Unions & politics

Trade Unions and politics

Firefighters issue new manifesto

Nearly a thousand firefighters rallied at Westminster on 1 November to make political demands about the fire and rescue service. The FBU launched its Firefighters’ Manifesto, pulling together its assessment of the state of fire and rescue and the union’s main demands on central government. The past 20 years have devastated the fire and rescue service. The so-called “modernisation” reforms imposed by New Labour and accelerated by Tory-led governments since 2010 have worsened the service in every respect. Ministers removed national standards, including fire cover, which has led to slower...

Tories back down on ticket offices

On 31 October the government announced it would scrap plans to close every rail ticket office in England. This is a significant victory for the rail unions, passengers, and disabled and accessibility campaigners. Despite the government and the Train Operating Companies (TOCs) arguing that modernisation and reform of the railway meant complete closure, a popular and large-scale campaign with over 750,000 responding to the consultation has defeated the plan. Transport Focus and London Travelwatch reported they were against the plan, and the government said that the alternative plans drawn up by...

The New Section 28

The government is due to release guidance for schools around trans pupils, but it has been repeatedly delayed due to concerns it will not comply with the 2010 Equalities Act. What was initially meant to be advice for single-sex schools regarding the legality of refusing to admit trans pupils, now looks to be much wider ranging and incredibly alarming for trans youth and school staff. The guidance is likely to compel schools to inform parents if a child discloses that they are trans or questioning their gender; to establish the need for parental consent for a child to socially transition or...

How Bermondsey's women joined the great unrest

“Wild factory girls… half-drunk and yelling the lowest music hall songs, and dancing like wild creatures”. So said the Bermondsey Parish magazine in 1900. Such sententious accounts of young working-class women’s behaviour were widespread as women gained limited independence through factory work. In the workplace they were seen as “cheap and docile labour”, and in the trade union movement they were largely invisible. Will Thorne, a leading trade unionist at the time, declared that “women do not make good trade unionists.” And yet, the young factory women of Bermondsey, in the hot August of 1911...

Unite: industrial advances yet to feed into politics

The big general union Unite has won a string of disputes in the private sector during the 2022-3 strike wave, and is arguably regenerating parts of its industrial organisation. The 11-14 July 2023 Unite Policy Conference — it’s biennial, so this was the first since the end of the lockdowns and Sharon Graham’s election as general secretary (August 2021) — illustrated how that does not automatically feed through into effective working-class politics. One very positive development is the emergence of the Unite Grassroots Climate Justice Caucus . Although it lacks roots in the crucial high...

After NPF, make unions fight back!

The 21-23 July meeting of Labour’s National Policy Forum was its first full pre-election gathering since 2014 (supposedly because 2017 and 2019 were snap elections). It’s tricky to report on it in any detail, given a dearth of solid information. For sure the Labour Party leadership is doubling down on its existing course — right-wing, anti-democratic and dishonest. They should face rebellion at Labour Party conference (8-11 October, Liverpool) and beyond, and Labour’s affiliated trade unions should lead it. At the NPF Starmer and co. pushed hard to take the party further to the right not just...

Agitate for socialism!

The working-class movement is on an uphill journey. The latest official (Certification Officer) statistics on union membership, published 6 July, are thankfully out of date, but sobering. Between December 2019 and December 2020, union membership rose a bit. Between December 2020 and December 2021, it fell a bit, despite lockdowns and work-from-home beginning to fade. The figures depend on unions compiling returns at their year-ends (mostly December 2021, a few as late as September 2022) and sending them in. Even now, the result is incomplete because Unite the Union has done no report since...

North Sea: fight for the workers’ plan

As we enter another hot summer and emissions hit an all-time high, the Labour leadership sought headlines with a series of feeble announcements on environmental policy. Labour’s policies are an improvement compared to the denialists in charge of the Tory party, but far too timid as an answer to the ecological crisis. Rank-and-file offshore workers and environmentalist groups have published a set of demands for a worker-led just transition. The Our Power report calls for a wage guarantee and an offer of free retraining for workers made redundant as the oil fields are decommissioned. But at the...

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