Mehmet Turkmen, president of Birtek-Sen, has been cleared of criminal charges after speaking out against the high rate of workplace injuries and deaths in Gaziantep’s textile and carpet industry. OZLEM TEMENA reports

FRED BAYER says the cuts to the congress cycle could be disastrous for the Scottish trade union movement

Over 100,000 people are expected on Brussels’s streets today. Ben Chacko speaks to Belgian Workers Party’s PETER MERTENS on wage and pensions attacks that have united the fightback

Trade unionists and peace activists march across the country commemorating the centenary of 1926 General Strike

The General Strike exposed the power of the working class — and the limits of its leadership, writes Dr DYLAN MURPHY

The route to liberation does not lie in waiting for allies or chasing representation for its own sake – it requires consistent political strategy and collective struggle, writes ROGER McKENZIE

JOANNE THOMAS welcomes the Employment Rights Act as an instrument for the much-needed revitalisation of trade union membership and activism

On May 4, the MML opens its doors to marchers and visitors alike, celebrating a living tradition of working-class struggle. MEIRIAN JUMP invites readers to come along and explore the building and its collections

JOANNE THOMAS argues that unions’ political voice remains vital to winning stronger rights and protections for working people

As STUC Congress moves to a biennial format, TOM MORRISON warns of concerns over shrinking lay power

On Workers Memorial Day, EDDIE DEMPSEY calls for immediate action on our railways to make the network safer for all

A recent Union Street blaze showed firefighters at their best, but years of underfunding and job losses are stretching the service to its limits, writes JOHN McKENZIE

Dangerous conditions and political inaction still define the salmon industry, where BFAWU is pressing hard for change, says SARAH WOOLLEY

As the STUC gathers in an election year, the message to politicians is clear – continuing managed decline is unacceptable to Scotland’s workers, says ROZ FOYER

A major new report highlights the the dire state of our prison system – and demands urgent action from government, explains PHIL FAIRLIE

SYLVIA HIKINS welcomes a survey of successful contemporary worker co-operatives and economy-based co-operative systems

Outsourcing is at the heart of inequality. Only collective unity in the trade union movement can topple the Establishment’s obsession with it, says SAM GURNEY

Campaigners and TUC welcome government consultation on non-disclosure agreements

A major conference motion calls on educators to challenge far-right narratives and confront misogyny in schools. VONNI HARDMAN explains

Austerity is breaking the education system. We must unite to save our schools and pay our teachers properly, says NEU national president ED HARLOW

Marx’s early lectures on economics, together with Engels’s additions, provide a valuable introduction to Marxist political economy today, writes the MARX MEMORIAL LIBRARY

As the far right gains ground, Fire Brigades Union members are organising in workplaces and on the streets to defend public services and workers’ rights, says STEVE WRIGHT

Green Party leader Polanski slams Chancellor Reeves' ‘unbelievably weak response’ to the ‘enormous bill hikes facing households’

As delegates from the north-east, Yorkshire & Humber meet this weekend in Durham, TUC regional secretary DAVE PIKE speaks to Ben Chacko about the challenges ahead

Changing visa rules are pushing young migrant workers into precarious work and exploitation, report NUPUR PALIWAL and SOMIHA CHATTERJEE of the Student Federation of India

Prison Officers’ Association general secretary and TUC president STEVE GILLAN looks at what’s missing from the Employment Rights Act, and why we need further legislation

MAISE RILEY looks at the roots of sexist ideology and asks how unions can organise to fight it

PHILIP ENGLISH says military spending will not create the jobs young people need — instead, build an economy based around needs, not profit

Campaign group ITF Women C190 call for a full investigation

As women dominate public services yet face pay gaps, unsafe workloads and rising misogyny, this International Women’s Day and TUC Women’s Conference must be a rallying point, says ANDREA EGAN

The TUC’s NIKKI POUND says there are gains in the Employment Rights Act for women — but there’s a hell of a lot more to fight for 

FRAN HEATHCOTE looks at the persisting inequalities women face in the Civil Service workplaces as TUC women’s conference begins

LUKE FLETCHER outlines Plaid Cymru bold plans for wide-ranging policy consultations with trade unions in Wales

The biggest strike in global history is a template for our future. The silence tells you all you need to know, writes CLAUDIA WEBBE

Cuts in Oxfordshire will not stop at the county boundary, Fire Brigades Union warns

As the RMT Health and Safety Conference takes place, the union is calling for urgent action on crisis of work-related stress, understaffing and the growing threat of workplace assaults. RMT leader EDDIE DEMPSEY explains

As assaults on transport staff rise and the Scottish Parliament heads for dissolution, promised legislation to protect rail workers has yet to materialise, says ANN HENDERSON

Dockers from Italy, Greece and beyond will stage co-ordinated port blockades on February 6, declaring ‘we don’t work for war’ – in a call in solidarity with Palestine. ALFIO BERNABEI reports

The selection, analysis and interpretation of historical ‘facts’ always takes place within a paradigm, a model of how the world works. That’s why history is always a battleground, declares the Marx Memorial Library

Megapicket to shut down Birmingham’s refuse sites

The newly catalogued News International Dispute Archive ensures the history of the Wapping dispute – and the solidarity it inspired – is preserved, accessible and alive for future generations, says MATT DUNNE

Forty years on, TONY DUBBINS revisits the Wapping dispute to argue that Murdoch’s real aim was union-busting – enabled by Thatcherite laws, police violence, compliant unions and a complicit media

The once beating heart of British journalism was undone by technological change, union battles and Murdoch’s 1986 Wapping coup – leaving London the only major capital without a press club, says TIM GOPSILL

LAURA DAVISON traces how Murdoch’s mass sackings, political deals and legal loopholes shattered collective bargaining 40 years ago – and how persistent NUJ organising, landmark court victories and new employment rights legislation are finally challenging that legacy

As advertising drains away, newsrooms shrink and local papers disappear, MIKE WAYNE argues that the market model for news is broken – and that public-interest alternatives, rooted in democratic accountability, are more necessary than ever

LOUISA BULL traces how derecognition, outsourcing and digitalisation reshaped the industry, weakened collective bargaining and created today’s precarious media workforce

Unison Scotland’s BRENDA AITCHISON says her union won’t tolerate further cuts to public services 

A handful of journalists at The Times faced a stark personal and political choice in 1986 – cross the picket lines for cash and career, or stand with organised labour at great personal risk. BARRIE CLEMENT recalls why refusing to scab at Wapping was not just an act of union loyalty, but a stand for the future of journalism

Four decades on, the Wapping dispute stands as both a heroic act of resistance and a decisive moment in the long campaign to break trade union power. Lord JOHN HENDY KC looks back on the events of 1986

Enduring myths blame print unions for their own destruction – but TONY BURKE argues that the Wapping dispute was a calculated assault by Murdoch on organised labour, which reshaped Britain’s media landscape and casts a long shadow over trade union rights today

On the 40th anniversary of the Wapping dispute, this Morning Star special supplement traces the long-planned conspiracy that led to the mass sackings of printworkers in 1986 – a struggle whose unresolved injustices still demand redress today, writes ANN FIELD

NEU members at Woodfield School in north London are taking sustained industrial action against enforced cuts to learning support assistants’ hours and pay. MARY ADOSSIDES reports

From childhood summers in a post-industrial village to midnight picket lines in Glasgow, the promise of ‘social mobility’ rings hollow for MATT KERR