Academies suck… money and life out of our schools
A key dispute in the battle against education privatisation has been unfolding at John Roan school in Greenwich. Support staff will be on strike again next week.
Working-class strategy #HM2018
In the superb final session at the 2018 Historical Materialism Conference, Katy Fox-Hodess and Amanda Armstrong discussed how the left should relate to workers with different sorts of potential power and strengthen connections with struggles against oppression and imperialism: the structural power of workers such as dockers does not exist in isolation from the wider […]
Social reproduction, the Global Women’s Strike and the future of revolutionary theory
The final plenary at the Revenge of Everyday Life conference saw Tithi Bhattacharya and Siggie Vertommen lead a discussion on social reproduction, the Global Women’s Strike and the future of revolutionary theory.
Obituary: Jean Dorothy Parkin, 1921-2018
Brian Parkin looks back at the life of his mother, Jean Dorothy Parkin, who passed away on 14th November.
Notes From Below: Workers’ Inquiries #HM2018
Ian Allinson reports from Historical Materialism conference on the Notes From Below project
What strategy for labour in the US? #HM2018
Ian Allinson reports from a debate at the Historical Materialism Conference about strategy for the US labour movement, with useful lessons for the UK.
We are working women and we make Glasgow
The strike that began today (Tuesday 23 October 2018) in Glasgow may be the biggest equal pay strike in UK history. Pete Cannell reports on Day One. Thanks to Christine, Mike and Eric for their contributions to the report. The two-day strike for equal pay involves more than 8,000 Glasgow council workers, members of the GMB and […]
US prison strike: the slaves rebel
The heroic strike action of prisoners in the United States highlights the potential for revolt among America’s modern-day slave population
Experimenting on our kids: academisation and its discontents
Staff are taking strike action against the academisation of their school in Greenwich. Their next strike days are on Wednesday 11 and Thursday 12 July, when GMB staff will be joining their striking NEU colleagues. Below is a video of a speech given by Howard Stevenson at a previous strike rally. Introduced by Andy Stone, Joint Secretary, Wandsworth […]
Leaders, leaders, leaders and leaders
Unite the Union activist Ian Allinson discusses the different connotations of the word ‘leader’.
Three days that shook the UCU leadership
Rank-and-file university workers are pushing UCU’s leadership in a bid for democracy, accountability and a fighting union
The death of irony at UCU congress
At the heart of the fight is the question of who controls the union: the officials or the membership?
50 years from May ‘68, students in France are mobilising again
France is again in the midst of a wave of intense social action, with universities disrupted for months and mass arrests in Mayday protests.
Music as a force for change: an interview with Redskins’ Martin Hewes
An interview with Martin Hewes of the Redskins, to some the true inheritors of the Clash’s crown as the radical rockers
University picket lines – a place of learning
Footage from Goldsmiths college picket line where staff and students talk about their experience of striking so far.
Video: what is rank-and-file trade unionism?
Ian Allinson looks at rank-and-file worker organisation – the alternative to a reliance on bureaucrats to cut deals with management.
Read the new bulletin on the UCU strike!
Introducing USS Strike Bulletin, a collaborative online project exploring the bigger questions around neoliberalism in Higher Education.
Update: what’s new in the UCU strike?
We look at the latest developments in the wave of strikes that has taken employers by surprise across the higher education system.
UCU strike: dispatches from the picket line
Striking academic workers and their student supporters report on the ongoing nationwide action in defence of pensions.
A critical week lies ahead in the West Virginia teachers’ strike
The West Virginia teachers’ strike marks the return of the mass strike to the US in 2018.
revolutionary reflections | The Roberts-Arundel strike
A never-before-seen pamphlet dating from 1968 tells the fascinating true story of the Stockport Roberts-Arundel textile strike.
“We have to fight this”: interview with a striking lecturer
The strike action beginning next Thursday will be one of the largest ever in UK Higher Education.
On the picket line at Picturehouse
Workers at cinema chain Picturehouse went on strike this weekend as part of their campaign for the London Living Wage.
How capital is reshaping the battleground of class war
Kim Moody’s new book seeks to rethink our understanding of capitalism today, and how workers can respond.
Against the academy: parents and teachers protest primary school conversion
OpenEye Film met the Avenue primary school parents fighting the conversion of the school into an academy.
Report: work-in by engineers looks to save jobs at BiFab
Pete Cannell and Willie Black report on the battle in defence of workers’ jobs at Scottish engineering firm BiFab.
Video: Charlton Park Academy picket line 17th October 2017
Tony Aldis and Colin Revolting speak to GMB members at Charlton Park Academy on strike defending equal sick pay for all staff.
Video: Charlton Park School strike public meeting
Watch a short extract of a public meeting to explain the strike action and to organise support for these workers under attack.
#McStrike: Lively pickets and London rally mark first UK McDonald’s strike
Mitch Mitchell reports from the Cambridge picket lines and London rally of McDonald’s workers taking strike action for the first time.