Nurses strike back against attack on pay
Nurses and health workers are fighting back on pay – and kicking off a battle to defend our health and care services
A chance to change our unions?
rs21 members in Unite discuss the significance of the coming General Secretary election, what workers need from a candidate and how we can use the process to campaign for the unions we need.
NHS workers facing redundancy in a pandemic
While Matt Hancock was clapping for NHS workers, plans were going ahead to make a large group of them redundant.
Zero Covid-19: what we can do
Current UK Government strategy, unchecked, would mean thousands of avoidable deaths in the coming months. It doesn’t have to be that way.
Fighting for the NHS: victory in Wales
The Tories may clap, but they had brought the NHS to its knees before Covid-19. The campaign to save an A&E in South Wales shows how communities can defeat cuts and role back austerity.
Anti-racism and rebuilding union strength
Liverpool dockers fought a valiant campaign in the 1990s to defend their jobs from an anti-union crackdown. Now they are rebuilding their union with fighting and internationalist traditions.
50 years after the Equal Pay Act
Money can’t buy you love – but it does pay the bills. Fifty years after the Equal Pay Act, women are still fighting for equal pay. What lessons we can now learn from the Covid-19 pandemic?
Johnson’s 1 June plans in tatters – how do we build our strength?
Rob Owen argues that the NEU has won a convincing, but not complete, victory over the government and addresses how we develop workplace organisation in the coming weeks.
Educators meet the challenge
Education workers have shown creativity and determination in embracing virtual organising methods to strengthen their opposition to the government’s wider reopening of schools.
Video: Not safe to return to school or work
The government is trying to force people back to unsafe schools and workplaces. Parents, school students and workers are resisting.
Why schools can’t ‘reopen’ until safe
Rob Owen explains why teachers, not ministers, must be central to judging how and when it’s safe to return.
Report: ‘They were human, not heroes’ – International Workers’ Memorial Day 2020
28 April is International Workers’ Memorial Day. In 2020, people across the country and the world mourned those who died of coronavirus due to the lack of PPE in their workplaces.
Overdue! A just transition for Scotland
As convergent crises confront the North Sea oil and gas industry with its rapid demise, the need for a just transition for Scottish workers is more urgent than ever.
Remember the dead – fight like hell for the living!
Turn International Workers’ Memorial Day on Tuesday 28 April into a powerful cry of grief and rage. The government hasn’t called a day of national mourning – we must make our own.
Postal workers in the COVID-19 crisis
Postal workers have been let down again by the suspension of strike action, and by the inadequate protection from coronavirus. The example of workers who have walked out on safety grounds should be generalised.
Covid-19: The ‘China’ narratives and Chinese workers
The workers who built China’s emergency hospitals are missing from the dominant narratives about China and the Covid-19 pandemic, writes Hsiao-Hung Pai.
The Scottish general strike of 1820
Pete Cannell recounts the first general strike in the history of capitalism.
Interview: Dealing with the mess
Junior Doctor Stacey Williams speaks about the prospects for organising to defend lives and the NHS through the coronavirus crisis.
Strikes in the time of coronavirus
How can workers respond to the unfolding coronavirus crisis, without forfeiting our collective power? A UCU member reflects. Originally published on Notes from Below.
Organising in response to COVID-19
As criticism of the UK government’s response to the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic mounts, rs21 members highlight the flourishing grassroots responses that aim to provide support and to demand more effective action from government and employers
Acting on COVID-19
With cases of the pandemic rising rapidly, we cannot rely on government or business to put health before profits. rs21 members have produced a set of actions and demands to campaign around and a summary of the safety legislation can allow workers to take action or leave work.
Film review: The Plan that Came from the Bottom Up
Steve Sprung’s retelling of the story of the Lucas Plan provides an inspiring lesson in how workers might build a sustainable future for all, writes Zareen Taj.
Statement: Students stage occupations at 11 UK universities in support of UCU staff
Students occupy buildings at eleven UK universities in support of striking staff.
Report from the #FeministPickets
Last week we republished the call from Women’s Strike Assembly for feminists to link up with the current higher education strikes. rs21 members report from the #FeministPickets
A crucial week for the university strikes
With negotiations reportedly going well, but the current wave of strikes ending alongside the climate strikes on Friday, rs21 members explain why this is a crucial week and explore some of the debates among strikers.
Feminists to the pickets!
The Women’s Strike Assembly are calling for feminists to link up with the current higher education strikes and organise feminist pickets on Monday 9 March 2020.
University strikes escalate from Monday
UCU and EIS members are briefly returning to work before escalating their strike on Monday. rs21 reports from the higher education strike around Britain.
Solidarity needs rebuilding, urgently
The university strikes provide an opportunity to relearn traditions of collective solidarity which strengthen both the strikers and those giving solidarity.
University strikes resume: day 1
The latest wave of strikes for pensions, pay, equality and against casualization and unsafe workloads began today (20 February 2020). We bring you some initial reports.