The General Strike exposed the power of the working class — and the limits of its leadership, writes Dr DYLAN MURPHY
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No Turning Back on Labour Rights
The pandemic makes the case for collective bargaining even stronger, argues ADRIAN WEIR
Nurse Ameera Sheikh protests outside Downing Street, London, demanding a pay rise, real protection against COVID-19 and and the release of Public Health England's review into BAME NHS staff's deaths in June
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
To nobody’s great surprise the coronavirus crisis has exposed the dreadful weaknesses in labour law in our country and clearly shown the need for a new framework of labour rights in Britain.
We need radical reform in health and safety rights, individual rights at work and of course rights for trade unions at least compliant with International Labour Organisation (ILO) Conventions 87 and 96, that Britain has signed, that guarantee a right to join a union, a right to organise, a right to collective bargaining and by implication a right to strike.
The ILO is an agency of the United Nations, its Conventions have the standing of international treaties but as the UK government has recently shown its respect for international treaties has been shown to be lacking. Of the expected breach of the EU Withdrawal Agreement government minister Brandon Lewis said, “This does break international law … in a very specific and limited way.”
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The biggest strike in global history is a template for our future. The silence tells you all you need to know, writes CLAUDIA WEBBE
The Bill addresses some exploitation but leaves trade unions heavily regulated, most workers without collective bargaining coverage, and fails to tackle the balance of power that enables constant mutation of bad practice, write KEITH EWING and LORD JOHN HENDY KC
It is only trade union power at work that will materially improve the lot of working people as a class but without sector-wide collective bargaining and a right to take sympathetic strike action, we are hamstrung in the fight to tilt back the balance of power, argues ADRIAN WEIR