Update from Sam Macartney in Bhopal: Yes I was on a demo in India, and I and all the trade union delegates to Bhopal were honoured and and very pleased to walk with familyies and friends of the Bhopal campaign. We had joined the demo after being shown around the Bhopal Sambhavna medical aid clinic and the great facilities they have and the excellent work they are doing to support the victims ofRead more…
Child Slavery: Tell the UN to act
Last week, commemorating the 25th anniversary of the adoption of United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC),the Global March Against Child Labour along with International Trade…Read more…
Little faith in autumn statement
I have very little faith that the chancellor’s autumn statement will bring any relief for workersRead more…
Interserve Demonstration
Monday 01st December 2014 Circular No. National Policy NP/257/14/MC To the Secretary all Branches,Council of Executive…Read more…
Why Scotland and the UK should oppose TTIP
Politicians can be so fixated by the benefits of free trade that they are missing the real dangers of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP).
TTIP is a series of trade negotiations…Read more…
Nepali man jailed after employer lets Qatar residency lapse
(above: David Cameron on a recent visit to Qatar University) From Doha news… “In an incident that once again calls the enforcement of Qatar’s labor laws into question, a Nepali…Read more…
What about the workers?
1 December 2014
By Steve Ludlam, Steve Ludlam is Senior Lecturer in Politics at The University of Sheffield
Commentary on Cuba’s economic reforms highlights the growing private sector, implying…Read more…
BREAKDOWN IN INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS – INTERSERVE WATERLOO
To All Interserve Members in London and the South East Our Ref: BR1/14/228th November 2014 Dear Colleagues BREAKDOWN IN INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS – INTERSERVE…Read more…
Candlelight vigil held for Bhopal’s second generation victims
From Sam Macartney and Scott Donohoe in Bhopal leading up to the 3 December anniversary of the disaster:
Many events have been organised over the next three days to remember the victims of this disaster. Proceedings started on Sunday with the Mela of alternatives, an event looking at the way forward to aid the victims in the campaign. This was followed by a seminar on the medical aid issuesRead more…
London Labour Conference 2014 – Question Time Panel
Yesterday was the London Labour Conference 2014 which took place at Hammersmith Town Hall. I will post in more detail on the conference later this week but the picture is of me addressing the “Question Time with London’s MPs, MEPs, AMs and Cllrs”…Read more…
Giving Scotland a reason to back Labour for social justice
As the dust still swirls after the referendum, the challenge is to bring the focus back to the Scotland we want to see now. Of course the ‘neverendum’ campaign will continue but at some point we will…Read more…
Abbey Gardens Winter Fair – Saturday 6 December 2014
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Failure of ‘austerity’
Interesting to see that David Renard has signed a joint letter to the Observer with other Council leaders from all three main parties. It’s a shot across the bows of George Osborne in the run up to the autumn statement. It says that “further reductions (in local government funding) without…Read more…
The invisible role of trade unions in the fight against slavery
On Saturday the Home Office released a new strategy for combating modern slavery or forced labour in Britain and abroad. We’re still digesting it, because, surprisingly, we weren’t…Read more…
Modern Slavery: Traditional Remedies
Colleagues,
We are approaching the last wretched gasps of the Coalition government, so it is no wonder then that much of the most urgent legislative reform is tabled at the end of a Parliamentary period, only after the ConDems have placed own prioriti…Read more…
The Labour movement and the future of local government
http://www.theguardian.com/theobserver/2014/nov/30/letters-council-leaders-across-spectrum-plead-no-more-cuts
After a very relaxing week away I return to prophecies of doom from the political leaders of English local government.
Having made savings of 40% in this Parliament, our leaders say that…Read more…
Recovery bypassing workers in low-paid Britain
The LRD’s annual earnings survey finds that average earnings growth is on the floor with little improvement in pay settlements over the past 12 months: ‘Since the 2008-09 recession, the UK has…Read more…
Plight of a migrant worker by Khalid Hameed
wake up in the morning
head out to look
for work
stand in the corner of
the street
waiting for cars passing by
to pick you up
and take you to veg
gardens
as a day labor,
I am that forgiven…Read more…
Osborne’s “pointless machismo”
With the Chancellor’s autumn statement due next week, advance notice has been given of yet another political trick designed to put Labour on the spot. Osborne is proposing to introduce a law which will make it an obligation of the next government to end the ‘structural deficit’ by…Read more…
Swaziland’s Marikana in the making?
Striking Swazi miners have retreated to a nearby hill in protest at the way they are being treated by their employer and the Swazi police, in a worrying echo of what happened ahead of the infamous…Read more…