Theresa May entered Downing Street three months ago promising to do things differently. She was going to stand up for working people. She was going to be on the side of ordinary families. It’s a…Read more…
#SouthernBackOnTrack – Safety spun in numbers
Southern Rail – having seemed to have learnt nothing from their disastrous social media campaign yesterday with #southernbackontrack – have come back for more of a metaphorical kicking….Read more…
Housing crisis solved at #CPC16?
Perhaps not quite yet, I fear. Sajid Javid, Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government announced a new scheme to support house-building at the Conservative Party Conference yesterday, saying that: “We want to ensure everyone has a safe and secure place to live and that means we’ve got…Read more…
Racism
The Governing party are in Birmingham cementing their rightward shift with anti-immigration prejudice and reaction.
Labour’s Leader is right to resist being drawn into the downward spiral of this racist narrative – and those on the Labour right who oversaw the loss of former…Read more…
Mr Cenz starts new Street Art Mural In West Ham
I stopped off today to say hello to Street Artist, “Mr Cenz”, who is creating a mural in West Ham ward, Church Road junction with New Plaistow Road, E15 (next to William Hill bookmakers).
Mr Cenz is a professional international artist. He r…Read more…
‘In it together’
Unite took to the streets of Birmingham yesterday (October 2) alongside thousands of others from all walks of life to send a clear message to the government that the British people have had enough of…Read more…
Dispute settled
The pay dispute at Menzies Distribution, which had threatened deliveries to newsagents across the UK, has been settled after workers voted to accept an improved offer, Unite said on Friday (September…Read more…
Double blow for Bromley council
Bromley council has been dealt a double blow to its plans to sell-off the borough’s treasured libraries. Bexley council has informed Bromley council that it will no longer be looking to…Read more…
A home is a human right
Families evicted by private landlords are becoming homeless in record numbers because they can’t afford a place to live, shocking new government figures show. Nearly a third of the 15,170…Read more…
Celebrating decent jobs
So much focus has been on bad jobs and bad employers recently like Sports Direct, with their shameful warehouse working conditions and zero hours contracts that rob people of any quality family life….Read more…
Battle of Cable Street – 80th Anniversity of “East London Routs The Fascists”
On Tuesday 4 October 2016 it is the 80th anniversary of the 1936 “Battle of Cable Street” when anti-
fascists stopped a march through the (then) largely Jewish East End of London by Oswald Mosley and his British Union of Fascists.
I have worked …Read more…
Andy Hall’s conviction in Thailand a blow to free speech & workers’ rights
On Monday 20 September, British-born migrant and labour rights activist Andy Hall was found guilty on charges of criminal defamation by a court in Bangkok, Thailand, and sentenced to a three year…Read more…
Think globally. Act locally.
I congratulate all those who made it to Birmingham today to protest against the Tories. News reports suggest 20,000 people were present.
Last year the BBC reported that 60,000 marched in Manchester – at a time when the (then) Trade Union Bill posed an …Read more…
#Lab16 Labour Housing Group fringe
After the “Unions together” fringe on Sunday I cycled (using the Liverpool Council rented City Bikes) from the conference centre to my 2nd housing fringe that evening at the historic Cunard Buildng in Pier Head.
The Labour Housing Group is a soci…Read more…
Writing for a Blog: Some ideas
Dear Colleagues,
Later this year I will be running an evening course at Ruskin – one of the ‘digital evenings’ that form part of the exciting range of Courses for Interest: http://tinyurl.com/jlnwgln (sign up for a
session – you’ll love it!)
Ha…Read more…
Cambodian unions still not satisfied with minimum wage increase
Cambodian unions have reacted with anger to the Government’s decision to fix next year’s minimum wage for garment workers at $153 a month, way below the $171 pcm that unions had demanded,…Read more…
Working with the far left in the trade unions
A senior official of UNISON once told me that I “could have gone places” in our union if only I had not been “a standard bearer for the Trots.” I took this as a (not very intelligent) criticism of my willingness to stand alongside and defend comrades in organisations such as the Socialist Party and…Read more…
Succession planning in the labour movement
Having told the Lambeth UNISON Branch Committee five months ago that I will not seek to continue to be Branch Secretary beyond next January I am very mindful of the difficulty of succession planning.Bearing in mind of course that I make no criticism of UNISON’s General Secretary, I cannot help but…Read more…
Idiocy in Liverpool
In three decades of labour movement activism I have witnessed some truly monumental stupidity.
Last week’s Labour Party rule amendment to prohibit Labour Councillors from supporting unlawful budgets is up there in the top ten. For an opposition Party to commit its representatives irrevocably to…Read more…
As Portugal tries to take back control of Metro Lisbon, Mexican privateers turn to #ISDS
One of the main complaints unions make about the investment protection elements of trade deals known as Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) is that it would be used against governments trying to bring privatised services back into public ownership. “Oh no it won’t!” cry…Read more…