VIJAY PRASHAD examines why in 2018 Washington started to take an increasingly belligerent stance towards ‘near peer rivals’ – Russa and China – with far-reaching geopolitical effects
The persecution of trade unionists and their families: from Tolpuddle to Ascott-under-Wychwood to the miners’ strike
New writing has underlined the importance of the 1873 case that victimised striking farmworkers and led to a national outcry — yet aspects of the law used against them remain on the books, writes professor KEITH EWING
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THIS is the time of year when the labour movement gathers to remember the sacrifice of the Tolpuddle Martyrs. As they do so, a newly published book reminds us of the continuing persecution of farm workers and their families, tracing the story of the “Ascott Martyrs.”
The latter was a group of 16 women and two infants from Oxfordshire who were jailed in 1873, also for trade union-related activities.
The case is much less well known than Tolpuddle, though it is alluded to fleetingly by Sidney and Beatrice Webb in their History of British Trade Unionism published in 1920, where reference is made to the “ruthless victimisation” of farm workers who joined Joseph Arch’s National Agricultural Labourers Union in 1872.
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A Labour government would be wise to implement new recommendations from the ILO that would protect trade unionists and their right to bargain collectively, writes Professor KEITH EWING
The latest plans to suppress industrial action are chilling. They are the hallmark of authoritarian government – and worse, argues Prof KEITH EWING
On the 50th anniversary of the jailing the Pentonville Five, Professor KEITH EWING recalls how British governments, Tory and Labour, have systematically adapted the law to suppress legitimate trade union activity
Severely rattled by the ongoing rail dispute, the Tories are looking at ways to force ‘minimum servicing,’ agency strike-breakers and a massive increase in damages onto the unions, writes Professor KEITH EWING
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