MBDA’s Alabama factory makes components for Boeing’s GBU-39 bombs used to kill civilians in Gaza. Its profits flow through Stevenage to Paris — and it is one of the British government’s favourite firms, reveals SOLOMON HUGHES

I WOULD like to wish all working people and their families a very happy May Day. The day, whether we call it the workers’ day, or labour day, is when, right around the world, we show solidarity with the working men and women of every nation.
We have done this every year since the sixth international socialist congress, held in Amsterdam in 1904, called on “all social democratic parties and the trade unions of all countries” to demonstrate on May 1 for the establishment of “an eight hour day, the class demands of the proletariat and universal peace.”
It’s going to be a bit different this year. We will all miss the traditional marches under union banners in which so many of us take part up and down this country.

As the labour movement meets to remember the Tolpuddle Martyrs, MICK WHELAN, general secretary of train drivers’ union Aslef, says it’s an appropriate moment to remind the Labour government to listen to the trade unions a little more


