Workers' Liberty 42, September 1997

Diary of a postal worker: A test of strength

Saturday 19 July It’s 4am when I drag myself from bed and set off for the picket line at my sorting office. We are striking against management’s use of the discipline procedure to intimidate our branch secretary into toeing their line in negotiations. He refused to be intimidated and, in a flagrant abuse of procedure, was sacked. The dispute is a test of strength for the union. Initially our strike demands included the cases of other individuals unfairly sacked and changes to the ‘attendance procedure’ under which they were sacked. After the first day’s strike management conceded all these...

Symposium: The crisis of the Labour Party

Ken Coates MEP: Peter Mandelson’s pronouncement on poverty is hardly a serious proposal. There may just be some benefit but, in general, it’s pitched at a cosmetic level. He has been electioneering for the National Executive elections. We shall see whether Old Labour retain a strong enough position to stop him. It’s interesting that it’s Roy Hattersley — a strange personification of the basic values of Old Labour — who has been among the most anguished by the shift to a socially neutral stance, and among the first to speak out. Not even the trade unions — who have been comprehensively stuffed...

The changing face of Russian trade unionism: The demise of Stalinism?

A conversation between Bob Arnot and Kirill Buketov in Moscow, July/August 1997. Kirill Buketov is the Deputy Editor-in-Chief of the trade union newspaper Solidarnost and the producer of a trade union radio programme on Russian radio. Bob Arnot is a member of the Editorial Board of the journal Critique. BA: The last twelve months in Russia have appeared to be particularly turbulent, even by Russian standards. The economic decline deepens but simultaneously the development of a deeply criminalised “wild west” capitalism has continued. For the Russian trade union and labour movement has the year...

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