DIANE ABBOTT MP points out the false premises used by Rachel Reeves in the Spring Statement
GCHQ 40: the ban on trade unions in 1984
Ahead of next weekend’s march and rally, HUGH LANNING explains why the GCHQ struggle and eventual victory means so much to the British labour movement

IN 1984 no-one had heard of Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), the government’s then-secret intelligence-gathering centre — let alone that the staff were represented by trade unions.
All that changed on January 25 1984, when Margaret Thatcher’s government announced its decision to impose a total ban on trade union membership at GCHQ.
The decision came without warning or consultation, and it provoked a sustained campaign unparalleled in modern labour history. It ended in 1997 when, in one of its first decisions, the Labour government overturned the ban.
More from this author

The mass movement supporting Palestine represents potential political power that the left must now embrace as central to its strategy, writes HUGH LANNING, ahead of this Saturday’s Socialism or Barbarism day school in London

Starmer is going to go down in Labour history as as much a warmonger as Tony Blair – and the issue will prove his nemesis, says HUGH LANNING

Labour must recognise Israel’s true aims of total colonisation of Palestine and massive regional expansion — and therefore end the arms sales and trade deals that enable the destruction of any two-state solution, writes HUGH LANNING

As the slaughter in Palestine continues and the solidarity movement’s calls for accountability and a shift in international policy grow, political leaders must realise they face a reckoning for their silence, writes HUGH LANNING