Fownhope’s Heart of Oak Society traces its roots to the age of friendly societies, when communities provided their own safety net. Its anniversary celebrations reveal a tradition still very much alive, says MARK SEDDON
Latest editorial
Trade unions, the working class and our fight against neoliberalism
Nothing has ever been handed on a plate to workers — we have always fought industrially to gain these rights, says DENISE CHRISTIE
FBU Scotland regional secretary Denise Christie
ANGUS REID explains the significance of Cuba’s egalitarian in letter and spirit Family Code and the pertinent lessons it holds for democracies anywhere in the world
Special report by PEOPLE’S WORLD
NICK WRIGHT considers how the isolation of Israel and a new film on the controversial Italian communist leader are creating new reference points for Italy’s left
CARLOS MARTINEZ says Cuba’s achievements in the face of a criminal blockade are startling, but the island’s future if the United States succeeds in crushing it looks bleak
AMNON BROWNFIELD STEIN reports that far-right MPs who mobbed the event organised by Hadash may have helped raise awareness of the brutality of the Israeli right
AS WE commence the debates at the 122nd annual STUC Congress, the highest body of the trade union movement in Scotland, it is an appropriate juncture to discuss the great things trade unions have done for the working class and also recognise our responsibilities in the fight against neoliberalism.
Historically, trade unions are a big reason that the working class won many of the protections and rights we now rightfully have.
Health and safety, an end to child labour, equal pay for women (although the fights still continue), shorter working hours, a “living wage,” campaigns to end bullying and harassment, maternity rights, holiday pay etc, have all been won by ordinary working people withdrawing their labour.
Similar stories
Four decades on, the Wapping dispute stands as both a heroic act of resistance and a decisive moment in the long campaign to break trade union power. Lord JOHN HENDY KC looks back on the events of 1986
Working-class women lead the fight for fair work and equitable pay and against sexual harassment, the rise of the far right and years of failed austerity policies, writes ROZ FOYER
Ben Chacko talks to RMT leader EDDIE DEMPSEY about how the key to fixing broken Britain lies in collective sectoral bargaining, restoring unions’ ability to take solidarity strike action and bringing about the much-vaunted ‘wave of insourcing’
Ahead of next year’s parliamentary elections, ROZ FOYER warns that a bold tax policy is needed to rebuild devastated public services which can serve as the foundation of a strong, fair economy