Our economic system is broken – and unless we break with the government’s obsession with short-termist private profit, things are destined to get worse, warns Mercedes Villalba

THE brutality of the pandemic alongside the deaths of hundreds of health workers has led to national mobilisations and a new layer of activists coming into the trade unions.
Trade unionism in the NHS has changed as the emphasis shifts towards increased member engagement and activity. A welcome departure from the dry decades of inertia and inactivity imposed by the domination of the partnership working model. Decades when both staff and patients lost so much from cuts and privatisation that went mostly unchallenged.
The wave of national strike action is a reflection of the level of the re-engagement and has been supported by NHS campaigns, patients and the public. This has put enormous pressure on the Tories who have been forced to the table to offer concessions.

As more people on the left are now questioning the sex industry, HELEN O’CONNOR reports from a timely fringe at TUC Congress where women on the front line gave their perspective on why prostitution should never be considered ‘work’


