library's Newspaper Archive in Colindale. I discovered it when I first started looking into the Poplar Rates Rebellion of 1921, and came away with armfuls of newspaper articles which transported me back eighty years as effectively as a Tardis might. At that time, I could hardly...
TUC Women's Conference should be accessible to any woman trade unionist elected to respresent her union. But how can it be, when childcare is provided only during formal conference hours and only for pre-school kids?!
A couple of years back, I circulated a letter around TUC Women's Conference...
New Labour has finally decided to increase workers' statutory entitlement to annual leave, to take account of the eight annual public holidays - but the government has made an absurd concession to bosses by giving them over a year and a half to bring in the change.
Over 70 Hackney residents packed into a public meeting on Monday evening to protest against Hackney Council's plan to fragment, privatise and over-populate their estates.
I gave the opening speech, largely an updated version on this blog entry from a while back. There was then plenty of...
Shocking news indeed - Sham 69 have split up. Whaddyamean, you had no idea they were still going and assumed they had done the decent thing and split up nearly thirty years ago?! Actually, it was those ageing Hersham Boys who recorded England's official World Cup song last year, which you might not...
The text of a leaflet I have put out as RMT rep on Bank group of stations ...
Andrew Adonis (I somehow can't bring myself to call himself 'Lord') has opened his big, right-wing gob again. This time, he tells us that the closure of grammar schools in the 1960s and '70s was a backward step that "reinforced class divisions" rather than helping those less well off.
Yeah, right...
When I was first active in feminist politics in the 80s and 90s, we did a lot of campaigning to change the Police's treatment of domestic violence victims. We complained about the Police's habit of dismissing violence as "just a domestic", of belittling the women who suffered it and indulging the...
Today, Tony Blair is having trouble making his mind up. According to his press briefing this morning, Tone is struggling to make a decision about whether to exempt faith-based adoption agencies from anti-discrimination legislation. You see, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor has written a stern letter...
A government-commissioned report has recommended that schools be allowed to appoint business leaders in place of qualified head teachers. To run a school, you will no longer need to know anything about teaching, or about children - heaven forbid. A robust knowledge of profit-and-loss will do fine...
Today, I am feeling guilty at not having written something for the Carnival Of Socialism, this year hosted by Stroppyblog with the theme of Liberation and Socialism. It's a favourite topic of mine, and my excuse is that (a) I didn't understand what the Carnival was until about a week ago, and (b) in...
Please sign this petition against the government's attempts to weaken fire safety standards in underground railway stations.
As petition creator - RMT activist Kebba Jobe - explains, "Following the 1987 Kings Cross Fire which claimed the lives of 31 people the Fire Precautions (Sub Surface Railways...
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