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
How workers fought US slavery and earned Abraham Lincoln’s gratitude
PETER LAZENBY reports on how trade unionists in Manchester are to celebrate the role of the city’s cotton industry workers in the fight for the abolition of slavery in the US civil war
SOLIDARITY ACROSS THE POND: This Abraham Lincoln statue in Manchester was created by George Barnard, and is a replica
of one in Cincinnati, Ohio. It was presented by Charles Phelps Taft, the son of US president William Howard Taft.Some wit called it the “stomach ache statue” because of the placement of the hands
[Keith Edkins/CC] 
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
IN a little-known square behind Manchester Town Hall stands a statue of US president Abraham Lincoln.
Although it is hidden away, it represents a huge event in the radical history of Manchester — when thousands of workers supported an embargo of cotton during the US civil war, helping end slavery in the US but at a cost of idle mills and hunger to workers in Lancashire’s cotton industry.
Sunday is the anniversary of the date in 1863 when Lincoln wrote a letter to “the working men of Manchester” in acknowledgement of their support for the embargo of cotton from the southern Confederate states as the US civil war raged.
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