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
Tolpuddle’s enduring legacy
Unison South West regional secretary KERRY BAIGENT charts the recent successes for industrial action and organising in her area, and outlines the challenges ahead, urging Labour to deliver on workers’ rights and social care
Fighting and winning: A Unison picket during their successful dispute with Wiltshire Health and Care.
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
THE annual Tolpuddle Martyrs Festival, organised by the TUC, brings together thousands of trade unionists, socialists, and progressive campaigners in a collective celebration and commemoration of a 19th-century injustice against six agricultural workers, which became a fundamental cause for workers’ rights.
The legacy of these workers, known to history as the Tolpuddle Martyrs, acts as an important reminder to all trade unionists that the rights of workers to organise, take collective action, and form a union were not granted willingly and were only won following huge sacrifice, solidarity, and collective campaigning, even against forces that seemed overwhelmingly powerful.
The story of the Tolpuddle Martyrs is, therefore, one of inspiration. Every year we gather to meet, discuss, exchange ideas, and, most importantly of all, to organise.
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