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
Is the government finally going to remove a silent killer?
HANK ROBERTS welcomes news that asbestos has been judged too dangerous to leave in situ in schools and public buildings, and issues a clarion call to readers to help make sure action is actually taken
MAKING PROGRESS: A conference organised by Barking and Dagenham and Havering Trades Council November last year. This shows delegates holding up placards about the Cape asbestos scandal
[BDHTUC] 
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
AT LAST! After more than a century of dissembling, downright lies and cover-ups, the government has admitted that asbestos is too dangerous to be left in schools and public buildings. It must all be removed and cannot be safely managed in situ.
With around 40,000 schools and educational premises, and with government research stating that an estimated 80 per cent contain the deadly asbestos, we know this is a massive task.
One of the people who has led this fight is Sir Stephen Timms MP who, in 2022 as the chair of the all-party parliamentary work and pensions committee, called for all asbestos to be removed from educational buildings within 40 years, starting with the most dangerous first.
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HANK ROBERTS writes that his own experience of exposing a headteacher who had misappropriated millions in school funds and then spending almost a decade trying to bring him to justice shows how inherently corrupt the academies system is
In the class war strategy must come before tactics — and that means we must focus on how we are going to fight austerity after Covid-19. HANK ROBERTS prescribes uniting all those who can be united
