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
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How workers fought US slavery and earned Abraham Lincoln’s gratitude
PETER LAZENBY reports on how trade unionists in Manchester are to celebrate the role of the city’s cotton industry workers in the fight for the abolition of slavery in the US civil war
SOLIDARITY ACROSS THE POND: This Abraham Lincoln statue in Manchester was created by George Barnard, and is a replica
of one in Cincinnati, Ohio. It was presented by Charles Phelps Taft, the son of US president William Howard Taft.Some wit called it the “stomach ache statue” because of the placement of the hands
[Keith Edkins/CC]
In the wake of Ann Widdecombe’s murder, JOHN GREEN wonders whether the government will really get to grips with the root cause of these attacks on our MPs
The new PM’s opening addresses offered hope, council homes and reform — but little detail on how any of it will be delivered, warns CLAUDIA WEBBE
Despite the screeching from the right-wing media, Burnham’s speech chimed with the public mood - and socialists should take advantage, says Morning Star editor BEN CHACKO
Scotland's Labour leader cannot continue to evade responsibility for the party's decline, argues LAUREN HARPER
Nature as well as society works dialectically, asserts the Marx Memorial Library and Workers’ School
IN a little-known square behind Manchester Town Hall stands a statue of US president Abraham Lincoln.
Although it is hidden away, it represents a huge event in the radical history of Manchester — when thousands of workers supported an embargo of cotton during the US civil war, helping end slavery in the US but at a cost of idle mills and hunger to workers in Lancashire’s cotton industry.
Sunday is the anniversary of the date in 1863 when Lincoln wrote a letter to “the working men of Manchester” in acknowledgement of their support for the embargo of cotton from the southern Confederate states as the US civil war raged.
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