Solidarity 560, 26 August 2020

This is part one of a series. For the other articles, see here . Buy our pamphlet on Saklatvala here . In 1922, sixty-five years before before Diane Abbott and three other Labour MPs of colour entered Parliament, Indian-born Shapurji Saklatvala was elected MP for Battersea North in South West London. Like some other Labour candidates more recently, Saklatvala was a bourgeois figure standing in a working-class constituency which was not his home. There the similarity ends. The first “BAME” Labour MP was a revolutionary socialist who attacked Ramsay MacDonald for failing to oppose British...

On Wednesday 19 August couriers working for Deliveroo struck in Sheffield, demanding a pay increase, sick pay, and an end to sackings from the platform without hearings or appeals. Their action almost completely shut down all delivery business for local restaurants selling food via the Deliveroo app. The strike drew support from Labour MP Olivia Blake, who sent a message to the rally: “I fully support Deliveroo workers, and all precarious workers, organising for better conditions and the right to a guaranteed living wage. For too long Deliveroo, Uber, and other employers of the platform...

The Labour Campaign for Free Movement is seeking signatures for a statement against the Tory government's moves to clamp down on asylum-seeker boats crossing the Channel. Sign here

Joey Ayoub is a Lebanese writer and activist. He spoke to Daniel Randall from Solidarity about the protest movement in Lebanon in the aftermath of the Beirut explosion. For a previous interview with Joey about the Lebanese protests, from November 2019, click here . DR: What are the implications of the recent resignation of the government? How has this been received by the protest movement? JA: This is the second resignation since the 17 October revolution. Then-prime minister Saad Hariri had resigned soon after the revolution and was replaced by Hassan Diab, who is himself now-interim prime...

The context for the election now underway for a new General Secretary for the big public-services union Unison is the destruction that governments over the last 20 years have brought on services, pay, conditions and rights at work in the public sector. Nominations are now open, and will run to 25 September. The vote-out, between candidates who get at least 25 branch nominations, will run from 28 October to 27 November, and the result will be announced on 11 January 2021. It’s right to point the finger for the destruction at the Tory and coalition administrations since 2010. But Labour, too...

The rank-and-file NHS workers’ campaign for a 15% pay rise — “NHS Workers Say No to Pay Inequality” — is heating up, with actions and events across the country from 26 August. 26 August will see workers’ rallies at hospitals and workplaces in places including Ipswich, Cambridge, Aintree, Birkenhead, Manchester, North Tees, Southend, Chelmsford, Basildon and Coventry, as well as across London. Then the first half of September will see public demonstrations in places including Plymouth, Glasgow, Newcastle, Leeds, Brighton, Bournemouth, Southend, Norwich and London - mostly on Saturday 12...

Howard Beckett (pictured, right), head of Unite the Union’s Legal Department, announced on 20 August that he will stand for election as the union’s General Secretary. In online hustings held in mid-July the millionaire solicitor had sought to win the backing of the United Left, the “Broad Left” in Unite. He lost to Assistant General Secretary Steve Turner (pictured, left). Beckett whinged that the vote had been marred by procedural deficiencies and irregularities, using the increasingly whacky Skawkbox website as his main media outlet. The United Left provided a detailed rebuttal of Beckett’s...

After nine strike days since the start of July, and a lot of vibrant campaigning, Tower Hamlets council workers are regrouping in their fight to stop the “Tower Rewards” attack on their terms and conditions. Under the anti-union laws, they need to reballot to strike again. There are rumours that the national Unison leadership, despite its public support for the dispute, is dragging its feet and insisting on drawn-out procedures that will make further action impossible for a while yet. Unison activists will push the union leaders to move faster. We can help by continuing to build support for...

For maintenance staff, the Outage [when the power plant is shut down for maintenance and repairs which can't be done while it is working] is a short, intense period of work completely unlike the rest of the year. Although our days are dominated with twelve-hour shifts for fourteen days straight, we get to sleep in our own beds and travel a normal commute home. I've managed to scavenge a Saturday off and end a few shifts early. One of the apprentices explains how he'd wanted to "opt-in" to the EU Working Time directive when he signed his contract, but our line manager had told him “If you want...

“Conditionality” for benefit claimants has been restored, which means claimants can be “sanctioned” — i.e., have their benefits revoked — for things like being late for appointments. This is a spectacularly cruel decision on the government’s part, which PCS completely opposes. At the moment, bosses are still proceeding with a light touch and often not insisting that frontline DWP staff impose conditionality. But that’s likely to change, especially as claims continue to rise. We oppose conditionality both in terms of its impact on claimants, and its use as a productivity measure to discipline...