ANDREW MURRAY wonders what the great communist foe of Oswald Mosley would make of today’s far-right surge, warning that while the triumph of Farage and ‘Robinson’ is far from inevitable, placing any faith in Starmer in an anti-fascist front is a fool’s errand
The Workers’ Committee: as relevant as ever
General secretary of the Bakers Union SARAH WOOLLEY discusses why the 1917 pamphlet, The Workers’ Committee, is still of value to the trade union movement in Britain today
INDISPENSABLE: Shop steward Richard Sainsbury (centre) confers with foreman Henry Howard over the problem raised by Megan Beynon at the turning machine, 1942
[Mol Photo Division Photographer / Public Domain] 
LOTTE COLLETT welcomes the arrival of a new party for the left, a vehicle for councils to finally fight for progressive policies on housing, green spaces and public facilities, rather than administering cuts and misery from central government
KEVAN NELSON reports back from a delegation to the epic celebrations for the anniversary of Vietnam’s 1945 revolution, where British communists found a thriving, prosperous socialist country, brimming with ambition and well-earned national pride
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IN 1917, as the first world war raged on, JT Murphy of the Sheffield Workers’ Committee wrote a passionate pamphlet calling for radical change in the trade union movement. More than a century later, his searing manifesto remains powerfully relevant.
At the heart of Murphy’s vision was the need for genuine power and democracy for ordinary union members. He saw that while officials spoke about representing workers, it often felt like real control lay in the hands of distant bureaucracies.
The vital first step was therefore to empower the grassroots. “The initiative should be taken by the workers in the various districts,” Murphy wrote. “It is immaterial whether the first move is made through the local trade union committees, or in the workshops and then through the committee, so long as the stewards are elected in the workshops and not in the branches.”
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