In a wide-ranging interview, JEREMY CORBYN talks to Ben Chacko about the difficulties the new Prime Minister faces and why he sees no future in Labour
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The myth of the labour market
PROF KEITH EWING and LORD JOHN HENDY QC explain there can be no simple labour market under the free market: humans are humans, not inanimate commodities to be traded. To overcome this nonsense we need to reinvigorate the concept and practice of collective bargaining
In Britain, nine million people in poverty live in working households. Since the pandemic we have seen how the most valuable of our key workers, on whom we all depend, suffer low wages, insecurity of employment and the highest risk of illness and death.
A sharp rise in public-sector investment is required to kick-start the economy, argues MICHAEL BURKE
Burnham’s billions for defence while councils and local services struggle will not deliver the change that Britain’s working-class communities need, says MICAELA TRACEY-RAMOS
Millions of elms were wiped out by Dutch elm disease in the 20th century, transforming the landscape forever – yet pockets of hope are keeping this beloved tree alive. MARK SEDDON explains
CARLOS MARTINEZ looks at the facts behind US persecution of Fergie Chambers
While Italy’s communist tradition remains fragmented and politically marginal, France’s party is attempting to re-establish itself as an independent force rooted in working-class organisation, says NICK WRIGHT
THERE are a number of expressions which are particularly grating, especially when spoken by comrades.
Hearing the Prime Minister referred to affectionately as “Boris” is one, the use of the phrase “labour market” is another.
The phrase “labour market” gives a legitimacy to a capitalist mythology in which buying and selling labour is a natural and unalterable part of the human condition, in which humans who work for a living are no more than disposable “human resources” and in which those who sell and those who buy labour have some equivalence of bargaining power as they contemplate the wares on the stalls in the “labour market.” These myths are unrelated to the reality of capitalism.
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