The Standard Telephones and Cables strike, 1973
The Standard Telephones and Cables strike in 1973 was one of a wave of strikes by black and asian workers confronting both the racism of their white colleagues and management, and sabotage from their own trade unions in the 1970s. It was preceded by the Mansfield Hosiery strike in 1972, and followed by the Imperial Typewriters strike in 1974.
Organising the Unorganised: 'Race', Poor Work and Trade Unions
John Wrench and Satnam Virdee discuss the relationship between mostly South Asian women workers at Heathrow and Burnsall (Smethwick), their relationships with the TGWU and GMB trade unions, and the role of non-union groups such as the Indian Workers Association and London Support Group. They also discuss racism and reactions to it in British trade unions more generally.
Durham Teaching Assistants – Not Finished Yet?
Submitted by Internationalis... on Nov 1 2017 15:32
The solidarity and determination of the Durham Teaching Assistants has been an inspiration to other workers throughout the North East and beyond. More than once they refused to accept a deal which would have meant a complete cave-in.
Vietnam: 6,000 workers involved in wildcat strike at clothing factory
Submitted by Hlessi on Sep 10 2017 18:42
Inhumane conditions and low wages have led to approximately 6,000 workers going on strike at a garment factory in Thanh Hoa province, Vietnam.
An “entirely different” kind of union: the Service, Office, and Retail Workers’ Union of Canada (SORWUC), 1972–1986 – Julia Smith
Submitted by RobynK on Sep 1 2017 09:57
An in depth article which examines the Service, Office, and Retail Workers’ Union of Canada (SORWUC), an independent, grassroots, socialist-feminist union that existed from 1972 to 1986. They organised workers in marginalised, low-paying, largely female-dominated sectors that weren’t high priorities for the much larger business unions.
This article was published in the Canadian academic journal Labour/Le Travail, vol. 73, in 2014.
To praise Ginger Goodwin is to revere a radical – Mark Leier
Submitted by RobynK on Aug 28 2017 19:43
Feisty miner reminds that comfortable compromisers are easily forgotten.
In this piece (originally published by The Tyee in 2014), Mark Leier, author of Bakunin: The Creative Passion, emphasises the radical edge of Ginger Goodwin – the English migrant coal miner turned labour organiser who is recognised as a martyr by many workers in British Columbia, Canada – by comparing him to one of his contemporaries.
Outsourced SEIU union organizer wrongfully terminated for organizing at work
Submitted by Diane on Aug 25 2017 11:59
A young organizer has won more than $20,000 in back pay after being wrongfully terminated from her job with the Chicago affiliate of the Fight for $15 campaign, Workers Organizing Committee of Chicago (WOCC).
How to kill an Act of Parliament – Jack Ray
Submitted by RobynK on Aug 23 2017 07:54
The story of the legislation that led to the jailing of the Pentonville Five, the 1971 Industrial Relations Act. Published as follows during 2012 in the Black Flag, issue 235.
Basics of Organising from the IWW
A short pamphlet from the IWW on the essentials of early-stage organising at work, including the practice of 'workplace mapping'.
Labour Advice Bureau – Workers’ Dreadnought
Here is a sarcastic piece from Sylvia Pankhurst’s Workers’ Dreadnought paper in 1922, it was reprinted as follows in 1961 by the UK-based libertarian socialist group Solidarity in their Solidarity for Workers’ Power journal (vol.1, no. 8).
