There have been penalties for those who looked the other way when Epstein was convicted of child sex offences and decided to maintain relationships with the financier — but not for the British ambassador to Washington, reveals SOLOMON HUGHES
‘Working in rail is a battle from day one’
RMT young members' committee chair SARAH CUNDY speaks to Ben Chacko about the challenges facing young transport workers, public campaigning and training a new generation of union reps
Labour’s new Treasury unit will ‘challenge unnecessary regulation’ by forcing nominally independent bodies like Ofwat to bend to business demands — exactly what Iain Anderson’s corporate clients wanted, writes SOLOMON HUGHES
DR DYLAN MURPHY looks at a Big Brother Watch report which exposes the government as an enabler of DWP secret spying on benefit claimants
The EU faces a critical choice: will it remain in the shadow of an increasingly unreliable US ally, or will it forge its own path in a multilateral world where co-operation with China is essential, asks MARC VANDEPITTE as leaders meet for the EU-China Summit
A lot of discussion about how the left should currently organise – including debate on whether the Green Party is a useful vehicle for advance – runs the risk of refusing to engage with or learn from the reasons the left was defeated previously, argues KEVIN OVENDEN
For Egypt trade trumps the Israeli genocide of the Palestinians, but how long can the country’s ‘misleaders’ – and others in the region – continue their indifference against the popular will of their own people, asks ROGER McKENZIE
SARAH CUNDY has three priorities for her year as chair of transport union RMT’s young members’ committee.
“The first is organising industrially — encouraging young members to become reps and become active in their workplace. We have a campaign on that regarding health and safety reps in particular because there aren’t many young safety reps — we could be facing a mass exodus of health and safety reps in the next 5-10 years because of the demographics. We’ve had some wins on that, we’ve gone from having about 50 young [under 35] health and safety reps nationally to about 80.
“Second, education. We run various education programmes throughout the year. We’ve got one in a couple of months at the AGM in Hull, we try to do a mini-day course at the Durham Miners’ Gala and we have a course with the Marx Memorial Library on political economy. We’re trying to bring back the young women’s course as well. Education provides young activists with better means of organising and political understanding.
More from this author
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’
Incoming Usdaw general secretary JOANNE THOMAS talks to Ben Chacko about workers’ rights, Labour and how to arrest the decline of the high street
Durham Miners’ Association general secretary ALAN MARDGHUM speaks to Ben Chacko ahead of Gala Day 2025
