JOE BESWICK of the London Renters Union talks to the Morning Star’s new Left on Record programme
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Mark Serwotka’s contribution must be recognised
At the helm of Britain’s eighth-largest union for a quarter of a century, he is rightly seen as one of the most principled and effective class fighters of our times, writes JOHN McINALLY
General secretary of the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union, Mark Serwotka (centre), joins union members of the on the picket line outside the office of HM Treasury, in Westminster. Around 100,000 civil servants from 124 government departments, th
The unnecessarily violent police intervention at a Quaker place of worship is a PR disaster and will only serve to deepen the chasm between them and the public. SYMON HILL reports
ANDREW MURRAY wonders whether recent opinion polling and a fresh local authority by-election result in Ilford are an indication that the time is ripe for the left to make inroads
Due to the actions of this government, the challenges facing those with disabilities, such as spinal cord injuries, are nigh on insurmountable, argus RUTH HUNT
General secretary of the General Federation of Trade Unions GAWAIN LITTLE calls for support and participation in the national partnership organised to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the 1926 general strike
After brutal police crackdowns on pensioners and the forced approval of secret IMF deals, trade unions are finally responding to grassroots pressure and fighting back against savage neoliberal reforms, reports BERT SCHOUWENBURG
Bizarrely, Trump’s latest attacks now include the National Zoo, but his real and racist agenda is to strip everything black from the country’s cultural institutions, writes LINDA PENTZ GUNTER
MARK SERWOTKA’s retirement after nearly 25 years as general secretary of Civil Service and outsourced workers’ union PCS, is a significant moment for the union itself and the wider movement.
When I visited him in Papworth Hospital as he awaited a heart transplant in 2016, a procedure fraught with danger, we were both aware it may be the last time we met, yet he focused little on his own precarious situation but expressed great concern toward me following a dreadful bereavement.
His concentration and strategic foresight in the detailed conversation that followed was, given the burden of his condition, remarkable for its analysis of PCS’s perspectives and identification of the tasks ahead.
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