Making sense of the continuing low level of strike activity in the UK takes on greater urgency with the publication of provisional figures for 2017. These show record lows—by some margin—for two of the three main indicators: number of strikes… Continue Reading
From the early summer to the early winter of 2017 several industrial action campaigns were making the news, both nationally and at more regional and local levels. Rail workers employed by Mersey Rail, Northern Rail and Southern Rail were mounting… Continue Reading
The question of organising the unorganised is an incredibly broad one, engulfing lessons from historical experience in the trade union movement, as well as deeply ideological arguments on the nature of the working class today. But it’s important to note… Continue Reading
The debate around orientations for revolutionaries in the unions today is the result of an uncomfortable but inescapable fact: the level of trade union struggle has remained historically low for 20 years.1 This is true whether we are considering working… Continue Reading
The crucial problem revolutionary socialists in Britain are confronted with at the moment in relation to trade unionism is the big gap that exists between the level of workers’ anger at austerity and employers’ attacks on the one hand, and… Continue Reading
The last few weeks of 2013 saw three important events in the life of the radical left in Britain-the defeat suffered by workers at the Grangemouth oil refining and chemicals complex in Scotland, the founding conference of Left Unity, and… Continue Reading
Introduction Since the onset of the economic crisis that followed the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008, governments across the world have attempted to implement policies that try to stabilise capitalism. In Britain these attacks have focused on the welfare… Continue Reading
With over 1.4 million members, Unite is Britain’s biggest union, representing more than a fifth of all trade unionists in the UK. A mainly private sector union, it is also well represented in parts of the public sector—local government, the… Continue Reading
The mass strike of 30 November 2011 has opened a new chapter in British working class history. Around 2.5 million people joined what was the biggest strike in Britain since 1926.1 In every town and city large parts of the… Continue Reading
The past has been A mint of blood and sorrow – That must not be True of tomorrow. 1 From appeasement to coordinated strike action Langston Hughes wrote the short poem “History” ,just as the US labour movement rose like… Continue Reading