Head of education, campaigns and organising for the General Federation of Trade Unions HENRY FOWLER explains why it is launching a fund to support trades councils and give them access to a new range of courses and resources
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The Tory war on the sick, disabled and chronically ill
Rishi Sunak’s ‘clampdown on sick-note culture’ reflects the sickness of the ‘elites’ and the capitalist system they run, writes CLAUDIA WEBBE MP
WHY AREN’T YOU AT WORK: Rishi Sunak prowls the wards of North Devon District Hospital, September 2023
While working people face austerity, arms companies enjoy massive government contracts, writes ARTHUR WEST, exposing how politicians exaggerate the Russian threat to justify spending on a sector that has the lowest employment multiplier
ANYA COOK reports from the Newcastle citizens’ assembly, where over 240 people gathered to create a people’s manifesto ahead of next year’s local elections – part of former mayor Jamie Driscoll’s Majority movement
While claiming to target fraud, Labour’s snooping Bill strips benefit recipients of privacy rights and presumption of innocence, writes CLAUDIA WEBBE, warning that algorithms with up to 25 per cent error rates could wrongfully investigate and harass millions of vulnerable people
Real security comes from having a secure base at home — Keir Starmer’s reckless and renegade decision to get Britain deeper into the proxy war against Russia is as dangerous as it is wasteful, writes SALLY SPIERS
The plan is to stigmatise and destabilise South Africa in preparation for breaking it up while creating a confused and highly racialised atmosphere around immigration in the US to aid in denying rights to non-white refugees, explains EMILE SCHEPERS
ALAN SIMPSON warns that Starmer’s triangulation strategy will fail just as New Labour’s did, with each rightward move by Labour pushing Tories further right
IT’S a shocking fact, not known nearly widely enough, that around half of disabled people claiming Employment and Support Allowance have attempted suicide at some point in their lives, and too many because of the government’s onerous work capability assessment (WCA) scheme.
The figure was 43 per cent seven years ago, according to NHS Digital’s Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey, and, while no more up-to-date figures have since been published, the numbers will only have gone in the wrong direction as the government has pushed harder and harder to force claimants of out-of-work disability benefits into work.
What is known, however, according to information presented to the Commons work and pensions select committee in 2022, is that over just a three-year period before then, the WCA had been linked to 600 suicides.
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While claiming to target fraud, Labour’s snooping Bill strips benefit recipients of privacy rights and presumption of innocence, writes CLAUDIA WEBBE, warning that algorithms with up to 25 per cent error rates could wrongfully investigate and harass millions of vulnerable people
With Reform UK surging and Labour determined not to offer anything different from the status quo, a clear opportunity opens for the left, argues CLAUDIA WEBBE
Keir Starmer’s £120 million to Sudan cannot cover the government’s complicity in the RSF genocide or atone for the long shadow of British colonialism and imperialism, writes CLAUDIA WEBBE
As Israel’s crimes escalate, Keir Starmer’s government must not subvert, block or ignore the investigation and prosecution of British citizens involved in acts of genocide, writes CLAUDIA WEBBE
