Concrete proposals are needed to bring about full integration of the rail system, with real protections for workers and an end to private operators, argues EDDIE DEMPSEY
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The Tories are beefing up state powers ahead of a post-Covid world
‘SpyCops’ will centre on post-Covid protest groups, writes Bernard Regan
A recent Union Street blaze showed firefighters at their best, but years of underfunding and job losses are stretching the service to its limits, writes JOHN McKENZIE
As the STUC gathers in an election year, the message to politicians is clear – continuing managed decline is unacceptable to Scotland’s workers, says ROZ FOYER
Inspired by Ireland’s success, Equity urges all parties to support a basic income for artists that could unlock talent and boost the economy, says MARLENE CURRAN
A major new report highlights the the dire state of our prison system – and demands urgent action from government, explains PHIL FAIRLIE
Dangerous conditions and political inaction still define the salmon industry, where BFAWU is pressing hard for change, says SARAH WOOLLEY
The Covert Human Intelligence Sources Bill (CHIS Bill/SpyCops Bill) has moved into the House of Lords. If the Bill becomes law it will legitimise a broad range of agencies, including for example the Food Standards Agency, to authorise undercover spying.
Despite claims to the contrary it places no constraints on actions, failing to rule out murder, torture or violation of the sexual integrity of individuals.
The Tories are pushing the Bill through at a time when the Undercover Policing Inquiry, set up in 2015, to investigate undercover policing in England and Wales since 1968, has still not completed its work.
That inquiry is looking at the work of the Special Demonstration Squad (SDS) and the National Public Order Intelligence Unit (NPOIU) and is investigating the cases of male undercover police officers who entered into and maintained intimate relationships with women activists engaged in anti-racist campaigning, environmental activism, the trade unions and a range of labour-movement and left political organisations.
The revelations from the inquiry expose the fact that the overwhelming focus of the SpyCops has been on members of the trade-union and labour movement.
This evidence is backed up by recently released Cabinet papers for the 1980s which demonstrate that extensive spying took place on trade unionists under the direction of the then Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher.
An interdepartmental Committee on “Subversion in Public Life,” composed of representatives of every major government department, discussed regular reports on the activities of trade unionists and their political affiliations and monitored their actions.
They paid special attention to unions like the CPSA (now part of PCS), NALGO (now UNISON) and the NUT (now NEU). Elsewhere, other agencies carried out spying.
A 30-year covert operation was carried out against workers in the building industry by The Consulting Association (TCA) which checked names provide to them by companies like Carillion, Balfour Beatty, Skanska, Kier, Costain, McAlpine and more than 30 other companies.
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As extremist movements grow on the streets and at the ballot box, the emergence of the Together Alliance points to a vital strategy: unity across trade unions, campaigners and communities, says TONY CONWAY
In part II of a serialisation of his new book, JOHN McINALLY explores how witch-hunting drives took hold in the Civil Service as the cold war emerged in the wake of WWII
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