By refusing to recognise a Palestinian state and continuing to supply Israel with weapons, Meloni has provoked an uprising that is without precedent in the history of solidarity with Palestine — and it could change Italy profoundly too, writes RAMZY BAROUD
Investing in our rail is in everyone’s interest
From its crucial part in industry, to its central importance to our social and cultural life, to the role it must play in our commitment to achieving a carbon-neutral nation, Britain has to back rail, writes MICK WHELAN
Aslef General Secretary Mick Whelan (centre) at a picket line at Euston station in London, as members of the drivers' union Aslef and the Transport Salaried Staffs Association (TSSA) go on strike
The new angle from private firms shmoozing their way into public contracts was the much-trumpeted arrival of ‘artificial intelligence’ — and no-one seemed to have heard the numerous criticisms of this unproven miracle cure, reports SOLOMON HUGHES
With the ceasefire and peace process now firmly in place for almost a decade, Colombia’s peace court has begun issuing its first sentences against both sides over human rights violations during the armed conflict, reports NICK MACWILLIAM
As war between Iran and the West looms once more, NAVID SHOMALI sounds the alarm bell and calls on the peace movement in Britain and internationally to mobilise for action before it is too late
A day of strike action is set to be unleashed today, against tax injustice, attacks on pensions and the anti-democratic manoeuvrings of Macron, writes BILL GREENSHIELDS
Once again, working people have been betrayed with false promises about jobs in an industry that is actually making climate change worse, writes LINDA PENTZ GUNTER
SOME people talk, a little cynically, you might feel, about “vested interests” — because, if you think about it, all interests are vested. Of course they are. And Aslef, as the union for train drivers for 142 years, has a vested interest in the success — now and in the future — of Britain’s railways.
We have always had such an interest, a vested interest, if you like, since we first came together in Leeds in 1880 to represent the aims and the aspirations of the locomotive engineers and firemen who shovelled the coal into the firebox on the footplate, in the halcyon days of steam trains that brought the countries, towns, cities, and villages of Britain ever closer to each other.
Transport — by river, canal, railway, and road — didn’t just help move people and goods around England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland. Better transport, and the economic and social benefits it brought in its wake, was what drove the industrial revolution in Britain.
More from this author
Two-hundred years ago, on September 27 1825, the world’s first passenger railway line was opened between Stockton and Darlington. MICK WHELAN, general secretary of Aslef, the train drivers’ union, reflects on the history – and the future – of Britain’s railway industry
On the eve of the 157th Trades Union Congress, MICK WHELAN, general secretary of Aslef, the train drivers’ union, celebrates victory in his campaign to get dignity for drivers at work
As the labour movement meets to remember the Tolpuddle Martyrs, MICK WHELAN, general secretary of train drivers’ union Aslef, says it’s an appropriate moment to remind the Labour government to listen to the trade unions a little more
Aslef general secretary MICK WHELAN writes for the Morning Star on the eve of the TUC in Brighton, about the pay offer from the DfT, relations with the Labour government, and the union’s motion at Congress calling for the renationalisation of rail freight
