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
The recruitment of young people into trade unions must be a priority for the labour movement
A real youth education and organising strategy is needed to build unions for the future and to lift young workers out of poverty and precarity, argues GEORGINA ANDREWS
RIGHT IDEA: Kids take part in an NEU rally last year
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
TRADE unions have a significant part to play in protecting workers’ rights and ensuring fair treatment in the workplace because, not only they are a vehicle for uniting the working class in the fight for better pay and terms and conditions, but more importantly, they are essential not only for improving our working conditions but to fundamentally change the wider society that we live in and challenge the exploitative and unjust system that is capitalism.
This is especially important for young workers, who face a variety of unique challenges today. These include precarious work, stagnant wages, and little opportunity to progress at work. Furthermore, few young workers are in a trade union, with only one in 20 trade union members being aged 16-24.
Young workers bear the worst consequences of the cost-of-living crisis and the worsening job market which offers increasingly worse material conditions. The ruling class take advantage of the youth in the fact that they are not organised enough to fight against their own exploitation.
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Our charter’s demands for fair pay, affordable housing and environmental security will recruit working-class youth into the political struggle for socialism, emulating the success of the Women’s Charter, writes YCL general secretary GEORGINA ANDREWS
General secretary of the YCL GEORGINA ANDREWS looks at the priorities of her organisation, from Palestine solidarity to trade unionism and fighting privatisation at a local level, ahead of its 52nd congress
The pro-Palestine movement shows that with our creativity and drive, young workers can bridge the gap between single-issue campaigns and the class struggle, writes general secretary of the Young Communist League GEORGINA ANDREWS
