Head of education, campaigns and organising for the General Federation of Trade Unions HENRY FOWLER explains why it is launching a fund to support trades councils and give them access to a new range of courses and resources
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TUC Congress 2015: We're ready for the battle of our lives
FRANCES O'GRADY tells the Star the TUC and the hundreds of thousands of workers it represents won’t take a bad Bill lying down
While working people face austerity, arms companies enjoy massive government contracts, writes ARTHUR WEST, exposing how politicians exaggerate the Russian threat to justify spending on a sector that has the lowest employment multiplier
ANYA COOK reports from the Newcastle citizens’ assembly, where over 240 people gathered to create a people’s manifesto ahead of next year’s local elections – part of former mayor Jamie Driscoll’s Majority movement
While claiming to target fraud, Labour’s snooping Bill strips benefit recipients of privacy rights and presumption of innocence, writes CLAUDIA WEBBE, warning that algorithms with up to 25 per cent error rates could wrongfully investigate and harass millions of vulnerable people
Real security comes from having a secure base at home — Keir Starmer’s reckless and renegade decision to get Britain deeper into the proxy war against Russia is as dangerous as it is wasteful, writes SALLY SPIERS
The plan is to stigmatise and destabilise South Africa in preparation for breaking it up while creating a confused and highly racialised atmosphere around immigration in the US to aid in denying rights to non-white refugees, explains EMILE SCHEPERS
ALAN SIMPSON warns that Starmer’s triangulation strategy will fail just as New Labour’s did, with each rightward move by Labour pushing Tories further right
Interview by Joana Ramiro
FRANCES LORRAINE O’GRADY stands up from her desk and comes to greet me. She tells me she remembers me from the last time we met, at last year’s Trades Union Congress (TUC) “Britain needs a pay rise” demonstration. Last time we met we took a picture together. I said she was “amazeballs.” I hope she doesn’t remember that.
O’Grady is the first female leader of the TUC. The first thing you notice about her is that she fully in control of her environment. After 10 years as the organisation’s deputy general secretary and now two at the helm, she knows her unions in and out.
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