There have been penalties for those who looked the other way when Epstein was convicted of child sex offences and decided to maintain relationships with the financier — but not for the British ambassador to Washington, reveals SOLOMON HUGHES
Trade unions and the Labour Party must walk hand in hand
MICK WHELAN, general secretary of Aslef, the train drivers’ trade union, explains the background to the Labour-union link, and the importance of electing a Labour government on December 12
The plaque noting the site where Labour was founded in 1900
Labour’s new Treasury unit will ‘challenge unnecessary regulation’ by forcing nominally independent bodies like Ofwat to bend to business demands — exactly what Iain Anderson’s corporate clients wanted, writes SOLOMON HUGHES
DR DYLAN MURPHY looks at a Big Brother Watch report which exposes the government as an enabler of DWP secret spying on benefit claimants
The EU faces a critical choice: will it remain in the shadow of an increasingly unreliable US ally, or will it forge its own path in a multilateral world where co-operation with China is essential, asks MARC VANDEPITTE as leaders meet for the EU-China Summit
A lot of discussion about how the left should currently organise – including debate on whether the Green Party is a useful vehicle for advance – runs the risk of refusing to engage with or learn from the reasons the left was defeated previously, argues KEVIN OVENDEN
For Egypt trade trumps the Israeli genocide of the Palestinians, but how long can the country’s ‘misleaders’ – and others in the region – continue their indifference against the popular will of their own people, asks ROGER McKENZIE
PEOPLE often ask me – especially during a general election campaign – why the Labour Party is so close to the trade union movement. Probably because most school history lessons are long on Kings and Queens of the Middle Ages and short on more recent social and industrial history. Although, when I say recent, I am talking about 120 years ago!
The answer to the question, though, is simple. It’s because the Labour Party was formed by the trade unions. I know my industrial and labour movement history and, even if I didn’t, I would be reminded because I pass a plaque to that fact every day.
Trade unions formed the Labour Representation Committee on February 27 1900 at a meeting in the Congregational Memorial Hall – it is often said that the Labour Party owes more to Methodism than Marxism! – in Farringdon, central London, a few hundred yards from the Aslef head office.
The Conservative Party represented the interests of the landed aristocracy; the Liberal Party the interests of the mill owners and industrialists who had made their money in the Victorian era; and the trade unions – struggling then, as now, for decent wages, terms and conditions for ordinary hard-working men and women – wanted, understandably, a political party to represent them.
More from this author
As the labour movement meets to remember the Tolpuddle Martyrs, MICK WHELAN, general secretary of train drivers’ union Aslef, says it’s an appropriate moment to remind the Labour government to listen to the trade unions a little more
Aslef general secretary MICK WHELAN writes for the Morning Star on the eve of the TUC in Brighton, about the pay offer from the DfT, relations with the Labour government, and the union’s motion at Congress calling for the renationalisation of rail freight
MICK WHELAN, general secretary of Aslef, the train drivers’ trade union, writes for the Morning Star as union activists prepare to march through Durham today in a display of working-class solidarity at the 138th Durham Miners’ Gala
MICK WHELAN, general secretary of train drivers’ trade union Aslef, writes for the Morning Star as voters prepare to go to the polls in the general election today
