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.

In this episode, Edd speaks to Stacey Clare, author of the forthcoming book ‘The Ethical Stripper’, about her experiences as a stripper and sex workers’ rights activist with campaigns and unions such as the GMB’s sex workers’ branch, the East London Strippers Collective, and United Voices of the World. Edd and Ellie then discuss the issues posed by the interview. Daniel was absent for this episode, hence a distinct lack of Local 574 references. Check back in next month for more of those. You can check out some of the organisations mentioned, and others doing great work around sex work decriminalisation and workers’ rights, here: http://twitter.com/ethicalstripper http://twitter.com/unitedstripper http://twitter.com/xtalkproject http://twitter.com/sexworkhive http://twitter.com/ukdecrimnow Stacey’s book is available to preorder here: https://unbound.com/books/the-ethical-stripper/

This mini episode consists of a talk our co-host Daniel gave at the Southampton Transformed event on 8 June. He spoke on a panel entitled “how can the labour movement organise in a way that includes everyone?”, alongside Sofia from Brighton Acorn, Si Cotton from Unite, and Callum Cant from Notes from Below. Daniel’s talk discusses the meaning of a rank-and-file approach to union organising, picking up themes discussed in our recent episode on this topic. Southampton Transformed was a local event co-sponsored by The World Transformed, a festival of political education launched by Momentum. For more info, see @twtsouthampton on Twitter.

This month we discuss the 1941 Disney animators' strike before looking at workers' organisation in the contemporary video games industry. Our guests were Jamie Woodcock (@Jamie_Woodcock on Twitter) of Notes from Below (https://notesfrombelow.org/), whose new book 'Marx At The Arcade' looks at games workers' struggles, and Marijam Didžgalvytė (@marijamdid on Twitter), games worker, writer, and activist, who hosts the online show 'Left Left Up', and is involved in Games Workers, an internarional games workers’ platform. Check out Marijam's website here (https://www.marijamdid.com), and buy Jamie's book direct from the publishers (https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/1319-marx-at-the-arcade) Information about the Organising at Work game “jam” Jamie mentions, co-hosted by Games Workers UK and Notes from Below, is online here: https://www.gwu-uk.org/2019/05/10/workers-game-jam/ Special thanks this time to our resident researcher Holly Smith for the presentation about the Disney animators' strike. Holly used the following sources in her research and recommends them as further reading: Kinney, Jack., 1988. 'Walt Disney and other assorted characters' Harmony Books: New York. Ostman, R.E., 1996. 'Disney and its conservative critics: Images versus realities'. Journal of Popular Film and Television, 24(2), pp.82-89. Peri, D., 2008. 'Working with Walt: interviews with Disney artists'. Univ. Press of Mississippi. Sito, Tom., 2006. 'Drawing the Line: The Untold Story of the Animation Unions from Bosko to Bart Simpson'. University Press of Kentucky. Smoodin, E.L. ed., 1994. 'Disney discourse: Producing the magic kingdom'. Psychology Press. Wasko, Janet., 2013. 'Understanding Disney: The manufacture of fantasy'. John Wiley & Sons. You can also check out a PBS-produced film about the strike on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSjX7S35mn0), and some of the excellent strike art we mention in the episode can be seen here: https://animationguild.org/about-the-guild/disney-strike-1941. We'd also recommend this Jacobin article by Mark Bergfeld and Kenneth Bergfeld, about the strike: https://www.jacobinmag.com/2017/11/disney-animators-strike-union-busting Finally, thanks to our correspondent JP for writing in to tell us our episode on Farrell Dobbs and the 1934 Minneapolis Teamsters' strike had inspired him and his comrades to run a reading group around Dobbs's 'Teamster Rebellion', which prompted them to organise flying pickets for a strike they were involved in, and produce a strike bulletin. The bulletin continues in digital format here, as a publication of the East Bay chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA): https://eastbaymajority.com. All the usual copyright disclaimers about our theme music apply. Subscribe, leave us a review, etc. etc.

In the midst of the First World War, engineering workers in Sheffield built a shopfloor organisation that confronted the bosses, the state, and the conservatism of their own union leaders. We discuss how and why. For the background to this episode, check out Edd’s pamphlet, available to buy here: https://spokesmanbookshop.com/epages/36621f87-f6e8-411d-b941-d46fe29be74c.mobile/en_GB/?ObjectPath=/Shops/36621f87-f6e8-411d-b941-d46fe29be74c/Products/Mustill1&Locale=en_GB Also, JT Murphy’s ‘The Workers' Committee: An Outline of its Principles and Structure’ is pretty seminal: https://www.marxists.org/archive/murphy-jt/1917/xx/workers_committee.htm We apologise for the sound quality of this episode, which was recorded without our producer Liam’s oversight and was therefore always likely to be an aural disaster.

Trade union activists, particularly those on the left, will almost certainly be familiar with the terms “bureaucracy” and “rank and file”. But what do they mean? In this episode, with Ellie sadly absent, Edd gives us a historical sketch of the development of trade union officialdom, and talks about some Marxist approaches to understanding it. Daniel worries that he might himself have become a bureaucrat. Finally, we talk to Rhian Keyse, an activist in the University and College Union, about the embryonic rank-and-file revolt in that union around the 2018 strikes against pension cuts. The new rank-and-file initiatives she refers to, UCU Rank-and-File and the Branch Solidarity Network, are online here: https://twitter.com/ucu_rankfile Hmmm https://ucubranchsolidaritynetwork.wordpress.com/ In the course of the episode, various historical organisations/episodes are mentioned fleetingly, so here’s some suggested further reading: The Local Associations National Action Campaign, an attempt to form a rank-and-file network in the National Union of Teachers, which has since evolved into the Educational Solidarity Network in the National Education Union: https://www.workersliberty.org/story/2012/06/06/rank-and-file-teachers-organise https://www.workersliberty.org/story/2012/06/13/rank-and-file-teachers-conference-forum-and-voice The National Minority Movement, a rank-and-file movement in British trade unions in the 1920s, led by Communist Party members: https://www.marxists.org/archive/higgins/1970/11/minmvmt.htm Teamsters for a Democratic Union: http://www.tdu.org/who_we_are John Moloney, a rank-and-file candidate for PCS Assistant General Secretary, standing on a platform including a commitment to only take an average workers’ wage, and on the policy that all full time officials should be elected: https://pcsindependentleft.com/2019/01/27/pcs-ags-election-john-moloney-speaks/

In our first seasonal special, we tell the inspiring story of the Union of Christmas Island Workers (UCIW), a trade union on the Australian territory of Christmas Island, so named by an East India Company explorer who arrived there on Christmas Day, 1643. The UCIW’s story is one of inspiring working-class internationalism against racism, and we feel it contains a lot of important messages for many issues facing us today. Thanks to our researcher Holly for researching and writing this episode. Here’s some references and suggested further reading from Holly: Les Waters – The Union of Christmas Island Workers Michelle Dimasi – Australia’s Asylum Seeker Policy and Christmas Island (unpublished thesis) Michelle Dimasi, Linda Briskman – ‘Let Them Land: Christmas Islander Responses to Tampa’ in the Journal of Refugee Studies 2010 https://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/16/world/asia/16australia.html?src=mv https://www.fwc.gov.au/registered-organisations/find-registered-organisations/union-christmas-island-workers-uciw https://archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk/search/archives/102b3c9e-8516-3033-bed9-0bbd3e24646b https://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/inquirer/no-paradise-on-christmas-island/news-story/bb7a12834c50ace7db3013ef11709acf?nk=38ab75f97053c7d4a07ed82d1ad30e22-1542471036 https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/asylum-seekers-on-christmas-island-stitch-lips-together-in-hunger-strike-20140602-39cvi.html However you’re celebrating, have a very merry Christmas, and we’ll see you in 2019.

In excerpts from panels at The World Transformed and the Ella Baker School of Transformative organising, we bring you Colin Waugh talking about the history of Ruskin College and the Plebs' League; Ian Manborde talking about contemporary trade union education; and a bit from Daniel on education programmes in the the International Ladies' Garment Workers Union (ILGWU) in the early 20th century, mainly cribbed from Daniel Katz's 2011 book 'All Together Different'. There's also a brief appearance from Rida Vaquas of Clarion magazine. Liam McNulty also makes a rare appearance on the other side of his desk to make a very insightful comment about Daniel De Leon (who we're all quite big fans of), so watch out for that. Background reading for this episode is Colin Waugh's pamphlet on the Plebs' League, which is online here: http://www.ifyoucan.org.uk/PSE/Home_files/PSE%20Plebs%20pamphlet.pdf.

Returning to our secret North London bunker-studio following last month’s live cast, we turn our attention to the recent walkouts of teachers and other school workers in Republican-voting states in the USA such as Kentucky, West Virginia, and elsewhere. We were very lucky to have the opportunity to talk to Lois Weiner, an American socialist and trade union activist and author of the book ‘The Future of Our Schools: Teacher Unions and Social Justice’ (2012, Haymarket), a member of the editorial board of the socialist journal New Politics who’s been extensively involved in rank-and-file teacher organising. The interview in the episode is abridged, but there’s a fuller transcript online here: https://www.workersliberty.org/story/2018-07-15/how-teacher-walkouts-can-revive-us-labour-movement. You can also read more by Lois on the topic here: http://newpol.org/node/2088 Also mentioned in the episode was the New Economics Foundation’s “Winning At Work” conference, which Daniel was involved in co-organising, which you can read more about here: https://neweconomics.org/2018/08/winning-at-work Ellie also gave us a report on ongoing prison labour strikes in America, which you can read more about here: https://www.vox.com/2018/8/17/17664048/national-prison-strike-2018 Special thanks to Holly Smith for her invaluable background research for this episode.

This is our very first live podcast, recorded at Ideas for Freedom, a weekend of socialist debate and discussion hosted by Workers’ Liberty, on 23 June. We were joined by Tom Kelly, a striking workers from the East Dulwich Picturehouse cinema, to discuss “a new New Unionism?”, looking at whether burgeoning low-paid workers’ struggles can lead to a revival and recomposition of the labour movement in the same way that the “New Unionism” of the 1880s did. Ellie was on compering/chairing duties, Edd gave us the historical lowdown, and Daniel asked Tom the questions. Thanks to Tom for joining us and thanks to everyone who attended the recording, particularly those who contributed to the discussion. Follow @EDPHLivingWage on Twitter for more on Tom and his colleagues’ dispute.

What attitude should the labour movement take to the police? Does the way strikes have been policed in the past give us some clues about the police’s fundamental role? With the Labour Party adopting an explicitly pro-cop position, distributing leaflets shaped like police helmets calling for 20,000 more police on the streets, we argue for the labour movement to take a more cautious, and ultimately hostile, to the role of the police, who we believe ultimately exist to defend the power of capital. Most of this episode is taken up with an interview with Kevin Horne, a striking miner in the 1984/5 strike andparticipant in the “Battle of Orgreave”, and Barbara Jackson, who struck in 84/85 as part of the National Union of Mineworkers’ white collar section, and later founded the Orgreave Truth and Justice Campaign (OTJC). Find out more about the OTJC here: https://otjc.org.uk/ This episode also includes a special one-off feature, “Four Ways to Make the Next TUC Demo Better”. Send us your suggestions for additional ideas. Hope to see some of you at Ideas for Freedom on 23-24 June, where Labour Days will be hosting a panel on “the new New Unionism?”, with speakers from the Picturehouse cinema workers’ strike and other disputes. Ellie will also be giving a talk on “what should Labour do on crime and policing?”, which will extend the discussions from this month’s episode. See previous episode descriptions for copyright disclaimers.

It's our first birthday, and after a year of frankly unseemly pleading, cajoling, and tantrum-throwing from Daniel, the Labour Days crew has finally allowed him, as a special birthday treat, to give a presentation about the 1934 Minneapolis teamsters' strike. It's a story that has it all: courageous action against the odds, pitched battles with the cops, and an abundance of lessons about how a core of dedicated activists in a given workplace or union can catalyse huge struggles that pose the question of class power. You can buy a copy of 'Teamster Rebellion', Farrell Dobbs's classic account of the strikes, direct from the publisher here: http://www.pathfinderpress.com/s.nl/it.A/id.658/.f We'd also recommend Bryan Palmer's article "Red Teamsters", in Jacobin magazine, as a good introduction: https://www.jacobinmag.com/2014/10/red-teamsters There are also a few shouts outs and bits of news in the episode, but rather than post them here, we'll just trust that you'll listen and make a note of them, as any diligent student of labour history should. The newsreel clip at the beginning can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m44DLk-IX1s See previous episode descriptions for copyright disclaimers.

In the centenary year of the "Representation of the People Act", which extended the franchise to certain, propertied, women, Labour Days looks at the question of working-class and labour movement involvement in the women's suffrage movement, and introduces listeners to the activity of labour-movement suffrage fighters like Julia Varley, Sylvia Pankhurst, and Ada Nield Chew. The reccommended reading for this episode is Jill Norris and Jill Liddington's book 'One Hand Tied Behind Us', which looks at the radical roots of the suffrage movement in the activity of working-class and socialist women organisers. You can buy a copy here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/One-Hand-Tied-Behind-Us/dp/1854891111 At the top of the show we mention four strikes of education workers, which you can read more about here: University lecturers' strikes against pension cuts in the UK: https://theclarionmag.org/2018/02/26/ucu-strike-channel-anger-against-management/ (and http://twitter.com/occupation_hub for updates on student sit-ins in solidarity with the strikes) Teachers' strikes for decent pay in West Virginia, USA: http://www.labornotes.org/2018/03/west-virginia-option University lecturers' strikes in Kenya: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-kenya-strike/kenyan-university-lecturers-strike-again-over-low-pay-idUSKCN1GE0NW Non-academic university workers' strikes in Nigeria: https://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/top-news/260287-three-months-strike-action-university-workers-set-nationwide-protest.html We also reccommended LabourStart as a good starting point for all your international labour movement news: http://www.labourstart.org We also mentioned the Picturehouse cinema workers' International Women's Day strike, which you can read about here: https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/staggers/2018/03/if-picturehouse-strikers-demands-were-met-women-would-benefit The strike linked up with other IWD events via the Women's Strike initiative, which you can read about here: https://womenstrike.org.uk/ and here: https://theclarionmag.org/2018/03/04/8-march-womens-strike-collectivising-our-fight/ All the usual copyright disclaimers apply about the music used here, which we don't own. The post-credits music was a snippet from Joan Baez and Mimi Farina's version of 'Bread And Roses', James Oppenheim's 1911 poem about the Lawrence, Massachusetts textile workers' strike. The slogan "bread and roses" originates with sweatshop worker organiser Rose Schneidermann ("the worker must have bread, but she must have roses too"), who used it to assert the idea that the labour movement should fight for workers' right to a rich and fulfilling life rather than just mere economic subsistence.

In this episode, we take a deep dive into questions of class composition and labour movement strategy via an interview with Kim Moody. Kim is a labour movement writer and activist, who co-founded Labor Notes in the USA (www.labornotes.org). His new book, ‘On New Terrain: How Capital is Reshaping the Battleground of Class War’ is published by Haymarket, and is available to buy here: https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/1106-on-new-terrain We begin the episode with a rattle through some recent labour movement news, including: “An Open Letter to Fellow Aslef Drivers”, looking at questions of industrial unionism and class solidarity in railway workers’ strikes against the imposition of “Driver Only Operation”: www.workersliberty.org/blogs/2018-01-19/open-letter-fellow-aslef-drivers-which-side-are-we The latest with the Picturehouse Cinema workers’ strikes. Donate to the strike fund here: www.crowdpac.co.uk/campaigns/250/picturehousestrike The upcoming University and College Union pension strikes (www.ucu.org.uk/strikeforuss), and a recent local success for the UCU at the University of Manchester: www.ucu.org.uk/article/9141/Industrial-action-suspended-at-University-of-Manchester More inspiring struggles from migrant-led unions like IWGB (www.iwgb.org.uk/) and UVW (www.uvwunion.org.uk/) Potential disputes over public sector pay from unions like the PCS (www.pcs.org.uk/payup) and Unison (www.unison.org.uk/news/press-release/2017/12/council-pay-offer-considered-local-government-unions/) A win for local unions and community campaigns against gentrification in Haringey: theclarionmag.org/2018/02/02/stop-hdv-campaign-forces-claire-kobers-resignation/ A strike at the Camell-Laird shipyard: www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-merseyside-42690268 Quite a bit to take in there, admittedly, but in our defence it’s been two months since our last episode. Drop us a line on Facebook or Twitter to let us know about any ongoing disputes you’re involved in, either directly or in a supportive capacity. Check previous episode descriptions for copyright info.

With Ellie out of action, wafflers-in-chief Daniel and Edd discuss whether trade unions have a particular role to play in the struggle to prevent the planet becoming a charred husk (spoiler: they do). Verity Burgmann, co-author of ‘Green Bans, Red Union’, joins us to discuss the New South Wales Builders Labourers’ Federation’s “green bans” of the 1970s, before Edd talks us through the history Lucas Aerospace Workers’ plan of 1976, and Daniel reminisces about his time campaign on a roundabout in support of the Vestas wind turbine factory workers’ occupation of 2009. Here are some links mentioned in the show, and a few extra ones: The new edition of ‘Green Bans, Red Union’ is available here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Green-Bans-Red-Union-Saving/dp/1742235409/ref=nodl_ ‘Rocking the Foundations’, a film about the BLF, can be viewed here: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2-xkxU0wu8 The Lucas Plan 40th anniversary website is here: http://lucasplan.org.uk/ Hilary Wainwright and Dave Elliot’s book on the Lucas Plan can be purchased here: http://www.waterstonesmarketplace.com/Lucas-Plan-New-Trade-Unionism-in-the-Making-Hilary-Wainwright/book/14986886 The Workers’ Climate Action website (inactive since 2011, sadly) is online here: https://workersclimateaction.wordpress.com/. The WCA briefings on the BLF and Lucas are here: https://workersclimateaction.files.wordpress.com/2009/07/blf-briefing2.pdf and here: https://workersclimateaction.files.wordpress.com/2009/07/lucas-briefing.pdf Trade union activists may also find WCA’s ‘How to be an effective climate activist in your workplace’ briefing useful: https://workersclimateaction.wordpress.com/2010/04/21/how-to-be-an-effective-climate-activist-in-your-workplace/ For more on the Vestas struggle, Read Workers’ Liberty’s pamphlet ‘The Vestas Jobs Battle: How Wind Turbine Workers Became a Power’, here: http://www.workersliberty.org/system/files/vestas.pdf Paul Hampton’s ‘Workers and Trade Unions for Climate Solidarity: Tackling climate change in a neoliberal world’ is basically *the* book on the overall subject matter of this episode, and is available to buy here: https://www.crcpress.com/Workers-and-Trade-Unions-for-Climate-Solidarity-Tackling-climate-change/Hampton/p/book/9781138283633 And finally, check out the Nationalise the Big Six campaign, mentioned in the episode, here: https://nationalisethebigsix.com/

How did trade unionists, and the trade union movement, respond to the revolutions of 1917 in Russia? Edd The Brain takes us through a few examples, and we discuss what implications they have for contemporary working-class solidarity. As promised in the episode, here's Labour Days' Great (But Not Exhaustive) Russian Revolution Reading List: General histories of the Russian Revolution Leon Trotsky, The History of the Russian Revolution (1930) - https://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1930/hrr/ John Reed, 10 Days That Shook The World (1919) - https://www.marxists.org/archive/reed/1919/10days/10days/ Paul Vernadsky, Russian Revolution: When Workers Took Power (2017) - http://www.workersliberty.org/story/2017-09-21/russian-revolution-when-workers-took-power Alexander Rabinowitch, The Bolsheviks Come To Power (2009) - https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/879-the-bolsheviks-come-to-power People should also check out the work of Katy Turton on the role of women in the Revolution, and Dan Healy's work on LGBT people's struggles within the Revolution. On the role of trade unions in the Revolution itself Steve Smith, Red Petrograd: revolution in the factories 1917-1918 (reprint 2008) - https://libcom.org/library/red-petrograd-revolution-factories-1917-1918-sa-smith David Mandel, "The Factory Committee Movement in the Russian Revolution", in Immanuel Ness and Dario Azzellini, Ours to Master and to Own, (2011) - https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/366-ours-to-master-and-to-own Daniel H. Kaiser, The Workers' Revolution in Russia, 1917: The View from Below (1989) - https://www.abebooks.co.uk/Workers-Revolution-Russia-1917-View-Below/18667199435/bd If you have access to JSTOR, the online archive of academic journals, you should also check out "Skilled Workers and the Strike Movement in Revolutionary Russia" by Diane Koenker and William G. Rosenberg, from Journal of Social History, Vol. 19, No. 4 (Summer, 1986), pp. 605-629. It's online here: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3787980 On international trade union solidarity with the Revolution: Colm Bryce, "Ireland and the Russian Revolution", Irish Marxist Review Vol. 17 No. 6 (2017) Ralph Darlington, Syndicalism and the Transition to Communism (2008) P J O Farrell, "The Russian Revolution and the Labour Movements of Australia and New Zealand 1917-1922" See previous episode descriptions for copyright info on music, etc. None of it's ours, we're not making any money off it, please don't sue us.

With far-right and fascist movements growing across Europe and North America, how can trade unions resist? We look back through history at some examples of how organised labour has confronted fascism, exploring specifically trade-union movement organisation rather than wider community-led anti-fascism, and focusing on perhaps less well-known examples rather more famous episodes such as the Battle of Cable Street. We examine transport workers’ resistance to fascism in the 1920s and 30s, and the Minneapolis Teamsters’ “Union Defence Guard” from the late 1930s, as well as postal workers disrupting BNP election efforts in 2009. Research that informed this episode includes: ¡No Pasarsan! The ITF and the fight against fascism - https://spanje3639.files.wordpress.com/2016/12/no_pasaran_en.pdf Teamster Politics by Farrell Dobbs (1975) “It can’t happen here”, by Joe Allen, International Socialist Review #85 (September 2012) - https://isreview.org/issue/85/it-cant-happen-here “Teamsters against the Silver Shirts”, by Charlie Salmon, Solidarity 140 (16 October 2008) - http://www.workersliberty.org/story/2008/10/16/teamsters-against-silver-shirts We also give brief mention to the Communication Workers’ Union’s recent excellent campaign to win their strike ballot in Royal Mail. Check out this analysis by Gregor Gall: https://www.bradford.ac.uk/news/expert-opinion/2017/conversation-gall-royalmail.php Check previous episode descriptions for copyright info. We don’t own the music featured in this episode, which is the intellectual property of its respective owners.

With McDonald's workers in two stores set to stage their first ever official strike in UK history, we interview striker and BFAWU activist Steve about the campaign, and discuss the issues it raises. We look back on the "McDonald's Workers' Resistance" network, whose archives are online at https://libcom.org/tags/mcdonalds-workers-resistance, and discuss Unite New Zealand's "Supersize My Pay" campaign (watch a documentary about it here: https://vimeo.com/54901659), and the ongoing "Fight for $15" movement in the USA (the movement involves a galaxy of different campaign groups, unions, and political organisations, but you can get a sense of some of its activity from this site: http://fightfor15.org). The newly tenured Professor Edmund Mustill takes us back in time, to tell the story of the 1912 New York waiters' strike, which you can read up on here: http://hotelworkers.org/about/history/the-story-of-the-first-contract?p=3 We also shout out our fellow labour movement podcast Smash Up Derby, so go check 'em out at http://smashuppodcast.com. Tweet your support for the #McStrike at @bfawu1, @fastfoodrights, and @mcstrike1, and don't forget to follow Labour Days at @labour_days.

As a teaser for our forthcoming sixth episode on food service workers' struggles past and present, we're sharing part of our interview with McDonald's worker and BFAWU activist Steve, who talks about the reasons behind McDonalds workers' upcoming strike on 4 September. The full episode, which also includes a look back at the 1912 New York waiters' strike, will be released next week. For more information on the #McStrike, and how you can support it (including by donating to their strike fund), follow @bfawu1 and @fastfoodrights on Twitter, and visit fastfoodrights.wordpress.com. (As usual, we'd like to remind you that we don't own the intellectual rights to the music used in the podcast, which is copyright 2001 Aesop Rock and Def Jux Records.)

How have unions been portrayed in film and TV, and why aren't there more representations of unions and class struggle on screen? The Labour Days crew attempts to answer these questions, with (mostly passing!) reference to TV shows and films including The Simpsons, The Wire, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, Days of Glory, Matewan, Pride, Made in Dagenham, Newsies, Our Friends In The North, GBH, Boys From The Black Stuff, Coronation Street, Brookside, and many more. Joining us to discuss the issues was screenwriter Clive Bradley (writer of Trapped, W-Delta-Z, and much more), a veteran socialist activist and member of Lesbians and Gay Men Support the Miners (LGSM), whose story was told in the film Pride. Research referred to included the work of Steven J. Ross (Professor of History, USC) and Victor G. Devinantz (Professor of Management, College of Business, Illinois State University), and the documentary Class Dismissed: How TV Frames The Working Class (2005, dir. Pepi Leistyna). We gave shout outs to the Barts NHS Trust cleaners/porters strike, which you can read about at http://www.unitetheunion.org/news/striking-workers-from-barts-stage-protest-outside-serco-investors-meeting, and the new picturehousefour.org website, building support for sacked Bectu reps at the Ritzy cinema. We also mentioned Dead Ink Book's 'Know Your Place' project, a symposium of essays on working-class experience which you can read about and support here: https://deadinkbooks.com/know-your-place-on-kickstarter/ We don't own the rights to any of the clips featured in this episode, which are all the property of their respective creators (obviously).

In this episode, Professor Edmund "the Brain" Mustill takes the gang through a potted history of industrial unionism, and discusses how it differs from craft-based models of trade unionism. We hear from Jade Baker, a teacher and National Union of Teachers (NUT) activist in south London, about the NUT's upcoming merger with the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL), to form the National Education Union (NEU). Daniel talks about his experiences as a rep and activist in National Union of Rail, Maritime, and Transport workers (RMT), and we discuss whether industrial unionism is still a relevant concept today. We also mention a few recent events at the top of the show, which we said we'd expand on in links in the episode description: * For a range of articles on the Grenfell Tower tragedy, and links to various support funds, see: https://theclarionmag.org/2017/06/15/grenfell/ * To support the United Voices of the World (UVW) following their win at LSE, visit their website: https://www.uvwunion.org.uk * For post-general election discussion and analysis, we recommend The Clarion magazine, co-edited by our very own Edd: http://theclarionmag.org * Keep up to date with the Picturehouse cinema workers' dispute, and donate to their strike fund, at http://www.picturehouselivingwage.com. For info on the outrageous sacking of four Bectu reps at The Ritzy cinema, see https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/jun/30/stop-these-threats-in-picturehouse-dispute, and click here to see Helen Hayes MP asking a question about the dispute and the sacking at Prime Ministers' Questions: http://tinyurl.com/PMQ0717 The Eugene V. Debs article Edd quotes from is here - https://www.marxists.org/archive/debs/works/1905/industrial.htm. You should read more Debs generally. The clip of David Dimbelby announcing the exit poll on the BBC was taken from YouTube, and the intro music and audio motif taken from 'Labor' by Aesop Rock. We do not own this music, which is copyright Def Jux, 2001.

Daniel, Ellie, and Edd discuss migrant workers' struggles past and present, and explore debates in the historic and contemporary labour movement around immigration controls, arguing that trade unions are strongest when they oppose border controls and seek to organise all workers, regardless of immigration status or national origin. The episode features interviews with Sujata Aurora from the Grunwick 40 Committee, who explains the history of the Grunwick strike and the Committee's work to commemorate it, and Henry Lopez, President of the Independent Workers' union of Great Britain (IWGB), who discuss his union's organising amongst migrant workers, including their ongoing dispute involving outsourced security workers at the University of London. Grunwick 40 Committee: https://grunwick40.wordpress.com IWGB website: https://iwgb.org.uk IWGB University of London branch, which is organising the dispute mentioned in the interview with Henry: https://iwgb-universityoflondon.org United Voices of the World (not mentioned in the episode, but another radical union organising amongst migrant workers, including the ongoing cleaners' strike at the London School of Economics): https://www.uvwunion.org.uk The articles referred to in this episode are: "A Voice from the Aliens" (1905): available online at http://mrc-catalogue.warwick.ac.uk/records/WES/4/2/9 "Free movement has failed — Labour and the unions must recognise it", by Paul Embery (Huffington Post, 2016): http://huffpost.com/uk/entry/13112058 "Trade union movement must connect with the working class post-Brexit", by Paul Embery (Westmonster, 2017): http://www.westmonster.com/trade-union-movement-must-reconnect-with-working-class-post-brexit Gerard Coyne objecting to "the presence of a v large number of foreign nationals" (Twitter, 2017): https://twitter.com/gerard_coyne/status/815873144619728896 Intro music and audio motif taken from 'Labor' by Aesop Rock. We do not own this music, which is copyright Def Jux, 2001.

In this episode, Edd, Ellie, and Daniel take a look at the origins of International Workers’ Day and how it is still celebrated around the world. Further reading on the radical origins of May Day: https://www.marxists.org/subject/mayday/index.htm Picturehouse cinema workers are striking again on May Day. Donate to their strike fund here: https://www.crowdpac.co.uk/campaigns/250/picturehousestrike Intro music and audio motif taken from 'Labor' by Aesop Rock. We do not own this music, which is copyright Def Jux, 2001. The outro music was ‘May Day 1894’ by Darren Hayman (based on a poem by William Morris). We do not own the rights to this music, which is copyright Darren Hayman and WIAIWYA Records, 2015.

In our first episode Edd, Daniel, and Ellie discuss their hopes for what the podcast might achieve. We talk to Kelly Rogers, union rep at the Ritzy, about the growing Picturehouse Cinema workers' strike. Edd takes us through the story of London's great Music Hall Strike of 1907. The Picturehouse workers have a number of pages you can follow to support their dispute and donate to their strike fund: Brixton: https://www.facebook.com/RitzyLivingWage/ Hackney: https://www.facebook.com/HackneyLivingWage/ Crouch End: https://www.facebook.com/CrouchEndLivingWage/ East Dulwich: https://www.facebook.com/edphlivingwage/ Picturehouse Central: https://www.facebook.com/CentralLivingWage/ Intro music and audio motif taken from 'Labor' by Aesop Rock. We do not own this music, which is copyright Def Jux, 2001.