Born on this day in 1931, the heroic revolutionary faces a dangerous new wave of White House aggression. We must treat his birthday as a rallying cry to resist the illegal siege of Cuba, writes ROGER McKENZIE
Latest editorial
Obituary Michael Hicks: 1937 to 2017
Peta Steel writes on the life of MICHAEL HICKS, 'a fervent socialist, great trade unionist, true comrade and friend'
RAMZY BAROUD decries the rats of Gaza, the rodent and human type. Both abound as profiteering from tragedy reaches obscene levels
When gas company bosses gorged on assets, the GMB union fought back with the help of a 20-stone saddleback sow. MAT COWARD tells the story
JOHN REES looks at why the June 20 international anti-war conference is such a vital initiative
ROGER McKENZIE highlights how health workers in DRC are struggling to contain a deadly Ebola outbreak in a region already suffering conflict, aid cuts and a legacy of imperialist degradation
Associate Professor BUI QUANG TUAN explains how modernisation and growth are helping to unlock new foreign investment in the Vietnamese economy
MICHAEL JOSEPH HICKS was one of the stalwarts of the trade union movement, a leading comrade who was never afraid of standing up for his beliefs; he was to spend time in prison as a result of fighting to save the jobs of his fellow print workers.
In his condolences to Hicks’s family, Labour’s shadow chancellor John McDonnell described him as “a fervent socialist, great trade unionist, true comrade and friend.”
Hicks was born in London in August 1937. His father Pat, a docker and a communist, spent six months in prison following his arrest for his part in the battle of Bermondsey against Oswald Mosley’s fascists on October 3 1937.
Similar stories
JOHN LANG recalls how Murdoch used scabbing electricians and even devised a fake newspaper to force a confrontation with printers – then sacked them all
Forty years on, TONY DUBBINS revisits the Wapping dispute to argue that Murdoch’s real aim was union-busting – enabled by Thatcherite laws, police violence, compliant unions and a complicit media
Enduring myths blame print unions for their own destruction – but TONY BURKE argues that the Wapping dispute was a calculated assault by Murdoch on organised labour, which reshaped Britain’s media landscape and casts a long shadow over trade union rights today
Charles Lubselski pays tribute to a lifelong communist and supporter of the Daily Worker and Morning Star