Ecuador’s election wasn’t free — and its people will pay the price under President Noboa
The duty of care – rebuild Britain without austerity
We should not for one second allow the new talk of economic meltdown and belt-tightening to gain ground – it’s human welfare that should be our priority, says GFTU general secretary DOUG NICHOLLS

Sometimes a shuttle flies out
And gives a poor woman a clout,
There she’ll lie bleeding,
But no-one is heeding,
Oh how can we carry her out?
Eleven years ago the GFTU decided to visit the Vietnamese trade union movement and forge new ties with a country that meant so much to so many trade unionists in the 1960s and 1970s.
Exchanges followed. Of particular interest to the Vietnamese trade unions at a time of fast expansion and mass construction sites was British health and safety legislation.
More from this author

DOUG NICHOLLS, chair of the think tank Rebuild Britain, encourages creative engagement with the new government on economic matters particularly

DOUG NICHOLLS, former general secretary of the General Federation of Trade Unions and lifelong campaigner against the European Union, reflects on the recent death of one of the main architects of the EU

The GFTU has been running education courses on what is really happening in China and the US, Doug Nicholls reflects on some of the learnings and the importance of the recent US-China talks in Bali

In the second of a two-part feature for TUC week, DOUG NICHOLLS, general secretary of the General Federation of Trade Unions discusses the underestimated strength of community organisations and the value of a new working relationship with trade unions