Unions & politics

Trade Unions and politics

Repression against anti-monarchy protests: the labour movement should grow a backbone

The arrest of anti-monarchy protesters is indicative of the growing authoritarianism of the British state and of absurd attempts to enforce an unchallengeable pro-monarchy consensus . The wild reaction to (sadly) small demonstrations surely reflect the fact that, with the queen's death, the monarchist establishment can feel the ground shifting beneath its feet and is nervous for the future. Reports say the police have used the new Police Act and the 1986 Public Order Act . The labour movement must demand repeal of these and other laws restricting the right to protest, including the anti-strike...

Over a thousand at London RMT rally

Probably over a thousand people packed into the Save London Transport rally organised by the RMT on 31 August. The main hall at the TUC headquarters was packed, there was an overflow room and people were struggling to get in. No doubt a lot had come to see and hear left-wing US Senator Bernie Sanders. In addition to RMT General Secretary Mick Lynch, we also heard heard from John McDonnell MP, a CWU Royal Mail striker, a disability rights activist and representatives of sister London transport unions ASLEF, TSSA and Unite (among others). The turnout was not the only good thing about the rally...

Debate on Unite under Sharon Graham

We have been debating Sharon Graham's record so far as General Secretary of Unite the Union, and the issues it raises for the union and the wider labour movement. We will post more articles here as they are published. If you'd like contribute to the debate, email awl@workersliberty.org . For our position and debates on the contest in which Graham was elected last year, see here . For our ideas on transforming Unite, see here . • Sharon Graham: posturing and demagogy in place of struggle? (Ann Field) • Sharon Graham: quotes out of context (Mark Simon) • We were right to back Sharon Graham...

Sharon Graham: quotes out of context

• Debate here . Ann Field, in her article 'Sharon Graham and Labour: posturing and demagogy in place of struggle?' , builds her argument like a badly constructed dry stone wall: by the time the edifice is finished, it only takes a gust of common sense to bring it down. The stacking of quote upon quote from the press is used by Field to build her argument, but no adequate context is given. For example, Sharon Graham is criticised for her position on the Coventry bin strike, when Unite members were facing a Labour Council that were using their own ‘at arm’s length’ private waste disposal company...

The totalitarians at Tolpuddle

This year I attended the Tolpuddle Martyrs Festival in Dorset for the very first time. It was on the bucket list for a Canadian friend and as I’d never been before, I thought — why not? For those who’ve never heard of it, the festival is an annual event held to mark the repression suffered by pioneering British trade unionists in the nineteenth century. The sleepy village of Tolpuddle has a little museum and a few small businesses that trade off its legacy, for example The Martyrs’ Inn. This was the first year since 2019 that the festival could go ahead in person. The Tolpuddle festival is no...

RMT conference demands release of Belarus rail workers

The July 2022 Annual General Meeting of UK rail and transport union RMT - currently engaged in national strike action to defend wages, jobs and conditions on the railways - passed the following in solidarity with rail workers in Belarus, jailed for taking action in solidarity with Ukraine. Free the Belarus Railway 11 This union notes that: 1. on 19 April 2022, more than twenty leaders and activists of the Belarusian Congress of Democratic Trade Unions (BKDP) were detained by State Security. At least ten are still in custody, including the BKDP President and International Trade Union...

Get the Tories out!

Boris Johnson’s personal downfall, within months, is now predicted by many Tory MPs and journalists. It would obviously be gratifying, but replacing him with another, less blatantly discredited but viciously right-wing Tory leader will be no victory for working-class interests. This government has done damage to the working class and to society; it will do more — though how much depends on working-class struggle — as long as it remains in power. We need to get rid of it as a whole, not just Johnson. How? And to replace the Tories with what? There is a definite quarter-idea in some socialist...

James Connolly on effective trade unionism

HTML Meta Tag Redirecting to the the book in our shop . Aiming to replace capitalism with socialism, James Connolly’s organising and ideas evolved considerably. One idea he clung to from the turn of the century to his death in 1916 was industrial unionism, workers’ solidarity across grades and trades and sympathetic strikes. That is how he saw his work with Larkin on the Irish Transport Union: a union for an industry and the members watching the moment until they could take over running the industry. His articles on that theme have never previously been collected compactly, and many appear in...

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