The Tories introduced the 50% strike ballot threshold to make industrial action harder. MATT WRACK argues that a Labour government has no justification for leaving it on the statute book
BRIAN WILLIAMS, who died on Monday March 7, was a lifelong communist, trade unionist and progressive teacher and educationalist.
His ebullience, ready humour and love for the good things in life were carefully balanced by the learning that he always wore lightly, a razor-sharp intellect and by his gifts as a highly effective administrator with a care for both nuance and detail.
Born January 3 1947, in Mountain Ash in Mid Glamorgan, Wales, he was raised by a family with strong labour movement values and was greatly influenced by his father and grandfather, who had both been trade union activists, officials and members of the local Labour Party.
MEIC BIRTWISTLE offers an appreciation of the renaissance man GARETH MILES
Charles Lubselski pays tribute to a lifelong communist and supporter of the Daily Worker and Morning Star
Maggie Bowden was a trailblazing campaigning lawyer at Birnberg and Thompsons, women’s organiser of the Communist Party, and general secretary of Liberation
The EIS president who defended Marxist politics in the 1980s fought Thatcherite educational policies while organising Teachers for Peace rallies and ensuring Morning Star circulation in Scotland’s pit villages and factories, writes JOHN FOSTER


