The greatest threat to democracy may no longer come from political parties but from unelected tech oligarchs like Peter Thiel and his powerful Silicon Valley network, argues JOHN GREEN
Latest editorial
In tribute to an unflinching class fighter and stalwart of the NUM
Remembering KEN CAPSTICK, vice-president of the National Union of Mineworkers Yorkshire Area
Ken Capstick, former vice-chairman of the NUM’s Yorkshire Area
Today’s interconnected conflicts are enriching the arms industry while pushing the entire world towards permanent militarisation, argues ROGER McKENZIE
by Nana Backland, Merseyside Morning Star Readers & Supporters Group
The government’s Pip review looks like a carefully managed exercise in legitimising future cuts to disability support, argues Dr DYLAN MURPHY
The Tories introduced the 50% strike ballot threshold to make industrial action harder. MATT WRACK argues that a Labour government has no justification for leaving it on the statute book
THE labour and trade union movement has lost one of its most respected activists with the death of Ken Capstick, who for more than half-a-century was a tower of strength in the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and close friend and comrade to former NUM president Arthur Scargill.
Capstick, 84, died in Bulgaria where he was visiting his son David. He was born in the Yorkshire mining community of Hemsworth and trained as an electrician in the coalmining industry, becoming an activist in the NUM. He worked at Park Hill colliery in Wakefield. When Park Hill closed in 1982 he transferred to the huge Selby coalfield.
A decade earlier he was involved in the Battle of Saltley Gate, when engineering workers in the Midlands downed tools to reinforce striking miners picketing a coking depot, successfully closing it down.
Similar stories
The public inquiry is the result of more than a decade of determined campaigning. Now, those who fought for justice want the full story of government involvement and police conduct to be told, says KATE FLANNERY
A past confrontation permanently shaped the methods the state will use to protect employers against any claims by their employees, writes MATT WRACK, but unions are readying to face the challenge