The Milburn review presents itself as a plan to help young people into work, but Dr DYLAN MURPHY argues it is laying the groundwork for a harsher benefits regime
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Rail workers and WWI
Brian Denny looks at the lasting effects of the first world war on rail workers
Campaigners from across the continent will gather in Brussels on June 14 to oppose Europe’s accelerating militarisation and cuts to public services, write MAGGIE SIMPSON and BOB ORAM of No Cold War Britain
National co-ordinator for General Strike 100, HENRY FOWLER, continues his nationwide tour of partner organisations by visiting the Modern Records Centre at Warwick University
GEOFF BOTTOMS recalls meeting Fidel Castro in the ’90s after joining a Pastors for Peace caravan to Cuba, and reflects on how international support is still vital to help the island withstand economic warfare
The Ivors Academy’s hike in entry fees could turn this respected peer-assessed event into an exclusive preserve for those wealthy enough to compete, warns BEN LUNN
Peter Murrell’s weakness for the allure of prestige goods is symptomatic of modern consumer culture, says MATT KERR
One May evening in 1916 a National Union of Railwaymen (NUR) member, whose name is lost to history, was walking along a station platform on the outskirts of London when he noticed a hastily scribbled note.
It had been thrown from the window of a train heading for Southampton by one of 17 conscientious objectors (COs), conscripts who were refusing to fight in the trenches of World War I, warning that they were being taken to France to face military discipline and possibly the firing squad.
The quick-thinking NUR member contacted the No-Conscription Fellowship which was mounting a vigorous campaign against the punishment of COs, known as conchies, following the introduction of the Military Service Act the previous March which brought in conscription for the first time in British military history.
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The General Strike exposed the power of the working class — and the limits of its leadership, writes Dr DYLAN MURPHY
MARY DAVIS welcomes a remarkable documentary about the general strike — politically spot on, and featuring accounts from the strikers themselves — that is available for screenings
On the eve of the 157th Trades Union Congress, MICK WHELAN, general secretary of Aslef, the train drivers’ union, celebrates victory in his campaign to get dignity for drivers at work
This strike is about pay and conditions, says CAMERON HARRISON – but it also shows workers have the power to disrupt the mightiest war machine on Earth