HARRY BARNES picks apart the Labour Party’s policy process and finds a raft of positive proposals. He just wishes they were being delivered in a less piecemeal way....
Unions at the Heart of the Welfare State
GERRY LAVERY, JOE ROLLIN and CALLUM STANLAND report from ‘Unions at the heart of the welfare state’, a national conference called by the TUC National Consultative Committee for Unemployed Workers’ Centres....
Unbalanced Britain: Nearly 700,000 on Zero-Hours Contracts
The GMB has pointed out that nearly 700,000 workers are on zero-hours contracts despite working on average 25 hours per week, and called on the Labour Party “to deal with exploitation and harassment of workers which it has ignored for too long”. ...
Last Chance to Book for the ILP’s Unbalanced Britain Seminar
It’s the last chance to book for the ILP’s free Unbalanced Britain seminar on ‘Work, Wages and Labour’ in Leeds this Saturday, 14 March. The second in the ILP’s Unbalanced Britain series, this one-day workshop will explore on-going changes in the labour market and work conditions, their political and social consequences, and what is being...
Class Set Out What’s at Stake at Election 2015
The Centre for Labour and Social Studies has published a new election guide on the issues of work, pay and unions as part of a series of pamphlets highlighting what’s at stake in the parties’ policies for working people....
Unbalanced Britain: Work, Wages and Labour
Since the crash of 2008 the dominance of corporate elites has remained largely unchanged and unchallenged. Instead we have seen ever-increasing pressure on wages and conditions of work, zero hours contracts and cuts to in-work benefits. The ILP’s second seminar in its Unbalanced Britain series on Saturday 14 March will explore the on-going changes in...
GMB Welcomes Labour’s Election Pledges
The GMB union has welcomed the Labour Party’s election pledges to put working people and trade unionists at the centre of the 2015 general election....
The Case for Democratic Devolution
In recent decades our society has become seriously and, indeed, dangerously unbalanced in a series of crucial, yet interlinked, ways. BARRY WINTER argues that regional devolution could play an important part in re-democratising and re-balancing society. Unbalanced Britain is being subjected to growing poverty and widening social inequalities generally; to increasing and irresponsible financial and...
Labour Should Outlaw Zero-Hours Contracts
Labour’s opposition to zero hour contracts is important and welcome, says ERNIE JACQUES. But the Party’s approach is still far too timid. In his speech at Senate House last month, Labour leader Ed Miliband could not have been stronger in his attack on the coalition government’s ‘zero-zero economy’ and the horrific Victorian employment practices exemplified...
Uniting the Community
Unite, the largest union in Britain, has come up with an imaginative response to the current austerity crisis by creating a community arm that supports people hard hit by the cuts. GERRY LAVERY reports on how it helps them campaign for change. The aim of Unite Community is to unionise and embrace people “being pushed...
Class Gathers to Challenge Inequality
A huge roster of speakers from the Labour and progressive movement has been assembled for a conference on ‘challenging inequalities in wealth and power’ in central London this Saturday....
Unbalanced Britain: This Sorry State
BARRY WINTER assesses the work of David Marquand and considers what it can offer a left desperately seeking some answer to society’s massive imbalance in power and wealth....