The General Strike exposed the power of the working class — and the limits of its leadership, writes Dr DYLAN MURPHY
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Bogus self-employment epidemic collides with the coronavirus epidemic
MARK HARVEY of the Institute of Employment Rights argues that Britain has walked into a perfect storm due to employers forcing workers to register as self employed — with no responsibility toward them in times like the present crisis
HENRY FOWLER, General Strike 100 national co-ordinator, continued his nationwide tour of partner organisations, joining the National Day of Celebration in Barnsley. The event was organised by Unite for a Workers Economy (Unite the Union), the Durham Miners Association, and the National Union of Mineworkers
ADRIAN WEIR charts the intercontinental trade union solidarity with Cuba and its desperate predicament
DIANE ABBOTT looks at the perilous political cul-de-sac Labour finds itself in
DAVE WARD says the Employment Rights Act can be a platform to build back union power — but only if we can agree a common agenda
A new strategy from the Together Alliance links the fight against racism to the wider struggle over austerity and inequality, says BILL GREENSHIELDS
THE coronavirus infected self-employment chickens have come back to roost – in their millions.
In 1995, I wrote a pamphlet for the Institute of Employment Rights. It was called Towards the Insecurity Society. It showed how an epidemic of self-employment had exploded in the construction industry in the United Kingdom.
I argued that the growth of self-employed and insecure, casualised employment “promotes a pervading sense of insecurity. It also undermines the viability of the tax system on which the very existence of the welfare state is based.
It creates a vicious downward spiral, diminishing the revenues necessary for a welfare state whilst at the same time creating more people likely to be dependent on it: an insecurity society.”
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