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JOHN McINALLY
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

Members of the Public and Commercial Services union (PCS) on the picket line outside St Andrew's House in Edinburgh, as civil servants in 132 Government departments walk out in a long-running dispute over pay, jobs and conditions. Picture date: Thursday March 16, 2023
Working Class History / 29 November 2025
29 November 2025

In part V of a serialisation of his new book, JOHN McINALLY argues that to confront capitalism’s escalating crises, unions must reorient toward class politics and help build a united, explicitly socialist alternative capable of representing the working class and its material needs

STEADFAST: Members of the Public and Commercial Services union (PCS) on the picket line outside HMRC in East Kilbride during a strike in the long-running civil service dispute over pay, jobs and conditions, May 2023
Features / 22 November 2025
22 November 2025

In part IV of a serialisation of his new book, JOHN McINALLY tells how austerity minister Francis Maude’s attempt to destroy the PCS Civil Service union totally backfired

A State of Struggle
Features / 31 October 2025
31 October 2025

In part I of a serialisation of his new book, JOHN McINALLY takes a look at the early days of organising government workers

old divide
Book Review / 16 October 2025
16 October 2025

JOHN McINALLY welcomes a rigorous class analysis of the history and exploitation of sectarianism by the Scottish ruling elite

KNOCKABOUT SONGS: Tom Lehrer performing in Copenhagen, 1967. Pic: Public domain
Features / 1 August 2025
1 August 2025

April 9 1928 – July 26 2025

MAJOR CONCERNS: Campaigners protest in Westminster ahead of
Features / 28 November 2024
28 November 2024
JOHN McINALLY argues trade unions and socialists must demand properly funded healthcare instead of a change that, combined with neoliberal capitalism, will see working-class people pushed towards suicide
Campaigners in support of voluntary euthanasia protest outsi
Features / 24 September 2024
24 September 2024
JOHN McINALLY warns that Labour’s hasty push for legislation ignores the international evidence of expanding eligibility criteria, potentially normalising the ‘social murder’ of working-class people under the guise of compassion
CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTION: Campaigners against voluntary eutha
Features / 16 August 2024
16 August 2024
Labour must fight to ensure any new laws do not become tools for social cleansing of the poor and disabled, argues JOHN McINALLY, as some begin considering NHS savings that could come at the cost of working-class lives
Features / 14 July 2024
14 July 2024
JOHN McINALLY calls for militant trade unionism and overt socialist politics to counter the new government’s pro-capitalist agenda and a looming authoritarian turn that threatens to muzzle working-class resistance
General secretary of the Public and Commercial Services (PCS
Features / 13 January 2024
13 January 2024
At the helm of Britain’s eighth-largest union for a quarter of a century, he is rightly seen as one of the most principled and effective class fighters of our times, writes JOHN McINALLY
A woman amid wreckage from Russian bombardment in Ukraine, s
Opinion / 14 December 2023
14 December 2023
After fuelling the fire of the conflict and then promising Kiev support until victory, the West is pressing Zelensky to cut a deal — one that will now favour Russia. What a disgraceful waste of human life this has been, writes JOHN McINALLY
A Ukrainian soldier shelters in a trench on the frontline in
Opinion / 13 August 2023
13 August 2023
JOHN McINALLY points to parallels between the inter-imperialist conflict that erupted 109 years ago today and the current war in Ukraine
Features / 16 April 2022
16 April 2022
JOHN McINALLY argues that last weekend’s Stand With Ukraine demonstration attracted wide trade union support, but promoted a reactionary agenda that will not help end the war
A Russian protester against the invasion of Ukraine is arres
Features / 24 February 2022
24 February 2022
The ultimate test in such circumstances is what position do socialists adopt — do they echo the condemnations of the “enemy,” do they “take sides” with this or that imperialist bloc or power or,do they stand firmly against imperialism, asks JOHN McINALLY
All Under One Banner demonstration for Scottish independence
Features / 22 May 2021
22 May 2021
JOHN McINALLY argues the British trade union movement can maintain unity by adopting an independent class position and fully supporting the democratic right of Scottish workers to pursue national self-determination