TUC general secretary PAUL NOWAK speaks to the Morning Star’s Berny Torre about the increasing frustration the trade union movement feels at a government that promised change, but has been too slow to bring it about
‘Solidarity and unity must be our watchwords’
The incoming general secretary of the General Federation of Trade Unions GAWAIN LITTLE looks at the tasks of the organisation in the current turbulent period
People listen to Kevin Courtney, Joint General Secretary National Education Union (NEU) speaking at a rally in Westminster, London, as they stage walkouts across England in an ongoing dispute over pay, May 2, 2023
DIANE ABBOTT exposes the misconceptions, rumours and downright lies perpetrated around immigration issues
With 12,000 fewer teachers since 2010 and dwindling resources, Scotland’s schools desperately need investment to support diverse learners rather than empty promises from politicians, writes ANDREA BRADLEY
Reversing outsourcing is the pre-election promise the government must honour, says Unison general secretary CHRISTINA McANEA
EMAN ABU ZAYED reminisces about the perilous time her family and neighbours endured in northern Gaza and how they were forced, in fear of their lives, to flee south
The EIS president who defended Marxist politics in the 1980s fought Thatcherite educational policies while organising Teachers for Peace rallies and ensuring Morning Star circulation in Scotland’s pit villages and factories, writes JOHN FOSTER
THE British trade union movement is at a crossroads. We face a cost of living crisis that has deep roots in more than 40 years of neoliberal economic reform and the systematic weaknesses in the national economy that have developed as a result.
The decline of Britain’s manufacturing base, the stripping out of skilled, well-paid jobs, and the decimation and privatisation of public services and utilities has left our economy vulnerable to short-term fluctuations, which can have a long-term impact on working people’s incomes.
This has been realised most recently in a crisis which has seen the value of pay plummet. The governor of the Bank of England, earning £575,000 a year, has called on workers to exercise pay restraint as the cost of daily necessities goes up by a staggering amount. Food inflation in the 12 months to March 2023 was running at 19.2 per cent with items like cucumbers up by 52 per cent. In this context, pay restraint is the last thing our economy, or working people, need.
More from this author
With 90 courses from health and safety to neurodiversity, AI and political economy, we are helping workers understand the political context of their struggles, writes general secretary of the General Federation of Trade Unions GAWAIN LITTLE
General secretary of the General Federation of Trade Unions GAWAIN LITTLE calls for support and participation in the national partnership organised to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the 1926 general strike
GAWAIN LITTLE argues that the prolonged economic crisis we have been experiencing presents opportunities for a working-class fightback
After the Gaza genocide and unleashing chaos in Syria, the US and Israel prepare to target Tehran next, leaving the Iranian people caught between foreign intervention and continued theocratic oppression, writes GAWAIN LITTLE
