Skip to main content
Work with the NEU
Pioneering women created today's trade union movement
New PCS general secretary FRAN HEATHCOTE talks about the women who reshaped the cause of labour

SINCE becoming PCS general secretary in February, I have travelled the country speaking at PCS branch AGMs, Stop the War and Palestine solidarity rallies almost every day. 

As we mark International Women’s Day, I can say that one of the biggest honours so far was to address the Women Against Pit Closures 40th anniversary event last Saturday in Durham. As a proud feminist and trade unionist, I was humbled to pay tribute to one of the most inspiring working-class movements of our lifetimes. 

I wouldn’t be the first woman general secretary of PCS were it not for feminist working-class heroes of 40 years ago who, against insurmountable odds, stood up for their class. 

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
Similar stories
Claudia Jones
International Women’s Day 2026 / 7 March 2026
7 March 2026

The pioneering activist understood that freedom could only be won through solidarity across communities. Her legacy offers vital lessons at a time when progressive politics risks losing that shared purpose

The Morning Star republishes PRAGNA PATEL’s speech at the annual commemoration of Claudia Jones on February 22 2026

Women's rights campaigners in Westminster, London after taking part in a march from the Royal Courts of Justice calling for decriminalisation of abortion, June 17, 2023
International Women's Day 2026 / 7 March 2026
7 March 2026

Professor MARY DAVIS argues that feminism has been hollowed out by liberal co-option – and only a revival of socialist, class-based politics can restore International Working Women’s Day’s original, radical purpose

SOLIDARITY: Rally in Hyde Park during the General Strike of 1926
Features / 30 January 2026
30 January 2026

One hundred years after 1.7m workers shut the country down in defence of the miners, the struggles that sparked the 1926 General Strike are still with us – and will be honoured on London’s May Day march this year, writes MARY ADOSSIDES

LONG DARK SHADOW: John Henry Whitley chaired, from 1917, a committee to report on ‘the Relations of Employers and Employees’ in the wake of the establishment of the Shop Stewards Movement. Photo:  Public domain
Features / 6 December 2025
6 December 2025

In the final part of a serialisation of his new book, JOHN McINALLY explains how in 2018, after years spent rebuilding the PCS into a leading force against austerity, a damaging rupture emerged from within the union’s own left wing