Seventeen years after losing her council job due to needing endometriosis surgery, Michelle Dewar’s campaign for paid menstrual leave gained 50,000 signatures in a week, reports ELIZABETH SHORT
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A tax on trade unions
After the government failed to include an employment Bill in the Queen’s Speech, they snuck out proposals that are nothing short of a major attack aimed at shackling trade unions, warns TONY BURKE
Delegates to TUC Congress in 2018 vote on a motion
From 35,000 troops in Talisman Sabre war games to HMS Spey provocations in the Taiwan Strait, Labour continues Tory militarisation — all while claiming to uphold ‘one China’ diplomatic agreements from 1972, reports KENNY COYLE
White racist rioting has many an infamous precedent in Britain, writes DAVID HORSLEY
The SNP might dissemble over the meaning of ‘nationalism,’ but it can’t disguise the fact that it is no left-wing party, says ELAINE SMITH
Castro became one of the first leaders to denounce Israeli genocide against Palestinians at the UN, comparing zionist persecution to Nazi crimes while Cuba trained PLO cadres and awarded Arafat state honours, writes PABLO MERIGUET
The summer saw the co-founders of modern communism travelling from Ramsgate to Neuenahr to Scotland in search of good weather, good health and good newspapers in the reading rooms, writes KEITH FLETT
TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady has slammed ministers for “trying to tie unions up in red tape” after the government’s proposals included three key major changes that will negatively affect the labour movement.
The Certification Officer — the trade union regulator — will have the ability to impose fines on unions; there will be levy on trade unions to fund the CO’s costs; there will be further new powers, including investigating third party complaints about unions by members of the public and third party organisations.
This will not even be debated in Parliament as this requires a commencement order to come into law. Importantly, the TUC was not consulted about these proposals.
The government is dusting off measures that were contained in notorious Trade Union Act 2016 but need secondary legislation to pass into law.
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