Labour movement Articles

Last months saw two important anniversaries pass for the Labour party – neither received the attention they might have done. 27 February is an important day for Labour people. This year, the date marks 106 years since a group of working-class representatives and trade...

Make no mistake: the new trade union bill is a deeply intolerant tirade against working people and the labour movement. Ignore the bland ministerial statements and read the damn thing – it is deliberately designed to outlaw most strikes and other forms of legitimate...

David Cameron went all out at his first cabinet meeting this month to portray the Conservative party as the ‘real party of working people’. Yet the first act of this government, shown in the queen’s speech, is to restrict the rights of working people and bring in the...

As the TUC meets in Bournemouth, Stephen Bush discovers that the early history of the trade unions may offer the best route to their future The trade unions did not just found the Labour party. They built the modern world. In 1868, when the Trades Union Congress first...