The Trump government is seizing overseas students from their homes and campuses and even off the streets, with no legal grounds and no due process, writes LINDA PENTZ GUNTER
Why PCS is striking and the need for joint, co-ordinated action
Alongside education workers, lecturers, bus drivers, railway workers and health workers, 133,000 civil servants will be taking strike action on budget day, March 15 in a significant escalation, writes FRAN HEATHCOTE
LOUD AND CLEAR: PCS picket Angela Grant outside the HQ of the Department for Work and Pensions
As global fascism grows, ROGER McKENZIE urges the left to reclaim May Day’s revolutionary roots — not as an act of nostalgia, but as fuel for building a ‘community of resistance’ against exploitation and the rise of fascism
Our unions need to make a firm stand against so-called ‘defence spending’: the boss class say there’s no magic money tree — and there should be no magic mushroom cloud either, argues NATHAN HENNEBRY
KEITH FLETT revisits the 1978 origins of Britain’s May Day bank holiday — from Michael Foot’s triumph to Thatcher’s reluctant acceptance — as Starmer’s government dodges calls to expand our working-class celebrations
RMT leader Eddie Dempsey's stark warning shook up a fringe meeting at the Scottish TUC
Incredibly, US Republican states are systematically dismantling child labour protections, with children transformed back into the cheap, disposable workers of the Dickens era, reports ANDREW MURRAY
KYRIL WHITTAKER looks at what guides Vietnam 50 years after reunification
OUR members have had enough and are raring to join today’s mammoth strike action. When PCS re-balloted eight further areas that came close to beating the threshold last time — which included HMRC — all eight didn’t just beat, but smashed, the threshold the second time around.
In PCS, we have developed a strategy of targeted action, where distinct areas take action, on behalf of everyone — an action that is impactful and cannot be ignored. This is accompanied by all-member action, when we bring out everyone covered by the mandate when it can have the most impact, alongside other unions.
In our biggest dispute in over 20 years over pay, pensions, redundancy terms and job security, tens of thousands of our members have taken action since November. After a huge show of strength on February 1, more areas are making submissions for targeted action every week.
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Public and Commercial Services union leader FRAN HEATHCOTE warns the Chancellor not to take an axe to the Civil Service – and points to measures that would genuinely improve the public sector
As the government ploughs ahead with £3 billion in welfare cuts, arbitrary office-return mandates, and below-inflation pay rises, women will bear the brunt through deepening poverty and increased caring burdens, argues FRAN HEATHCOTE
There is no stronger economy without the stronger wages that provide extra disposable income, which is why workers – including civil servants – must have their pay boosted in real terms, along with restored union rights and insourcing, says FRAN HEATHCOTE
As Labour takes power, PCS general secretary FRAN HEATHCOTE urges solidarity to push for workers’ rights and calls for pension justice and job security after years of Tory attacks on civil servants
