The ‘Solidarity with the Strikes’ march, rally and fundraiser took place on Saturday 7 January in Manchester, the latest in a long history of political protest that won us rights and helped to shape our modern democracy.
When is it illegal to strike?
In the UK, never. But it’s often unlawful. The climate strikes have highlighted the draconian British anti-union legislation and exposed confusion about the law and the consequences of striking unofficially. TUC solidarity organiser Ian Allinson explains the current legal framework – and how it needs to be changed.
Workers Can Win! A Guide to Organising At Work – Book Launch
A new book from Manchester author and activist Ian Allinson tells you everything you wanted to know about workplace organising but were afraid to ask, and some things you hadn’t even thought of.
Stop using pandemic as cover to ‘fire and rehire’, Unite warns Manchester bus company
Unite leader Len McCluskey warns Go North West parent company Go Ahead Group it risks industrial action if it continues with plans to “fire and rehire” nearly 500 Manchester bus drivers, which would see each driver lose an estimated £2,000 a year.
William Cuffay, black pioneer of the Chartist movement
Working class radicals from our past are very rarely remembered within our public sphere – there are few monuments to their feats and their personal collections feature little within the official archives. William Cuffay was one of these working class radicals, preserving no diary, autobiography or papers and his lack of wealth and power leaving only faint traces of his life to explore
March for Democracy, to honour the fallen at Peterloo and plan for future reforms
The March for Democracy, this Sunday 18 August, will pay tribute to those demanding democratic reform who were slaughtered by government forces 200 years ago at Peterloo. The rally will also look to the future, asking how we can reform democracy, to make it fit for the 21st century. It’s the bicentenary of the Peterloo […]
The Riot Act: its 23 years after Peterloo and those demanding reform are still being slaughtered
The lessons of the Peterloo Massacre have not been learned and those campaigning for reform decades later are still being slaughtered by government forces. Review of The Riot Act by Rob Johnston, performed as part of the Greater Manchester Fringe 2019. The year 1842 was one of great hardship for workers across the north west […]
Deliveroo strike Manchester: ‘the money we make per delivery is decreasing’
Deliveroo riders took to the streets of Manchester yesterday for the second time in two weeks to demand better pay and conditions. The strikes in Manchester are co-ordinated with a series of walk outs across the UK and Europe demanding better treatment of workers by the multinational food delivery service. Riders covering the Manchester centre […]
McStrike is the tip of the iceberg: unionisation is needed across the hospitality industry
Manchester’s McDonalds workers are leading the way against poor pay, working conditions, and lack of union recognition in the hospitality industry with their ‘McStrike’ on 1 May at the Oxford Rd store in the city centre. But there is still much work to be done in getting other hospitality workers to organise. The Meteor had […]