Decommissioned railway tracks have been ‘repossessed’ by nature with wild birds the prominent protagonists, writes MARK SEDDON
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From GCHQ to minimum service levels, union power can win
PCS leader FRAN HEATHCOTE draws the parallels between a major trade union rights battle 40 years ago and the fight we have ahead of us today
GCHQ union members, who where sacked for their union membership, pictured at the Public Services, Tax and Commerce Union Conference at Blackpool's Winter Gardens, may 15, 1997. Left to right: Alan Rowland, Mike Grindley, Jack Hart and Clive Lloyd
ROGER MCKENZIE recalls the one-in-a-generation communist leader murdered at the dawn of a new South Africa 33 years ago last April 10
Ignorance of working-class history leaves working people open to deceptive narratives, demagogy and political manipulation, writes SAN SENIK
Delegates rejected calls to disaffiliate after a passionate three-hour debate, while warning the Labour leadership that working-class members demand change
TUC Cymru’s programme offers a potential roadmap for co-operation between Labour and Plaid Cymru on jobs, services and economic democracy, says DAI MORGAN
HAZEL PRING and MAX DICKINSON introduce The Angry Summer Project, a fringe for the TUC Cymru Congress
TODAY thousands of trade unionists from across the movement will come together in Cheltenham to mark the 40th anniversary of one of the longest trade union disputes in British history.
Fourteen civil servants working in GCHQ were sacked simply for being a member of a union. What followed was a 13-year campaign that ended in victory, when the ban was finally lifted. Forty years on, our movement once again faces an existential threat, with minimum service levels undermining the right to strike.
Back in 1984, Margaret Thatcher enforced a ban on trade union membership. Over 100 workers refused to give up this basic right and by 1988, there were 14 workers still holding out. Their defiance cost them their jobs and they were sacked.
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