The left must begin a process of rebuilding the movement and discussing how to create a revolutionary alternative, argues Chris Strafford The economic crisis and the austerity agenda has thrown the working class into largely defensive actions. The trade union leadership has crucially undermined any serious fightback and is offering only token resistance. We have a ...
Callum Williamson looks forward to the biggest demonstration of working class power for decades There are obvious reasons why students should support striking workers (many of whom work in education) this Wednesday. On the specific issue of pensions, it is clearly not in the interests of the working class majority - of which most students are ...
On Sunday October 2 over 35,000 workers, students, pensioners and anti-cuts campaigners marched outside the Conservative Party conference. This is a sizeable increase from the 7,000 demonstrators at last year’s conference, underlining the growing, yet still sluggish, moves to resist the austerity measures. The conference itself was ringed by steel walls, barricades and hundreds of ...
With the RMT and TSSA moving towards a merger, Chris Strafford calls for democratic unity from below in the workers' movement (first published here) “While the railway companies are thus combining their forces, and consolidating their interests, railwaymen have allowed their forces to be split into innumerable sections ...”[1] This warning comes from the May 1911 ...
Dave Isaacson reports on the July 9 conference of COR and the limits of the anti-cuts campaigns (first published in the Weekly Worker) Following on just after a week from the impressive strikes by the PCS, NUT, ATL and UCU unions on June 30, you would have thought that the Coalition of Resistance’s second national conference was ...
Ben Lewis attended a workshop on 'Unions and the anti-cuts movement' (first published in the Weekly Worker) It is a shame that the discussion at the workshop on ‘Unions and the anti-cuts movement’ was so brief. Following interesting openings from Joe Malone (Fire Brigades Union), Cat Boyd (Public and Commercial Services Young Members) and Jon Duveen ...
Rank and file pressure must be brought to bear not only within the unions, writes Michael Copestake, but on the Labour leadership too The June 30 strikes involving up to 750,000 public sector workers may only have been for one day, and may only have involved unaffiliated unions, but they gave the Labour tops much pain ...
Hopefully it will be a rather hot autumn, writes Ben Lewis (first published in the Weekly Worker) The June 30 London demonstration, which made its way from Lincoln’s Inn Fields, through Parliament Square and down to Westminster Abbey, was a lot bigger than I expected. An estimated 30,000 striking workers hit the streets. In terms of ...
Next time, coordinated strike action by millions, writes Dave Isaacson (first published here) The strikes in Milton Keynes showed signs of the potential for involving wider layers of workers in future action. Many onlookers were enthusiastic in their support. Along with other members of the Coalition of Resistance, I visited a number of the PCS union’s picket ...
Unions must reject the terms of debate established by government, media, and Labour opposition, argues Michael Copestake So the June 30 strikes are upon us, with four teaching and civil service trade unions out on strike against the vicious class-war cuts programme of the coalition government. Although this initial action should be seen as more of ...
Three CPGB members, two also members of Communist Students attended the Friday June 17th rally organised by the Sheffield Anti-Cuts Alliance (SACA), where rebellious Labour MP John McDonnell was the keynote speaker. Over 150 people turned out, and it was one of those rare occasions when most of the Marxist left in Sheffield could be ...
Ben Lewis looks forward to a bold show of mass opposition to austerity on June 30 (first published in the Weekly Worker) On Tuesday May 24 the consultancy firm, MM&K, and the electronic voting agency, Manifest, published a report which exposed the harsh reality and twisted logic of capitalism in crisis. At a time ...
Tuesday 22nd and Thursday 24th saw a nationwide strike by lecturers from the UCU union protesting attacks on their pensions and higher education. Here at Manchester Metropolitan University members of Communist Students were at the picket lines on Thursday morning, to show solidarity with lecturers in their ongoing struggle against management. The MET, being a ...