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≫ Workers’ control! ≫ Isolation pay for all ≫ Requisition industry for PPE and tests ≫ Union control over workplace assessments Workers, and our unions, need to get out in front of any discussion or planning by the bosses to begin to reopen workplaces and bring workers back to work. We need to put...

On the evidence, Britain is not yet ready for experiments in easing the lockdown. As of 1 May, the seven-day moving average of daily deaths from the virus is only 20-odd per cent down from its peak around 13 April. By contrast, Spain, Germany, Denmark, and Austria are all about 50% down from peaks...

Dave Prentis, general secretary of the public services union Unison, joined a May Day virtual rally called on 1 May by Tower Hamlets Unison, over “Tower Rewards”. That is a plan to reduce workers’ conditions to minimum “green book” standards, by way of sacking them all and re-employing them on new...

Momentum Internationalists is a platform launched by supporters of Labour for a Socialist Europe to promote left-wing, class-struggle, pro-democracy and internationalist ideas in the big Labour left grouping Momentum as part of the debates around the coming elections for Momentum’s National...

As part of its lockdown, Australia has banned entry to everyone other than citizens, and compelled returning citizens to quarantine for 14 days in a hotel before going home. Now Kristina Kenneally, immigration spokesperson of the opposition Labor Party, has picked up on that to call for the...

The pandemic, and the fall-off in international student fees which will come as a consequence, has tipped an already unsustainable model of university expansion into crisis. It will speed up marketisation, and bring on cuts harder and faster than they would have come before. The government has...

The statement calling for Labour and the unions to fight to delay Brexit, promoted by Labour for a Socialist Europe, has now been signed by over 350 party and union activists. Probably for a mix of reasons, this is not (yet) an issue figuring prominently in most left-wingers’ consciousness....

Seamus Milne — Stalinist, Brexit-supporter, and anti-democratic political manipulator — has departed as Labour’s director of communications. His replacement in the £100,000 a year job is very different, but not an improvement. Keir Starmer’s new appointment Ben Nunn is a conservative “political...

Ben Selby, a Fire Brigades Union activist in the East Midlands and a member of the FBU’s national Executive Council, spoke to Sacha Ismail. I think it’s fair to say no one in the labour movement was particularly prepared for the impact of Covid-19. It didn’t help we were licking our wounds after the...

A giant Chinese company, BYD, known for employing Ugyhur forced labour has converted one of its factories into the world’s biggest respirator-mask factory, and has won big contracts in California. The BYD subsidiary which runs that factory is registered in the British Virgin Islands tax-haven. We...

Socially distanced picket line by Royal Mail workers. Since the Covid-19 crisis hit, many workers, including those working in hospitals, libraries, construction and in the postal service, have taken unofficial industrial action to stand up for themselves and for safety. In the face of a government...

A specialist nurse who has worked with patients in both hospitals and care homes responds to our briefing on social care in Solidarity 544. What’s happening at the moment in care homes has thrown a spotlight on how they operate. A lot of the problems now running wild were already problems, but with...

The New Economics Foundation has published a report (see here ) supporting the London Renters’ Union for a cancellation of rent and mortgage payments (the NEF says for three months). The NEF finds that as early as 9 April residential tenants were paying less than half their rent bills. “Low income...

On Tuesday 28 April, Tim Roache, general secretary of the big GMB union, which organises in many different sectors, stepped down, just months after his re-election. He cited ill-health. On Wednesday, following the circulation of an anonymous letter to press outlets, GMB issued a statement: “GMB...

The National Education Union has produced five tests for the reopening of schools. They are: much lower numbers of cases; a national plan for social distancing; comprehensive access to regular testing for staff and pupils; a commitment to testing a whole school when a case occurs; and the option for...

Some trade-unionists have suggested swab-testing of all workers in each workplace before a return to work. The Tory government’s focus on the crude total of test numbers as the big thing has boosted this idea. Full isolation pay for those with symptoms, or identified as contacts of virus-sufferers,...

The Safe and Equal campaign continues to grow. Through using stickers with QR codes outside nursing homes, social media, and phone-banking our new online sign-ups, every week we are making contact with more workers who want to support our political campaign and organise a fight at work. A letter to...

Tom Zagoria, Labour Homelessness Campaign activist, told Solidarity : “Virtually every local authority is reporting that for every rough sleeper they house, more new rough sleepers come onto the streets after losing their income, or being unable to stay in overcrowded accommodation during the...

As governments and tech companies tout digital contact tracing as a way out of coronavirus lockdown, many experts and privacy campaigners are expressing scepticism. They worry these systems may do little to help contain outbreaks but could usher in unprecedented mass surveillance. So, what are the...

This week access to the control room and the manager’s offices is more restricted. Lack of contact with Ops and the assistants means no information about bin wagon drivers is coming through to us, although the email from the union suggests drivers are almost at breaking point: “We have requested an...