“REMEMBER the past, fight for your future,” is — as it is every year — the rallying cry at Derby’s annual Silk Mill Festival.
Derby’s Silk Mill Festival marks the year-long struggle of Derby and Derwent Valley silk mill workers from 1833-34, against oppressive and ruthless owners and managers who routinely ripped off their already low-paid workers through spurious pay cuts — and denied them trade union rights with the threat of instant dismissal.
Does this sound familiar 190 years on?
The bard invites readers to a gig, raps for Clacton, and lays out the Burnham-Hurzeler conundrum
STEVE GILLAN says working-class communities know that solidarity is not a slogan — it is a necessity
The General Strike exposed the power of the working class — and the limits of its leadership, writes Dr DYLAN MURPHY
Since 2023, Strike Map has evolved from digital mapping at a national level to organising ‘mega pickets’ — we believe that mass solidarity with localised disputes prepares the ground for future national action, writes HENRY FOWLER


