UK: ‘Strikes work – that’s why the Tories fear them’

Bakers’ union leader Ronnie Draper addresses the Aslef conference

Morning Star | May 23, 2018

 

McDonald’s workers organised by the BFAWU union striking on May Day. The union’s leader Ronnie Draper addressed the Aslef conference

THE Tories have made it difficult for workers to take industrial action because strikes work, bakers’ union leader Ronnie Draper said today.

Addressing the annual conference of train drivers’ union Aslef, the Bakers, Food & Allied Workers’ Union (BFAWU) general secretary said: “People say strikes don’t work. I don’t believe that. Four years ago we had the Hovis strike in Wigan.

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UK: Why we are prepared to strike

by Mark Serwotka

Morning Star | May 23, 2018

Photo: Andy Aitchison/PCS

Today, delegates at the PCS annual conference in Brighton overwhelmingly backed an industrial action ballot of our members across the Civil Service and other related organisations.

This means 150,000 workers could walk out this summer, if the government doesn’t change its tune on pay.

May Day 2018: Exploitation, NO! Expropriation, NO! Unite for Justice!

Interview of Monthly Review analysts

by Farooque Chowdhury

Countercurrents.org | April 30, 2018

In view of the historic May Day, May 1^st, analysts from Monthly Review, the famous independent socialist magazine, identify tasks the working classes should press with. In the following interviews, conducted in early-April, John Bellamy Foster, Professor and Editor of Monthly Review; Fred Magdoff, Professor Emeritus, and one of Monthly Review’s closest associates; and Michael D. Yates, Professor Emeritus and Associate Editor of Monthly Review, provide answers (presented in alphabetical order) to a number of questions as well as slogans to be raised by the working classes on May Day in 2018. (Monthly Review’s Associate Editor R. Jamil Jonna’s contribution in putting the interviews into final shape is thankfully acknowledged.) The interviews, conducted for MR Online, by Farooque Chowdhury, have been translated into Baanglaa and presented in a booklet for distribution on May Day.

#1Mayo: There is no force more powerful than unity

Granma | April 30, 2018

On November 18, 1959, Fidel stated “… Given its power, given its triumph since January 1, May Day has become a powerful factor, decisive in the political life of the country, because, with the general strike called with the Rebel Army, it was the working class that delivered the final blow to plans to snatch the people’s victory at the last moment, as they had done on other occasions …”

Cuba calls, love answers

This May Day, when the certainty of victory fills the air in our streets and plazas, the day will resound with pride and confidence in the future

Granma | April 27, 2018

Fuerza de trabajo (Workforce) by Cuban painter Marcelo Pogolotti (1902-1988)

When the people of Cuba march, it is no mere formality. When streets and souls resound with a “Viva Fidel” or a “Patria o muerte” followed by a “Venceremos” (We will triumph), the day resounds with pride and confidence in the future. Fortunate are the nations that have not lost their dreams, and those determined to continue building them. The date has been set for May 1, because only unity and commitment will lead us to new victories. The island calls its sons and daughters of goodwill, marked by the love that our history has sowed.

ITUC May Day Statement 2018

One hundred and fifty years ago, workers in Britain came together to create the world’s first national trade union centre, the TUC, in the city of Manchester.

International Trade Union Confederation | April 26, 2018

They, and working people in many other places at that time, laid the first foundations for the global trade union movement of today, more than 200 million strong. Ever since those early steps, men and women organising together have built and grown their unions and changed the course of history.

Let us go onto the streets on Mayday with a louder voice against exploitation and imperialist aggression!

CIPOML | April 30, 2018

To all workers, working people, oppressed nations, brothers and sisters,

Mayday is approaching, the international day of unity, struggle and solidarity of the working class, the day when we raise our demands on the streets against capitalist exploitation and imperialist aggression.