Ben Chacko

1 week ago | morningstaronline.co.uk | Ben Chacko

THIS could be a decisive summer for the left: less than a year in, and the Labour government faces serious challenges in three areas it has tried to stick to the policies of the defeated Conservatives. First and most urgently: Palestine. A genocide is accelerating before our eyes, and Britain remains complicit. But the government is under pressure as never before, the demonstrations for peace are only growing bigger and it has been forced into rhetorical condemnation of its ally.

1 week ago | morningstaronline.co.uk | Ben Chacko

INDIGENOUS groups in Panama called on the Pope to intervene at the weekend to protect them from “systematic and violent persecution.”The appeal came after the central American country’s political crisis, triggered by a deal allowing US troops in and by a social security law increasing working hours and reducing pensions, plumbed new depths.

2 weeks ago | morningstaronline.co.uk | Ben Chacko

THE General Federation of Trade Unions (GFTU) conference today called for greater trade union support for the trades council movement. Conference heard from CWU activist Dave Chapple of Bridgewater and Paula Dunne from Oxford on the vital work trades councils do in linking trade union struggles to the local community.

2 weeks ago | morningstaronline.co.uk | Ben Chacko

THE Employment Rights Bill falls short of redressing the imbalance of power between workers and employers and trade unions need to push Labour harder to improve it, Lord John Hendy KC told the GFTU conference today. The veteran labour movement lawyer said the law would improve current workplace rights, citing positives including improvements to sick pay and parental leave, as well as better union rights to access workplaces.

3 weeks ago | morningstaronline.co.uk | Ben Chacko

UNIONS will confront Labour’s cuts agenda next month with a national demonstration demanding the party change course. The People’s Assembly held a press conference today to call on the whole labour movement to march with it at the No More Austerity demonstration in London on Saturday June 7.