Solidarity 603, 11 August 2021

Communication Workers' Union motion to London Labour Party conference 2021

It was my great pleasure to read and now comment on the three part autobiography of Dave Chapple, someone I have known for over thirty years. Dave is one of a small band of activists I met during my time as a postal workers' representative (initially in the UCW and then, following the merger with the telecoms union NCU, the CWU) whose record as a fighter for the members is exemplary. He stands alongside the likes of Judy Griffiths, Maria Exall and Phil Waker as trade unionists who in my experience always stood for a fighting union despite the immense pressure to conform. I knew Dave before I...

The Covid 19 pandemic has seen unprecedented relocation to regional north coast New South Wales. Better-off people have been leaving the capital cities, Melbourne, Sydney, and Brisbane. For some "professionals", working from home, or working primarily from home, has become a very desirable option, and more workable. In the destination areas, this has exacerbated an already overburdened housing and rental market for young people and working families. Demand has outstripped supply for both rentals and for house-purchase, though new housing is are being built at an increasing pace to try and keep...

The death on 18 July 2021 of Michel Husson means a large loss of light and sparkle in the world of discussion and debate in Marxist economics. Unlike almost anyone else today, or maybe even in history, Husson was equally at home in abstruse "Marxist high theory" debates about value and price, in hypothesising about broad epochal shifts in capital's modes of self-regulation, and in detailed everyday statistical investigations (would a cut in the working week reduce unemployment, how much, under what conditions?) His website hussonet.free.fr made available a wealth of week-by-week Marxist...