Solidarity 603, 11 August 2021

On Friday 31 July the US Congress had failed to extend its about-to-expire evictions ban, and Joe Biden said there was nothing he could do. Then left-wing Missouri congresswoman Cori Bush galvanised protests by camping out on the Capitol steps. She was widely attacked, and not just on the right. A liberal newspaper in her city, St Louis, sneered that Bush “clearly misunderstands the complicated process” involved. The protests won. On 3 August the Biden administration introduced a new ban, until at least 3 October. Bush, who is from a poor background and worked as a nurse until her election...

“I should have come in on the local really”, says another driver, as I stand on a platform. “He’s routed me here because I’m early but it doesn’t really make sense. I thought I’d get cancelled but there are gaps going west. If you get the stick [signal] first I’ll ask them [the passengers] to go across to you, alright?” “That’s fine”. But as I look at the next train coming in, I can see it isn’t mine. “You’ll need to tell him that, I must be the one behind”. “Bollocks, has he got the stick?” He looks up, yeah he has. “Right, I’ll tell them to get over”. I reckon I will be here for the next 5...

The telecoms leadership of the Communication Workers’ Union (CWU) has totally capitulated in the “Count Me In” campaign. They have let CWU members in BT and EE down massively. The union has agreed a “framework” for future talks that (with a Kafkaesque twist) is an “agreement” to have future agreements. It has been presented as this because doing so avoids the basic demands of union democracy. The reality is they have totally given in on pay, jobs and future grading. There is to be no ballot on this framework agreement despite BT openly calling it an agreement and the Union and BT saying...

Tragically, fires in garment factories are not new. The one constant is the culpability of the owners (see Solidarity 601 ). One of the most infamous fires broke out at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in New York on 25 March 1911. Most of the 146 victims were female immigrants, mainly Italian and Jewish. The youngest was only 14. The cause of the fire is not known. All exits and safety doors were locked, but an inquest acquitted the owners. The Triangle Factory Fire Scandal is a 1979 TV-film directed by Mel Stuart, distributed in the USA by NBC and available on YouTube. It proved a major...

As expected the elections for the National Executive Committee (NEC) and Industrial Executives of the Communications Workers’ Union (CWU) have resulted in the maintenance of the status quo. All those seeking re-election won, and the small number of genuine left candidates were soundly defeated. The strength of the HQ bureaucracy is evidenced by the fact that Norman Candy, who was previously PA to General Secretary Dave Ward, got the retired members seat on the NEC unopposed. The only small glimmer of light is that the equality seats brought some new candidates in, but this will be an NEC that...

A month-long selective strike (2-31 August) at the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) complex in Swansea has begun as we move towards the expiry of the current ballot mandate. The dispute was triggered by management’s insistence that far higher numbers of workers than we deemed safe continued to come into work during the pandemic, but the campaign has taken on a wider focus on workplace safety and an authoritarian style of management more generally. The new ballot will begin in the coming months, and we’ll campaign to ensure we exceed the required thresholds. Outsourced workers in the...

Morad Shirin of the Iranian Revolutionary Marxists' Tendency and the Shahrokh Zamani Action Campaign spoke to us about the current wave of workers' struggles in Iran. Could you say something about what the current protests involves and represents? What issues are being protested about? Which workers are taking part? Are there strikes? In the past year there have been many hundreds of strikes and struggles: from teachers, nurses, municipal workers, doctors and medical staff, to transport workers (bus, metro and train network), to the food industry and even different mines, heavy industry, oil...

Many Constituency Labour Parties (CLPs) are yet to decide their motions to Labour Party conference (25-29 September in Brighton) at meetings in August or more likely in early September. Many will have decided in July, and rule-change proposals were in by 11 June. Workers’ Liberty is pushing the 'Build Back Fairer: Fight Poverty and Inequality' motion submitted by Momentum Internationalists and backed by Momentum, about a plan for rebuilding the workers’ movement and society on a more equal basis in the pandemic and its wake. We’re also pushing a motion on solidarity with the Uyghur people...

Over August-September the health unions will be organising consultative ballots on the 3% pay offer for health workers. Unison’s email to members says that the 3% rise doesn’t increase pay to anyone unless Band 8C or above; that it increases the pay gap between highest and lowest paid workers in the NHS; and that it “does not embed the real Living Wage as a minimum”. Therefore, says Unison, it cannot recommend that members accept the offer. The union leadership, however, falls short of a positive campaign to reject and go for industrial action. Unison’s consultation closes on 10 Sept. The...