Robinson successfully defended his school from closure, fought for the unification of the teaching unions, mentored future trade union leaders and transformed teaching at the Marx Memorial Library, writes JOHN FOSTER
From the cladding crisis to the climate emergency, frontline voices must shape fire policy
MATT WRACK outlines the FBU’s motion to the Labour Party conference, urging an overhaul of safety regulations, an end to privatisation, and preparation for the extreme weather events threatening public safety
Matt Wrack, General Secretary of the Fire Brigades Union, speaks to the media, next to the Grenfell Memorial Wall in west London, September 4, 2024
A judge in a German court ruled that the ban activity imposed on renowned Dr Ghassan Abu-Sittah was unlawful, reports LEON WYSTRYCHOWSKI
At the very moment Britain faces poverty, housing and climate crises requiring radical solutions, the liberal press promotes ideologically narrow books while marginalising authors who offer the most accurate understanding of change, writes IAN SINCLAIR
From Gaza protest bans to proscribing Palestine Action, political elites are showing a crisis of confidence as they abandon Roy Jenkins’s apologetic approach for Suella Braverman’s aggressive ‘hate march’ rhetoric, writes PAUL DONOVAN
ANSELM ELDERGILL examines the legal case behind this weekend’s Tolpuddle Martyrs’ Festival and the lessons for today
Ben Chacko talks to RMT leader EDDIE DEMPSEY about how the key to fixing broken Britain lies in collective sectoral bargaining, restoring unions’ ability to take solidarity strike action and bringing about the much-vaunted ‘wave of insourcing’
The summer of 1950 saw Labour abandon further nationalisation while escalating Korean War spending from £2.3m to £4.7m, as the government meekly accepted capitalism’s licence and became Washington’s yes-man, writes JOHN ELLISON
SEVEN YEARS after the Grenfell Tower fire, and still lessons have not been learned. Survivors, the bereaved, and the community have yet to see justice served. Meanwhile, the conditions that led to the fire remain unchanged.
This year’s Labour Party conference commences in the aftermath of the final Grenfell Tower inquiry report. As trade unionists, it is our duty to fight for serious and meaningful action in memory of the 72 lives lost.
The night of June 14 2017 will never be forgotten by firefighters. Yet thousands of buildings are still wrapped in flammable cladding. We still face a crisis in building safety. Profit continues to be put before lives.
Decades of political decisions led to the disaster, gutting Britain’s fire safety regime.
Labour’s manifesto committed the incoming government to “take decisive action to improve building safety, including through regulation, to ensure we never again see a repeat of the Grenfell fire.”
To ensure a fire of this scale never happens again, the government must reverse the cuts, privatisation and deregulation that paved the way to tragedy.
We must unite as a movement to fight for a complete overhaul of the deregulatory agenda. Businesses have been allowed to self-regulate, prioritising shareholder profits at the expense of people’s safety.
This can be seen across all areas of decision-making relevant to the Grenfell Tower: from construction to risk assessment, failures in inspection and enforcement. Commercial interests and profit must be completely removed from any new system of regulation.
At the same time, political and democratic accountability have been stripped away. Local government and fire and rescue services have been hollowed out by cuts, while ministers have overseen a culture of complacency from the top down. Concerns of council and social housing tenants have been systematically ignored.
Many such warnings went unheeded before the Grenfell Tower fire, from the residents directly and from the Fire Brigades Union and other fire safety experts in response to other tower block fires.
For too long, working-class people have been treated as collateral by those in power. But where bosses seek to lock us out of the room, we must rally in numbers to deliver our demands.
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Despite the damning report, cladding fires continue to threaten lives, and justice has not been done. MATT WRACK demands a radical overhaul of building safety regulations and public ownership of the inspection system
While workers must organise to push Starmer beyond his timid manifesto pledges, the scrapping of anti-strike laws and restoration of public services promised means we must vote Labour, argues MATT WRACK
We must be prepared to mobilise and build a mass movement against the Tories’ vicious anti-union law, writes Fire Brigades Union leader MATT WRACK
