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‘People feel enough is enough and they want to do something’
Matt Trinder talks to FRAN HEATHCOTE, president of Britain’s biggest civil servants’ union, ahead of its annual conference in Brighton
NICK WRIGHT considers how the isolation of Israel and a new film on the controversial Italian communist leader are creating new reference points for Italy’s left
CARLOS MARTINEZ says Cuba’s achievements in the face of a criminal blockade are startling, but the island’s future if the United States succeeds in crushing it looks bleak
AMNON BROWNFIELD STEIN reports that far-right MPs who mobbed the event organised by Hadash may have helped raise awareness of the brutality of the Israeli right
Born on this day in 1931, the heroic revolutionary faces a dangerous new wave of White House aggression. We must treat his birthday as a rallying cry to resist the illegal siege of Cuba, writes ROGER McKENZIE
RAMZY BAROUD decries the rats of Gaza, the rodent and human type. Both abound as profiteering from tragedy reaches obscene levels
“THE media sometimes portrays civil servants as overpaid bowler-hatted bureaucrats, but we are working people doing a very difficult job — often not a very popular one — implementing government policy, but we try to do a good job and treat people with respect.”
Fran Heathcote, president of the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union, is busy preparing for the union’s three-day 2023 conference in Brighton, which kicks off today.
It’s been quite a year since the union’s last annual meet-up. A national dispute with the Tory government over several issues, including pensions, job security and redundancy terms, has grown increasingly bitter.
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Roger McKenzie talks to general secretary of Unison CHRISTINA McANEA about the impact of the cost-of-living crisis on members, the local government funding emergency and the threat of Reform UK
Labour will find increases in the state pension age are unacceptable, just as cuts to the Winter Fuel Allowance, personal independence payments and universal credit are — it needs to change direction immediately, writes PCS general secretary FRAN HEATHCOTE
Almost half of universities face deficits, merger mania is taking hold, and massive fee hikes that will lock out working-class students are on the horizon, write RUBEN BRETT, PAUL WHITEHOUSE and DAN GRACE