With the rise of Reform and the flag-raising phenomenon, it’s hard not to recall my family’s struggles with racism, from Teddy Boys attacking my pregnant mother to me being told to ‘go back to the jungle’ at only five years old, writes ROGER MCKENZIE
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Artists are workers too
Ahead of a motion to Congress on self-employment, ZITA HOLBOURNE explains why workers in the arts are so often overlooked, the problems this causes — and why we as movement must change this for good
"The role that creative self-employed workers play is crucial to the world, to our collective and individual self-care, raising awareness and education on important issues, challenging discrimination and injustice, bringing joy and healing, enhancing businesses and making the world a better place."
The move to restrict exports of the important rare earth metals that China has a 90% monopoly on has provoked Trump to declare a 100% tariff on Chinese exports and other retaliatory measures, reports DYLAN MURPHY
Royal Mail’s job quality has plummeted, with gruelling hours, two-tier pay, intense surveillance, and poor work-life balance for postal workers — but our union is fighting back with significant success, writes CWU branch secretary JOHN CARSON
Ben Chacko pays tribute to the author of our much-missed Frosty’s Ramblings column, a champion of the countryside and working-class culture
Introducing a new course open to all, JAY COOK and CHIK COLLINS argue the best way to fight hard-right rhetoric is to explain how everything we have achieved in Britain, from the welfare state to free healthcare, was the product of solidarity, not separation
To deepen the wound of closing Grangemouth, the wind power boom off our shores is going to corporations from France, Japan, China, Ireland — jobs and money going everywhere, it seems, except Scotland, writes KENNY MACASKILL
THE majority of our members are self-employed. Working as an artist is precarious work, with people working on a freelance basis, on temporary projects, commissions and contracts.
Self-employed arts and culture workers have already been hard hit by over 10 years of austerity and then we were hit hard by the pandemic — work cancelled with immediate effect and for the foreseeable future — and also found themselves falling between the gaps when it came to government measures to support self-employed people.
Because of the nature of their work, they may not encounter unions and local reps in the way some other workers do, but union organisation is much-needed for these workers. Self-employed workers make up a substantial number of British workers — over 4 million — and in turn make a significant contribution to the economy.
More from this author
Artists are frequently first in line when it comes to cuts, but society as a whole is left all the poorer – it’s time they were properly valued, says ZITA HOLBOURNE of Artists Union England
Joint national chair of the Artists Union England ZITA HOLBOURNE argues that artists are systematically neglected when it comes to paying them for their labour
As well as paying tribute to those who arrived in Britain from the Caribbean, African and Asian regions to work and to build a better future for themselves, we must recall the ongoing injustices they and their families still face, says ZITA HOLBOURNE
ZITA HOLBOURNE introduces some of the practical, political and legal challenges to racism that black and brown-led movements are making in Britain and globally
