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
COME with me back to 1962. I lived in Harlesden, north-west London, already a multicultural part of the city on the edge of what was then the huge collection of light engineering factories that made up the Park Royal estate.
Park Royal was home to the biggest brewery in the world — it made Guinness.
Harlesden had a big Irish community with some of the best Irish music to be heard in sessions at the Willesden Junction Hotel — today folk music historians claim it was better than you could hear anywhere in Ireland at the time.
CJ ATKINS commemorates one of the most dramatic moments in working-class history
Spanish dictator Francisco Franco died 50 years ago today November 20. JIM JUMP looks back at his blood-soaked rule and toxic legacy on Spain today
JIM JUMP looks forward to the International Brigade Memorial Trust AGM taking place in Belfast later this week where the spirit of solidarity will be rekindled
This year’s Bristol Radical History Festival focused on the persistent threats of racism, xenophobia and, of course, our radical collective resistance to it across Ireland and Britain, reports LYNNE WALSH



