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 first thing to say about the UK Trade and Co-operation Agreement with the EU is that it was a treaty negotiated by a Conservative government — not a Labour government. Certainly not by a progressive Labour government.
But a Conservative government dominated by neoliberal, free-market objectives and ambitions, particularly those of banking and finance.
To emphasise this point further, it is worth considering how a progressive Labour government might have tackled the negotiations — as, for instance, one elected on the basis of Labour’s most recent (2019) election programme.

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

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

