BRIAN HIGGINS – A PERSONAL AND POLITICAL TRIBUTE

    Communist, Republican, Trade Union Militant, Scottish Internationalist, Glasgow Bear  9th February 1941 – 2nd June 2019   __________ BRIAN HIGGINS A PERSONAL AND POLITICAL TRIBUTE Brian made a big impression upon whomever he met. Nigel Jeffrey, who encountered him on the picket line during the 1984-5 Miners’ Strike wrote, “Brian Higgins stands out…

IRISH NURSES AND THE FAILURE OF SOCIAL PARTNERSHIP

We are posting two articles from the Socialist Democracy (Ireland) blog addressing the nurses’ struggle for improved pay and a better health service in Ireland. The second goes into the underlying problems faced when unions embrace a partnerships with the state and employers in a time of economic crisis.    1.SQUARING THE CIRCLE Government and…

A STATEMENT ON BEHALF OF BRIAN HIGGINS, BLACKLISTED BUILDING WORKER

  A STATEMENT ON BEHALF OF BRIAN HIGGINS, BLACKLISTED BUILDING WORKER   Brian Higgins, a militant in the building industry, first in UCATT and later in UNITE, has been taken into hospital. Brian has been the most blacklisted worker in the UK. For many years before he would have retired, he was unable to get…

THE ENIGMATIC GILETS-JAUNES

Mike McNair of the CPGB (Weekly Worker) has written a critical analysis of the Gilets-Jaunes protests in France. He suggests that the politics stemming from this movement could move both Right and Left.   THE ENIGMATIC GILETS-JAUNES   We have just seen the ninth weekend of gilets jaunes (yellow vests) protests in France. Numbers were slightly up…

REMEMBERING THE WOBBLIES

Eric Thomas Chester,  is author of The Wobblies in Their Heyday (a history of the Industrial Workers of the World during its most vibrant period, the World War I era ) and Yours for Industrial Freedom (an anthology that provides insight into the IWW as it really was based on letters introduced by the prosecution during the 1918…

FRENCH POSTAL WORKERS INTERNATIONAL STRIKE FUND

French workers remain one of the best organised groups in Europe. This is why Macron has launched attacks on the rail workers (see http://republicancommunist.org/blog/2018/04/14/french-public-sector-workers-under-attack/) and the postal workers. The organised French working class offers the best alternative to the neo-liberalism of Emmanuel Macron’s En Marche and the rampant national chauvinist, racist Right populism of Marine…

OPEN LETTER AND PETITION TO LEN McCLUSKEY

We have revived this open letter and petition from Ian Allinson of UNITE Grassroots Left. It calls upon UNITE members to reject Len McCluskey’s call for the Labour Party to adopt the IHRA definition anti-semitism.   OPEN LETTER AND PETITION TO LEN McCLUSKEY We the undersigned call on you to oppose the adoption by the…

LESSONS OF THE RED (REPUBLICAN) STATES TEACHER STRIKES

Eric Chester has sent in this article form Jack Gerson, a teacher activist on California, about the teacher strikes in  West Virginia, Kentucky and Arizona.   LESSONS OF THE RED (REPUBLICAN) STATES TEACHER STRIKE   Last Saturday (June 9), I attended the “Lessons of the Red States Teacher Strikes” forum featuring teacher leaders of the…

FRENCH PUBLIC SECTOR WORKERS UNDER ATTACK

We are posting this article from Socialist Democracy (Ireland) about the attacks the French Macron government is launching on French rail workers. As the world retreats behind new national state barriers, France inside the EU seeks to pave the way for private capital to match those already achieved by its major competitor the USA, and…