While international attention focuses on ceasefire frameworks, Israel is openly advancing plans for a permanent expansion of its control over Gaza, writes RAMZY BAROUD
Latest editorial
Matchwomen's Festival: Where it all began
The matchwomen not only fought for themselves but also for a wider vision of social justice – a proud tradition
which today’s labour movement continues, writes CHRISTINE BLOWER
Researchers PAUL HOLDEN and JESSICA MURRAY are calling for whistleblowers and documentary records to uncover how Labour Together helped build the parliamentary majority that now dominates the Labour Party
Cuba continues to embody a vision of internationalism that imperialism has never forgiven, argues ZOLTAN ZIGEDY
PCS general secretary FRAN HEATHCOTE explains why opposing war is inseparable from defending jobs, wages and public services – and why readers should come to the London Peace Conference on Saturday June 20
As protests erupt over Henry Nowak’s murder, ANDREW MURRAY argues that anger is being exploited to advance a wider racist and anti-immigration agenda
CARLOS MARTINEZ explains the sound case for car manufacturing co-operation with China
TODAY the Matchwomen’s Festival is taking place in east London. It is a celebration of a strike organised in the summer of 1888 when 1,400 women walked out over management bullying and appalling, hazardous working conditions.
The women and girls working at Bryant & May’s match factory in London’s East End paraded the streets singing songs and telling the truth about their starvation wages and mistreatment.They marched to Parliament. Their strength and solidarity won them better pay, safer conditions and the right to form the largest union of women and girls in Britain.
This was the start of trade unionism as a wider movement in defence of all workers, not just those with a craft or trade. Their fight was not just for themselves but also for their community. They gathered support from many others, building a social movement around them.
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With 170,000 children living in poverty in north-east England and teachers leaving in droves over 20 per cent real-terms pay cuts since 2010, all while private companies siphon off billions, it is time to unite and fight for education, writes MATT WRACK
BEN CHACKO reports on the struggles against sexism, racism and the brutish British state that featured at Matchwomen’s Festival this year
The Morning Star invites readers to join Jeremy Corbyn and others to celebrate a working-class female victory that echoes through the ages