Solidarity 585, 17 March 2021

John Moloney: DVLA votes for action

Our members working at the DVLA complex in Swansea have voted by large majorities for industrial action - 71.6% for strikes, and 76.9% for action short of strikes - to win improvements to workplace safety. This workplace saw one of the worst Covid outbreaks in the UK, but the employer has forced over 2,000 staff to continue to come into work every day. The vast majority could and should be working from home; during the first lockdown only 250 staff were on site carrying out essential work. In the Ministry of Justice, our members working for outsourced contractor OCS are continuing a fight for...

ASLEF votes for Tube strike

London Underground drivers in the Aslef union have voted by a 97.3% majority for industrial action to protect terms and conditions. With Tube funding, heavily reliant on fares, having collapsed due to the pandemic, workers expect bosses to attack conditions such as pensions as part of a commitment to the Tory government, which has given TfL a series of bailouts, to return to being “self-financing” by 2023. Although no specific cuts have been announced, two TfL reports have explicitly called for pension reform. RMT, TSSA, and Unite, the other three unions organising on London Underground, have...

Back to tabloid format from 14 April

Our total is now £1,334.35 towards our fund-raising target of £20,000 by 11 July. Thanks to Bryan for £200! The lull in street activity since the end of the large Black Lives Matter demonstrations is beginning to end, with the vigils for Sarah Everard and related protests against the Police and Crime Bill. So, already, a greater circulation than we might have expected for our latest Women’s Fightback and also for Solidarity . As lockdown is eased, we will need your increased financial support to make the return to the streets we need, including going back to our more usual tabloid-format...

Hong Kong: against the Beijing clampdown

The trial of Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions (HKCTU) general secretary Lee Cheuk Yan, Martin Lee and five others of the Civil and Human Rights Front under old British colonial laws, for "unauthorised assembly" on 18 August 2019 is scheduled to end on Thursday 18 March, and a verdict expected on 1 April. Meanwhile, 43 of the 47 taken to court on charges of subversion (under the new National Security Law), are now in prison, remanded until the charges are heard in three months time. Those charges carry possible life sentences. The 43 include not only the radical young activists...

Sarwar disrupts Scottish Labour

Anas Sarwar was elected Scottish Labour leader at the end of February. Within a fortnight he had ousted Hollie Cameron as the Labour candidate for Glasgow Kelvin constituency and appointed Kate Watson as a campaign manager for the Holyrood election in May. In an interview with the pro-SNP (and indie-fundamentalist) National newspaper Cameron had said that if the people of Scotland wanted a second referendum, then they should have one. That referendum might take place during the next five years, she continued, as the need to ‘rebuild Scotland’ after the Covid-19 pandemic did not preclude the...

Hegelian usages in Marx's Grundrisse

In an 1873 afterword to an edition of Capital volume 1, Marx wrote: "The mystifying side of Hegelian dialectic I criticised nearly thirty years ago, at a time when it was still the fashion..."

This website uses cookies, you can find out more and set your preferences here.
By continuing to use this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions.