NICK TROY lauds the young staff at a hotel chain and cinema giant who are ready to take on the bosses for their rights
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May Day traditions – not just marches and rallies
The Chartists marked May Day long before it became a labour movement occasion. KEITH FLETT explains
IDEALISM: A map showing plans for a Chartist land settlement in Hertfordshire, named O’Connorville after the Chartist leader Feargus O’Connor
DYLAN MURPHY reports that far from helping people back into work, the sanctions regime is inflicting unnecessary trauma on working-class families
As Saudi Arabia is hailed abroad for its ‘reforms,’ the reality for women inside the kingdom grows ever more repressive. On the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, MARYAM ALDOSSARI argues it is time to stop applauding the illusion – and start listening to the women the state works hardest to silence
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With violence against women and girls reaching unprecedented levels – particularly in the north of England – Unison North West is driving a union-wide push for education, prevention and trauma-informed support, writes JOANNE MOORCROFT
Amid national economic decay and with a lack of coherent left-wing responses, far-right narratives on women’s safety and immigration have taken root in former Labour heartlands. The WOMEN’S LIBERATION ALLIANCE warns that only a renewed politics rooted in an understanding of class, race and sex can stem the rise of authoritarianism
MAY DAY is, worldwide, a labour and socialist festival. It has been marked in Britain since the first London May Day demonstrations in the 1890s.
As Eric Hobsbawm and Terence Ranger wrote, traditions are invented. In Britain at the moment there is an official May Day public holiday held on the first Monday after the actual date, which often sees marches and rallies.
We have Michael Foot and the 1974-79 Labour government to thank for that, although Margaret Thatcher recorded in her papers that she also enjoyed a day off, despite disapproving of its stated purpose.
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