Aslef general secretary DAVE CALFE looks at how rail workers and miners stood together against wage cuts 100 years ago – and why the legacy of collective action endures today
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Housing: how the Tories carefully erased working-class London
NICK WRIGHT argues that the transformation of once-radical boroughs like Battersea into desirable locations for the well-paid few sums up the story of how housing can be used as a political weapon — by the right and the left
(L to R): Balfron Tower in Tower Hamlets, and the building's architect Erno Goldfinger (left) on the balcony of his flat in the building, where he studied the impact of his design
[Richard Parmiter / Creative Commons]
As Africa’s progressives aim to consolidate its anti-colonial programme, VIJAY PRASHAD reports on the US getting a military foothold in Ghana
KERRY FLECK explains how the annual event unites thousands in a celebration of workers’ power, culture and collective resistance
The former Nato chief stirred up dark historical undercurrents with his call to cut welfare for military spending, says SOLOMON HUGHES
The life of a modest Norfolk organiser contrasts with the dramatic rise and disappearance of a controversial figure in US labour, says MARK SEDDON
JACK YOUD explains how Salford City Council has taken on rogue landlords and won, setting an example to the rest of the country
THIS YEAR, Labour took control of the council in the London boroughs of Wandsworth and Westminster. Nearly five decades of Tory control has made these places almost unaffordable for working people on a normal wage.
People today know the Wandsworth Tory council leader from these early times — Christopher “Chopper” Chope — as the “Jurassic era” MP who, more recently, blocked the passage of a private member’s Bill that would have made upskirting a specific offence.
But Chope had another vision — of a gentrified area denuded of Labour voters and the working class in general by a social-cleansing process built around the privatisation of the housing stock.
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