Third Camp Marxism

Justine Canady spoke (alongside Eric Lee) at the London Workers' Liberty forum on 31 January 2020 about "Feeling the Bern".

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Articles include: The longer the picket line, the shorter the strike; See the Four Fights through; Link up with the climate strikes!; Workers and students unite.

The International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU), arguably one of the most militant unions in the U.S., has been hit with a union-busting $93.6 million dollar court-imposed fine for a secondary boycott deemed illegal under the 1947 Taft-Hartley Act.

For the last four years members of the Socialist Workers’ Party have fought militantly AGAINST the National Union of Teachers (NUT) and then the National Education Union (NEU) balloting its members to boycott SATs and the other high-stakes test in primary schools.

The United Voices of the World union (UVW) is planning a demonstration at St. George’s University in Tooting, south London, on Thursday 20 February.

UVW members working as outsourced security guards at the university, which is linked to an NHS hospital, have been striking to win greater parity with directly employed staff. Their picket lines have been subject to repeated attempts by the police, working in obvious collusion with the NHS Trust and the workers’ employer, Noonan, to break them up. UVW lawyer Franck Magennis was arrested, before being released without charge.

The violence of the Syrian civil war has resurged again, as fighting intensifies in, around, and for the city of Idlib.

According to the United Nations over 830,000 people have been displaced by the Syrian government’s attack on Idlib since December, with 143,000 from the last few days. The severe lack of resources for overcrowded refugee camps has been made much worse by subfreezing weather, and breakdowns in food distribution.

The strike at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office is rock solid. The strike will continue through to the end of February over our demand for union recognition.

There have been lively pickets every day, and we’ve had good support from those from other unions. The strike has become a significant feature on the labour movement map of London. Strikers from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office also attended the “Trade Union Bloc” on the 14 February youth climate strike, which was organised by our branch at the Department of Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy (BEIS).

Council pay: unions must move now

The local government unions (Unison, GMB and Unite) have rejected a 2% offer in response to their claim for 10% and £10 per hour starting salary (as well as an extra day’s leave, a two-hour reduction in the working week, and action on workplace stress).

The National Education Union (NEU) in Tower Hamlets, East London, won an important success on 13 February.

Under pressure from the NEU and the wider labour movement, the local council withdrew a legal challenge aimed at derailing a strike ballot.

On 22 January NEU launched a formal strike ballot in opposition to plans by the council to impose detrimental changes to terms and conditions without consultation with the union. Unison are also planning to ballot. The changes would significantly reduce redundancy payments for teachers and impose new contracts on support staff.

On Wednesday 19 February 2020, the Financial Times reported that Andrew Murray had resigned from his job in the Labour Party "Leader's Office". We should beware, though. If it's good that Murray and maybe Milne are going, it doesn't follow that their replacements will be good.