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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Orgreave, the strike and the fightback: This time we win
A rejuvenated interest in trade unions and the labour movement among younger people shows battles such as Orgreave are not ‘consigned to history’ – but part of an ongoing class struggle that’s still very much alive today, says CHRIS PEACE
Police in anti-riot gear force picketers away from their position near the Orgreave Coking Plant near Rotherham, in June 1984
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
AS THE end of Johnson as prime minister is upon us, something else has been happening. People are talking about and taking an interest in trade unions, the miners’ strike and what collectivism is all about.
Last month marked the 38th anniversary of that pivotal day of extreme state-ordered violence at the Orgreave coking plant during the 1984-85 strike, and the streets of Sheffield on June 18 2022 were filled with music, banners and our steadfast supporters.
What was noticeable, though, were the large numbers of young people present, wearing their Orgreave T-shirts, carrying their homemade solidarity banners and sharing conversations with ex-miners and Women Against Pit Closures about their own struggles in 2022.
More from this author
Miners battered by the police in 1984 still await justice as Labour pledges to launch a probe — but will any new inquiry pry loose the BBC’s buried footage and expose the Tory lies that framed innocents, asks CHRIS PEACE
The Tories' attempt to broaden police powers in dealing with protest adds urgency to the call for an enquiry into events at Orgreave, writes CHRIS PEACE
State-led repression during the 1984-85 miners’ strike has a frightening number of similarities to the situation workers and campaigners find themselves in today, writes CHRIS PEACE
