TUC president and POA leader STEVE GILLAN speaks to Ben Chacko on the eve of Congress 2026
Latest editorial
Has the world learned anything from the Rana Plaza disaster?
A decade ago over 1,000 garment workers were killed due to the demands of fast fashion and greedy brands. We have the power here in Britain to change the system everywhere, writes CLAUDIA WEBBE MP
OUTRAGE: Workers sort through the remains of the factory in the Dhaka region of Bangladesh, December 2014
[NYU Stern BHR / Creative Commons]
DOUG NICHOLLS welcomes a turning point at this year’s Congress, where many motions call for a co-ordinated plan to revive British industry, a perspective outlined in his new book
HOPE VIRGO of campaign Dump the Scales warns MPs voting today they should be alert to the threat legalised assisted death poses to people with eating disorders
The Together Alliance is hosting two summits, North and South, to build power and plan action against the scourge of racism peddled by the right. DANIEL KEBEDE urges mass participation
The drift toward militarisation in Europe is not inevitable, left-wing and peace movements can preserve sovereignty and prevent war, says DÁIRE HUGHES MP
Whatever differences exist among international sympathisers of the Bolivarian revolution about its current trajectory, they should unite against the imperialist power that is the source of an enforced retreat, argues ROGER D HARRIS
Trade unions need to step up and force a turn in the policies of the labour movement to effectively confront the far-right threat, argues NICK WRIGHT
TEN years ago today, more than 1,100 people were killed and more than 2,500 injured when the eight-storey Rana Plaza building collapsed in Bangladesh.
Corruption and greed were identified as the key causes. The building had been built on unstable ground on a filled-in pond, with substandard materials and with eight floors instead of the four for which the developer had permits.
These dangerous working conditions are not new and workers have always been the ones to face the cost. Over a century earlier, in 1911, 146 garment workers died in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in New York City, while just a few years before the Rana Plaza collapse, in 2005, the Spectrum building just a few miles away collapsed, killing 64 workers and injuring 80.
Similar stories
ROB WARZYNIAK recalls the emblematic 1906 book, The Jungle, in its analysis of the crisis presently engulfing the US Food and Drug Administration
PHILIP ENGLISH says military spending will not create the jobs young people need — instead, build an economy based around needs, not profit