ALAN SIMPSON offers a few pointers on dealing with the ongoing, Trump-led destruction of the norms of a rules-based international order established post-WWII
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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.
The Morning Star publishes an edited transcript of a speech by NICOLAS MADURO GUERRA, a Venezuelan MP and son of Venezuelan President Maduro. The speech was given at the recent Voices from Venezuela event marking two months since Trump’s attack on Venezuela and kidnapping of President Maduro and First Lady Cilia Flores on January 3
From the hills of the England–Wales border, our new fortnightly nature columnist MARK SEDDON reflects on rebellion, faith and the small dramas of rural life — from medieval fugitives to the quiet rescue of a bucket of tadpoles
While public outrage has focused on the abuse committed within Jeffrey Epstein’s orbit, key questions remain unresolved, says JOHN GREEN
KEITH FLETT argues that we need to stand up to those in power every single time they transgress
Gloucestershire’s phlebotomists have brought their historic strike to a close after almost a year of action, leaving a legacy of determination – and a clear lesson about the power of solidarity in the face of anti-union laws and austerity, says FBU general secretary STEVE 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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