As tens of thousands return to the streets for the first national Palestine march of 2026, this movement refuses to be sidelined or silenced, says PETER LEARY
THE notorious tactic of fire and rehire has been a favourite tool used by employers to push the costs of the pandemic onto workers. It is in the headlines constantly, as one employer after another puts a gun to workers’ heads and tells them to take worse pay and worse working conditions or face unemployment.
Bosses of Britain’s biggest companies will have made more money in 2022 in a day than the average British worker will earn in a year. Super-rich shareholders demand their dividend payments — workers and their families are expected to pay the price.
Household names like British Gas, British Airways, Tesco, Clarks and Weetabix are using the disruption of the Covid crisis to threaten workers with the sack in order to drive down their wages and get more work for less pay.
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



