Fighting today’s battles with yesterday’s strategies? On the romanticism of the picket line!

Since 2018, UCU has been in almost permanent industrial action over cuts to pensions, pay and working conditions including more than 60 days of strike by now. Currently action is paused to provide room for 'meaningful negotiations', but we are yet in another ballot to extend the dispute for a further six months including a potential marking and assessment boycott in the summer. Key to any action has been the sanctity of the picket line. All-out strikes are supposed to be all-out strikes. However, is this still the right strategy at this point in time? In this blog post, I use the moment of pause in industrial action to reflect on our approach. I will argue that we need to rethink our strategy drastically and emphasise impact on our employer over purity of action. The way the neo-liberal University works has changed, and we need to adjust our tactics accordingly.

Forget a ‘fair wage for a fair day’s work’?

Struggles between trade unions and employers are first and foremost about wages. What constitutes a ‘fair wage for a fair day’s work’? Indeed, one of trade unions’ biggest success has been to obtain higher wage levels by organising workers into a collective social force, ready to go on strike together if needed. Calls for an increase in the official minimum wage or a living wage are equally over concerns of what constitutes proper remuneration for particular services of labour offered. In this post, I will critically examine the potential of struggles for higher wages for broader changes to inequality and injustice in society.

SIGTUR’s Futures Commission and the search for alternatives in and beyond capitalism!

On 24 and 25 June, I participated in the first meeting of the Southern Initiative on Globalisation and Trade Union Rights’ (SIGTUR) Futures Commission. The meeting was hosted by Eddie Webster in the Chris Hani Institute in Johannesburg/South Africa and supported by the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation. A group of left-wing intellectuals and trade union representatives was entrusted with the task to undertake the first steps towards developing concrete alternatives to neo-liberal globalisation. In this post, I will reflect on some of the key discussions during the two days.

The Privatisation and Internationalisation of Public Services in a Time of Austerity

Why is austerity the dominant response to the global financial crisis and how can it be resisted? How is privatisation affecting sectors such as health services and education? These and related questions were discussed at the workshop A Political Economy of the Privatisation and Internationalisation of Public Services in a Time of Austerity, held in the Business School of the University of Hertfordshire on 1 and 2 March 2013. In this post, I will draw on some of the themes discussed at this workshop.

Reflections on the Eurozone crisis: austerity, neo-liberal restructuring and resistance.

Over the last 14 months, I have published several posts dealing with aspects of the Eurozone crisis and the struggle against the imposition of austerity across Europe. In this post, I will bring them together in one narrative. My general focus is on uneven and combined development in Europe as the underlying structural dynamic of the crisis, neo-liberal restructuring and its limits, the move towards authoritarian government as well as issues of resistance in the European core and periphery.

Portugal – When ‘good students’ turn sour

Portugal has been struggling with austerity, imposed by the Troika of EU Commission, European Central Bank and IMF. Higher Education (HE) has been badly affected similarly to the other areas of the Portuguese public sector. In this guest post, Mark Bergfeld reports from his experience in Lisbon last week of how students and members of staff mobilised against cuts in HE as part of the November 14 general strike. He concludes that while the current crisis is challenging, it nonetheless provides opportunities for students and members of staff to strengthen their joint resistance against austerity. 

Labour Struggle in a Peripheral Context: Debating Labour and Alternatives to Globalisation in Turkey.

The peripheral context in the world capitalist system has been a constant centre of attention in debating alternatives. It is even more so under globalisation that has shifted labour-intensive production to the periphery often under conditions of precarity (Cox, 1987: 319). Moreover, dissent is on the rise in tandem with social cuts and austerity measures. The economic crisis provides opportunities to reflect upon new strategies for labour and the Left. In this guest post, Elif Uzgören debates the labour situation in a peripheral context - Turkey – against the background of globalisation and the transnationalisation of production.

Contentious strategies and union revitalization: the Hellenic Halyvourgia Strike

Greece is the country, which suffers one of the worst neo-liberal attacks in Europe (see The Imposition of Austerity). And yet, Greek workers have not given up. They continue to challenge and resist capitalist restructuring. In this guest post, Giorgos Bithymitris from the Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences in Athens discusses how steel workers at Hellenic Halyvourgia have not only been able to sustain a long strike, but also succeeded in providing encouragement for Greek workers more generally.

Success of the Left in Greek elections?

'At this moment the opinion polls show the combined vote to the left of Pasok approaching 40 percent' states Panos Garganas, editor of the Greek newspaper Workers Solidarity in an interview with the journal International Socialism.

In this wide-ranging interview on the forthcoming Greek elections on 6 May, Garganas describes the people's sufferings as a result of imposed austerity programmes and the increasing resistance to these programmes, he deals with the dangers of a shift to right-wing extremist parties, as well as assesses the chances of the progressive left. Solidarity strike action in other countries as well as the debate of an anti-capitalist programme are the key challenges in his eyes.

What future for the right to strike in the UK?

Yet again a planned strike was deemed illegal by a High Court judge in the UK. On Monday 17 May, Mr Justice McCombe ruled that Unite, the trade union which organises British Airways (BA) cabin crew, had failed to tell its 12,000 members about the 11 spoilt ballot papers in the last strike vote. This is a clear minor technicality, which in no way affected the overall outcome of the ballot. BA had made a new offer, which was overwhelmingly rejected by trade union members at the beginning of May. In a turnout of 71 per cent, the majority against the proposals was 81 per cent.

Right to strike under attack

The right to strike, to withdraw peacefully one’s labour, is a fundamental human right. It is the only option workers have to balance capital’s structural power in the economy. And yet, this right is under severe attack in the UK.

BA cabin crew deserve support

With elections looming on the horizon, the strike by British Airways (BA) cabin crew over a reduction of the number of cabin crew on long haul flights, a two-year pay freeze from 2010 as well as new contracts with lower pay for fresh recruits has gained additional attention.