Courts undermine oil
26 August 2024
The Labour government is using a court decision in June to justify its opposition to oil and gas production, threatening Britain’s energy security and industry.
Law
Law
Nonsense in court ruling on climate
15 April 2024
A ruling by the ECHR finding Switzerland guilty of failing to reduce emission targets represents a big threat to national sovereignty. More claims are sure to follow.
Assert the right to strike
The capitalist class wants to shackle organised workers. That’s the whole point of its recent legislation on minimum service levels. What can we do about it?
1984: GCHQ trade union ban
Forty years ago workers at a government intelligence centre stood out against a ban on union membership…
Anti-Union Laws: Cheltenham march [print version]
On Saturday 27 January thousands of trade unionists from across the country assembled in Cheltenham for a TUC march and rally against the latest anti-strike laws.
On the march for the right to strike
8 February 2024
Workers gathered in Cheltenham on 27 January to remind government that they will resist anti-union laws.
Train drivers fight on for pay
25 January 2024
Train drivers continue their fight for pay and conditions with a round of strikes. Train operating companies, backed by the government, are not even negotiating. One company trying to use new minimum service level laws quickly climbed down.
Time to take up the challenge
A short twelve months ago NHS workers and their unions were deep in preparation for what everyone knew was going to be a major battle on that most central of issues, pay and conditions.
Unions united against law
20 December 2023
The first special Congress of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) for over forty years took place in early December. It considered how trade unions should respond to legal attempts to restrict their activity.
TUC Special congress [print version]
The first special Congress of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) for over 40 years took place in early December. It considered how trade unions should respond to legal attempts to restrict their activity.
Assert the right to strike
Assert the right to strike
Tuesday 6 February 2024 19:00
Capitalism’s response to the successful workers’ action in health and rail is to make such action illegal. The right to strike can only be asserted in practice, not won in argument, or legislated for in parliament.
Come and discuss. Email info@cpbml.org.uk for an invitation
Protect the right to strike
Protect the right to strike
Saturday 27 January 2024 12:00
Cheltenham 27 January 2024
12 noon Montpellier Gardens, Cheltenham GL50 1UL
TUC march and rally against new restrictions on the right to strike, the next stage of the continuing campaign against new anti-stike laws.
This takes place at the home of GCHQ, where 40 years ago Margaret Thatcher banned workers from union membership.
https://www.tuc.org.uk/protectrighttostrike
Strike laws – TUC calls special conference
17 November 2023
The government is trying to stop workers fighting for pay and conditions. A TUC special conference will discuss the trade union response.
Trade union laws: a brake on workers' action
Workers have always organised to defend their interests, governments have always used the law to oppose them, but struggle does not stop…
Anti-union law: a brief history
As workers began to challenge the power of capital and employers at the start of the industrial revolution, trade unions were simply made illegal by the Combination Acts of 1799 and 1800.
Barristers: Offer accepted
Criminal barristers voted in October to accept an improved pay offer from the government...
Legal aid - Barristers vote for action [print version]
Barristers began industrial action on 11 April over criminal legal aid fees.
EU acts the bully
22 February 2022
The EU is trying to bully the governments of EU members Hungary and Poland into accepting EU policies, using using the European Court of Justice to do so.
EU claims 'superior' law
The EU is now saying: our law is superior to your law. Or more specifically, the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union is superior to British law.
Why it has to be one law for all
We are witnessing the growth of parallel legal systems run by religious courts…
Sharia - a recent introduction
Maryam Namazie of One Law for All gave evidence to the government review of sharia law and faced hostile responses.
Legal attack on injury claims
10 April 2017
The government is now changing the rules for compensation for injury by the sleight of hand of increasing the small claims court limits.
German courts bow to supremacy of EU
22 June 2016
Germany’s top judges have retreated on a crucial issue. Unable to assert their judicial supremacy, they are bowing to the EU.
Valentine's stunt put up against Trade Union Bill
13 January 2016
The Trade Union Bill passed its second reading in the Lords on 11 January. In the face of a seemingly inexorable journey towards the Bill becoming an Act, the TUC’s response is a tepid Valentine’s stunt.
Postal workers walk out
No law can restrain workers when they choose to ignore it. In Bridgwater, Somerset, Post Office workers walked out without a ballot in protest at the dismissal of a colleague – and no law was invoked.
What’s in the bill?
New restrictions on the right to strike, including a 50 per cent voting threshold for union ballot turnouts, plus in some “essential public services” 40 per cent of those entitled to vote must vote for industrial action.
They want us to disarm and surrender
The Trade Union Bill announced in the Queen’s Speech has resurrected every wish-list governments ever had of smashing the working class. It embodies every anti-worker measure they’ve previously tried to implement and every shred of vindictive class hatred they have had in their ranks reaching back to day one of modern capitalism.
Courts - Direct action escalates
The direct action reported in Workers in July by criminal lawyers (outside of all the anti-trade union legislation in Britain), which is intended to clog up the criminal legal system in Britain, has now been escalated.
Legal aid lawyers take direct action against payments cuts
8 July 2015
Legal aid lawyers who provide advice in criminal cases have embarked on direct action against a further 8.75 per cent cut in legal aid payments for lawyers attending police stations, magistrates courts and Crown Court cases.
Costly advice
Anti-union legislation is so complex that legal firms are making a killing by advising employers on how to use the law to attack workers.