Trump threatens war and punitive tariffs to recapture Iranian resources – just as in 1953, when the CIA overthrew Mossadegh and US corporations immediately seized 40% of the oil, says SEVIM DAGDELEN
‘Now we’re only seeing families and adults when it hits a crisis point’
On World Social Work Day, Steve Sweeney talks to JOHN McGOWAN, general secretary of the Social Workers Union, about the challenges facing the sector caused by increasing poverty and why specialised unions have a lot to offer
The Social Workers Union’s first elected general secretary John McGowan
Once derided by Farage as a ‘fraud,’ Jenrick has defected to Reform, bringing experience and political ruthlessness to the populist right — and raising the unsettling prospect of a Farage-led movement with a seasoned operative pulling the strings, says ANDREW MURRAY
Karl and Eleanor Marx – father and daughter – share the credit for a pamphlet which was widely read as an introduction or alternative to his longer Capital and is still relevant today, asserts the Marx Memorial Library and Workers’ School
With US sanctions, military pressure and electoral interference looming, the struggle over Colombia’s sovereignty — and the fate of its fragile peace process — has reached a critical moment, says NICK MacWILLIAM
RAMZY BAROUD looks at how entire West Bank communities have been shattered, their social and physical fabric deliberately dismantled by Israel to enable its formal annexation
MOHAMMAD OMIDVAR, a senior figure in the Tudeh Party of Iran, tells the Morning Star that mass protests are rooted in poverty, corruption and neoliberal rule and warns against monarchist revival and US-engineered regime change
Out of the ashes of Gaza rises the world’s most remarkable graduating class, reports LINDA PENTZ GUNTER
“THERE’S a real thirst for trade unionism within the social work community now,” John McGowan tells me.
This is perhaps unsurprising given the huge cuts faced by local authorities under government austerity measures that have seen services slashed and driven more and more people into poverty.
McGowan knows this only too well. He is a product of Edinburgh’s tough council estates, counting Trainspotting author Irvine Welsh as a neighbour.
Similar stories
Austerity in a red tie is still austerity, warns RAMONA McCARTNEY of the People’s Assembly – rally with us to demand different choices
CWU leader DAVE WARD tells Ben Chacko a strategy to unite workers on class lines is needed – and sectoral collective bargaining must be at its heart
Ben Chacko talks to RMT leader EDDIE DEMPSEY about how the key to fixing broken Britain lies in collective sectoral bargaining, restoring unions’ ability to take solidarity strike action and bringing about the much-vaunted ‘wave of insourcing’
Incoming Usdaw general secretary JOANNE THOMAS talks to Ben Chacko about workers’ rights, Labour and how to arrest the decline of the high street