Labour Days: a labour movement podcast

Tony Blair once reassured a journalist that, even after New Labour’s moderate reforms to employment law, Britain would still have “the most restrictive union laws in the western world.”

What do those laws consist of, where do they come from, and how can we resist them?

Prof. Mustill, Ellie, and Daniel rattle through the chronology.

Ellie also bigs up the ongoing election campaign of John Moloney, standing to be re-elected as Assistant General Secretary of her union, PCS. We’ve mentioned John on a previous episode (https://soundcloud.com/labour-days/rank-and-filism-101-whats-the-bureaucracy-whats-the-rank-and-file), particularly highlighting his pledge to take the same salary he was paid as a rank-and-file worker and donate the rest of his official’s salary to the PCS strike fund.

Voting for PCS members opens on 9 November and closes on 14 December. Check out John’s campaign here: https://john4ags.org/

John is running alongside Marion Lloyd, who is standing for General Secretary: https://twitter.com/Marion4GS

Throughout the episode, we refer to the Free Our Unions campaign, which you can check out online at https://freeourunions.org.

We also acknowledge that we’re recording several days into the latest war in Israel/Palestine, with Israel besieging Gaza following Hamas attacks. It’s beyond the scope of our podcast to meaningfully discuss the issues involved, but we wanted to link to workers’ organisations active in Palestine and Israel in a spirit of international class solidarity:

Democracy and Workers Rights Centre (Palestine): https://dwrc.org/

Ma’an Workers Association (Israel/Palestine): https://wac-maan.org.il/home-eng/

Koah L’Ovdim - Power to Workers (Israel): https://workers.org.il/?lang=en

See also the call from Palestinian trade unions for workers’ action to block arms shipments to Israel: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1RPslgoxPrXNsjTjA4mxnUWtU_KeXctm3

The quote at the top of the show is taken from the Modern Records Centre's Pentonville Voices audio archive: https://warwick.ac.uk/services/library/mrc/archives_online/speakingarchives/pentonville/

Our own Liam McNulty has written a new political biography of the Irish revolutionary James Connolly, entitled ‘James Connolly: Socialist, Nationalist & Internationalist.’

In this episode we discuss Connolly as a workplace organiser and theorist of trade union organisation, looking at his role in the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) and in major disputes such as the 1913 Dublin Lockout.

You can buy Liam’s book here: https://www.merlinpress.co.uk/page/backlist/?act=search&find=connolly

For further reading, try Liam’s article on ‘Connolly’s Legacy’: https://workersliberty.org/legacy-james-connolly-wl-373

You can also learn more about Connolly’s trade unionism in the Workers’ Liberty pamphlet ‘Effective Trade Unionism’, which brings together several of Connolly’s writing on workplace organisation and features a foreword by Liam: https://www.workersliberty.org/connolly-unions

See previous episode descriptions for copyright info on our intro music.

Yes, we're back... did you miss us? No, we didn't think so. But, we're back anyway. The promised episode on Liam's book about James Connolly, which we teased back in January, is still in the pipeline, but we decided to just get back on the road with a loose discussion about the ongoing strike wave that's been taking place in Britain since summer 2022.

With Ellie and Liam absent, you're stuck with Edd and Daniel, a duo of smug, irritating men who were in the podcast game long before Campbell/Stewart and Balls/Osborne. They chew over a few questions that have arisen in the strike wave, including strike tactics and strategy, the role of the law, the need for clear demands, and how we can develop independent rank-and-file organisation.

Some background links for this episode:

- "UK Workers Strike Back" (January 2023), an article by Daniel for the US socialist collective Tempest: https://www.tempestmag.org/2023/01/uk-workers-strike-back/

- A video presentation by Daniel based on the above article, hosted by the US socialist group Speak Out Now: https://youtu.be/_p5I2Zj66tc

- The Washington Post article on the strike wave, featuring our very own Ellie Clarke (March 2023): https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/03/02/uk-strikes-inflation-pay/

"- On being in it for the long haul" (January 2023), an article from the Our Common Endeavour blog: https://medium.com/@ourcommonendeavour/on-being-in-it-for-the-long-haul-bd3c8100d0b7

- "On the dangers of ballot fatigue" (June 2023), ditto: https://medium.com/@ourcommonendeavour/on-the-dangers-of-ballot-fatigue-33412dcc9864

- You can also read regularly-updated analysis on the disputes on London Underground and the national rail, written by rank-and-file workers, on the Tubeworker and Off the Rails blogs:

https://www.workersliberty.org/twblog

https://www.workersliberty.org/blogs/rails

- Daniel and Edd were both involved in the "Troublemakers' Conference" held in Manchester on 29 July, check out the project at: https://troublemakersat.work/

- We also recommend checking out the groups/networks/caucuses that have formed in various unions/sectors to mobilise opposition to dodgy deals and which we hope can develop into permanent rank-and-file networks:

NHS Workers Say No: https://twitter.com/NurseSayNO

Posties Say No: https://twitter.com/PostiesSayNo

PCS Says No: https://twitter.com/PCSsayNo

Educators Say No: https://twitter.com/educatorssayno

The intro music is from 'Labor' by Aesop Rock (Definitive Jux, 2001). We do not hold the copyright for this music.

It's been a while since our latest episode but we're back.

Our producer Liam McNulty has just had a new book published which will be of interest to Labour Days listeners.

James Connolly: Socialist, Nationalist, and Internationalist by Liam McNulty is published by Merlin Press. You can order it here: https://www.merlinpress.co.uk/page/forthcoming-books

It takes a look at one of the key figures in Irish labour movement history, James Connolly, who has featured in a number of our episodes.

This is a short preview in which Liam introduces and reads an extract from the book, made exclusively available to Labour Days listeners.

A full episode discussing the book and its relevance to those active in the labour movement will follow.

For now, over to Liam!

Edd takes us through the history of the tactic of workplace occupations, and we discuss their re-emergence in Britain and Ireland in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crash. We're very lucky to be joined by Jaymie Rigby, one of the workers who occupied the Vestas wind turbine blades factory on the Isle of Wight in 2009. As we face a new wave of job losses, can we rediscover these tactics?

Some selected additional reading:

“How sit-down strikes built unions in the USA” https://www.workersliberty.org/story/2009/04/07/how-sit-strikes-built-unions-usa

Genora Johnson remembers the Flint sit-down strike

http://www.historyisaweapon.com/defcon1/dollflint.html

“With Babies and Banners”, documentary film on the Flint strike, focusing particularly on the role of women activists

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pa75V-tdBko

France 1968:

https://www.workersliberty.org/story/2018-05-21/france-1968-when-ten-million-workers-took-capitalism-throat

https://libcom.org/library/general-strike-france-1968-factory-factory-account

Workers' Liberty's pamphlet on the Vestas occupation

https://www.workersliberty.org/files/2020-11/vestas.pdf

“Lessons of the Thomas Cook occupation”

https://www.workersliberty.org/story/2009/08/29/thomas-cook-lessons-dublin-occupation

An account of the Visteon occupations from a broadly libertarian/anarchist perspective

https://pasttenseblog.wordpress.com/2017/04/01/today-in-london-radical-history-visteon-workers-occupy-their-factory-enfield-2009/

Articles on the occupied workplace movement in Argentina:

https://libcom.org/library/occupying-resisting-producing-argentine-workers-take-over-abandoned-factories-andres-gau

https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/mar/10/occupy-buenos-aires-argentina-workers-cooperative-movement

https://www.workersliberty.org/story/2017-07-26/factory-without-bosses (interview with a worker from the Zanon “FaSinPat”, “factory without bosses”)

What role has organised labour played in anti-racist and civil rights struggles, past and present? We look at recent actions by workers and unions as part of the Black Lives Matter movement, and the historic role of black workers' organisers and socialists in the US civil rights struggle. We also discuss the unfortunate presence in the US labour movement of “unions” representing the police, and what might be done to challenge that.

This episode also features an excerpt of an interview with Robert Cuffy, a Guyanese socialist currently based in New York, where he's a public sector working and trade union activists. Robert is a member of the Socialist Workers Alliance of Guyana and the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA).

Relevant/featured links for our segments are:

Edd:

A Freedom Budget for All Americans: Recapturing the Promise of the Civil Rights Movement in the Struggle for Economic Justice Today, Paul Le Blanc and Michael D. Yates (2013)

https://monthlyreview.org/product/a_freedom_budget_for_all_americans/

'At The River I Stand' (film about the Memphis sanitation workers' strike)

https://www.kanopy.com/product/river-i-stand

Ellie:

https://www.npr.org/2020/06/13/876640607/calls-for-reform-put-minneapolis-police-union-leader-in-hot-seat?t=1598950697168&t=1598964381985

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jun/11/police-unions-american-labor-movement-protest?fbclid=IwAR26ge7rjkROHYLmBbbIjnuGOW8WqOb_X-GWplVWfjjKkfpjGJm_ALoGG_E

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/aug/27/white-supremacists-militias-infiltrate-us-police-report?fbclid=IwAR3gx0KakrQ6ZHq3hr-oGC4GHjmpanlEJej5IGxmXpQAWKa7vHmi-ZB3tUA

https://www.jacobinmag.com/2014/01/the-bad-kind-of-unionism/

https://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/faultlines/2016/12/contract-chicago-police-union-161205084413414.html

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jun/05/minneapolis-police-union-bob-kroll-us

Daniel:

https://www.vice.com/en_ca/article/bv8zaw/minneapolis-bus-drivers-refuse-to-transport-george-floyd-protesters-to-jail

https://labornotes.org/blogs/2020/06/west-coast-dockers-stop-work-honor-george-floyd

https://jacobinmag.com/2020/06/george-floyd-ilwu-work-stoppage-antiracism

https://apnews.com/d33b36c415f5dde25f64e49ccc35ac43

https://j20strikeforblacklives.org

The full interview with Robert Cuffy isn't up yet, but there's a transcript of an extended excerpt here: https://www.workersliberty.org/story/2020-08-12/black-youths-were-able-bring-along-rest

This episode features an interview with two comrades from the Angry Workers, a revolutionary collective whose members have been involved in workplace and community organising activity in the supermarket, food, and logistics sector in west London.

Their new book, 'Class Power on Zero Hours', is available to buy now from PM Press: https://pmpress.org.uk/product/class-power-on-zero-hours/

The Angry Workers are online at https://angryworkersworld.wordpress.com/

Anyone interested in the issue of class struggle in the logistics sector should also listen to our interview with Kim Moody, about his book 'On New Terrain': https://soundcloud.com/labour-days/episode-10-on-new-terrain-an-interview-with-kim-moody

However you're struggling through the pandemic... keep struggling. Solidarity!

You might find these websites useful resources for class struggle in the pandemic:

Safe & Equal campaign - safeandequal.org

Coronavirus Workforce Support Group - facebook.com/groups/coronasupportgroupforworkers

Hazards Magazine - hazards.org

Nurses United - facebook.com/nursesuniteduk

Zero Hours Justice - zerohoursjustice.org

Blacklist Support Group - facebook.com/groups/blacklistSG

Care Workers vs Covid - unisonnw.org/care_workers_vs_covid_19

In a break from pandemic-related content, our hosts each pick a little-known, unusual, or otherwise distinctive strike from history, and briefly tell its story.

Daniel spoke about the artisan tomb builders’ strike from ancient Egypt in 1157 BCE; Ellie chose the strike of Haudenosaunee (“Iroquois”) women in the 1600s, which was a strike of domestic and reproductive labour; and Edd talked about the “Skylab controversy”, a strike of three Nasa astronauts in 1973, the first strike in space.

The main sources they used for research are linked below.

Solidarity, stay safe, and take care.

References:

Daniel:

https://libcom.org/history/records-of-the-strike-in-egypt-under-ramses-iii

https://dianabuja.wordpress.com/2012/03/16/food-strikes-in-ancient-egypt-the-turin-strike-papyrus-etc/

http://edithorial.blogspot.com/2018/02/classics-and-strike-action-ancient-and.html?m=1

https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/11/steep-commute-gave-ancient-egyptian-workers-osteoarthritis

https://www.ancient.eu/article/1089/the-first-labor-strike-in-history/

Ellie:

http://www.womenhistoryblog.com/2008/05/iroquois-women.html

https://nvdatabase.swarthmore.edu/content/iroquois-women-gain-power-veto-wars-1600s

https://www.haudenosauneeconfederacy.com/clan-system/

Edd:

https://www.latimes.com/business/hiltzik/la-fi-mh-that-day-three-nasa-astronauts-20151228-column.html

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skylab_controversy

A special episode produced in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, looking at how bosses are attempting to exploit the crisis, and what workers are doing to resist it.

In such a fast moving situation, a lot of the situations we discuss had changed more or less as soon as the episode was recorded, so some of the stuff in this episode will now be out of date. There are also lots of other ongoing and developing workers’ struggles which we didn’t mention, with new ones springing up all the time. We’re trying to boost as many of those as we can on our Twitter, so follow us at @Labour_Days.

You can read more about some of the struggles Edd mentions in his section here:

https://www.labornotes.org/2020/03/dispatch-italy-class-struggle-time-coronavirus

https://www.labornotes.org/2020/03/rank-and-file-auto-workers-demand-national-shutdown-union-officials-partner-companies-keep

The Raymond Challinor essay we review in our section about the Blitz is online here: https://www.workersliberty.org/story/2019-04-11/class-war-blitz-raymond-challinor

In our last episode of 2019, we speak to Caty and Chris, two activists involved in TUC Yorkshire and the Humber's "Summer Patrols" project. We discuss the aims of the project, and the broad horizon of organising young workers and reviving the labour movement.

This episode was recorded in early November, before election fever really set in, so there isn't much election chat in this one. The list of disputes Edd mentions in the outro is also now somewhat out of date.

You can read more about the Summer Patrols project here: https://www.tuc.org.uk/campaigns/2019-tuc-summer-patrol-young-workers. You can also follow TUC Yorkshire and the Humber on Twitter at https://twitter.com/tucyorkshumber

We'll be back in 2020 with more class-struggle/industrial unionist/rank-and-file goodness.