Please email the Branch for an MS Team invitation.

Each October Show Racism the Red Card holds its annual Wear Red Day #WRD In 2021 the seventh annual Wear Red Day takes place in England, Scotland and Wales (date to be confirmed).

Donate £1 - text 'RED' to 70470 to donate £1 or 'RED5' to give £5 or 'RED10' to give £10 etc (texts cost gift value plus standard message rate)  

About the campaign

Show Racism the Red Card is the UK's leading anti-racism educational charity. Show Racism the Red Card provides educational workshops, training sessions, multimedia packages, and a whole host of other resources, all with the purpose of tackling racism in society. Established in January 1996, the organisation utilises the high-profile status of football and football players to publicise its message. Across Britain, Show Racism the Red Card delivers training to more than 50,000 people per year.

Find out more about Show Racism the Red Card

Get set for #WRD21 - Join the campaign, join Unite

Please email the Branch for an MS Team invitation.

Normally Congress is the policy making body of the TUC; the annual congress meets for four days each year during September. Each affiliated union can send delegates. At congress motions are proposed and discussed and form the basis of the TUC's work for the next year. Congress is usually attended by about 600 delegates from 48 affiliated unions, has an exhibition, a fringe programme and receptions and an annual General Council dinner. Around 3,000 people would normally come through the doors over the course of the four days to take part in debate, the fringe, to exhibit or to report on the policy debates at Congress. This is a high-profile media event, widely regarded as the first big set piece occasion after the summer break, before the start of the political party conferences. In 2021 the TUC is looking to run a full Congress schedule in Liverpool. 

Further information available from the general TUC events page.

Please join the annual rally to celebrate the longest strike in history: Schoolchildren 'went on strike' in 1914 to support their teachers, sacked for organising agricultural workers.

Join participants for food (or bring a picnic if you wish), drink, entertainment and speakers from across the union movement.

Guest speakers to be confirmed

Travel coaches are organised by a number of different organisations - contact the organisers for information where available.

Dedicated car and coach parking is available in Burston. Nearest railway station is Diss (4 miles).

To register your interest or request more information visit Burston Strike School Rally website or Burston Strike School Rally email

The Burston School Strike 1914 to 1939  Publication available - please contact lese@tuc.org.uk    

Regional Coach Travel Listings to be confirmed.

Reading Pride was formed in 2003 to represent and support the local LGBT+ community. Since our first Festival attendance has grown steadily year on year with up to 15,000 people visiting the event throughout the day as well as up to 1500+ participating in the Parade.

Mission Statement

To promote equality and diversity, advance education and eliminate particularly in relation to the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and associated communities (collectively known as ‘LGBT+’), in particular but not exclusively within Reading and The Thames Valley (the "area of benefit") for the benefit of the public by raising awareness of issues affecting said communities, in particularly by promoting and staging an annual festival and making grants and/or donations to other charitable and voluntary organisations with the object of developing an environment in favour of LGBT+ equality. To provide information, advice and support to the LGBT+ community and others in order to promote the wellbeing of said communities and with the object of developing an environment in favour of LGBT+ equality.

Please email the Branch for an MS Team invitation.

Save the date for NHS birthday celebrations!

From RBH at 11:30 to the Forbury Gardens, followed by speeches and discussions about the NHS Pay and the Kingdom Security dispute.

A session with Dr. Jenny Clegg on how Mao adapted Marxist ideology to drive the Chinese peasant revolution 1925-1949.

Contact
Email: info@marx-memorial-library.org.uk

Was Mao a Marxist? Mao and the Chinese peasant revolution (1925-1949)

One hundred years ago, on July 1st 1921, the Communist Party of China was founded by a handful of people who, for the sake of secrecy, held their first meeting on a boat on a lake to the south of Shanghai. Today, the CPC is a huge organisation with a membership of 91 million people.The CPC came to power with the support of the vast majority of the population: the peasants. The Party had come to understand that agrarian transformation was the main content of the Chinese revolution and the peasants its main force. Many on the Left still to this day under-rate Mao as little more than a peasant leader.This session will on the contrary discuss how Mao, through the sinification of Marxism, came to develop his distinctive policies and ‘mass line’ approach as he figured out ways to address the challenges of the Chinese revolution and social transformation through engaging in the revolutionary process in the countryside. Marking out the differences between Mao, Stalin and Trotsky, it will further consider the relationship between the national and the agrarian revolution.What are the lessons for us to draw on today from the Chinese experience of revolution?

Dr Jenny Clegg is an academic, activist and long term China specialist. Her PhD on China’s peasants in revolution was awarded by the University of Manchester in 1989. A revised version will be published later this year by Praxis Press.

Book tickets here

Youth unemployment is rising and almost half of those who have lost their job since the start of the pandemic are young workers.

This event will look at the role trade union reps and officials can play in addressing this issue.

There will be guest speakers presenting on the various job creation schemes available in Wales and discussion on how unions can use collective bargaining to support young workers into sustainable employment.

Join us for this essential event to find out what we can do to meet the challenges facing young people.

Contact: wtuc@tuc.org.uk

Steve Turner, Unite the Union:
“Unite is proud to back the People’s Assembly national demonstration on Saturday 26 June. This year has exposed the growing inequality in our society, the failures of austerity politics and just how incompetent and corrupt this government is. But it’s also shown that when the political will is there, we can take the homeless off our streets, we can protect workers’ pay and we can look after the sick. We can’t have a return to business as usual after covid and that’s why Unite is encouraging all our members to get out on the streets and get involved in building a movement that demands a new normal, a society based on the needs of the majority.”

Discover our history on a virtual tour with one of our tour guides. Find out about our building's past and take a look at our displays.

The 2020 pandemic meant we had to cancel all on-site tours.

But we now have an exciting new way of bringing you into our historic building using the latest technology!

This virtual tour will take you through the corridors of our Grade II listed building as one of our tour guides explains our history and highlights from our collections on display.

Book your tickets here

Zoom online  

Justice for Grenfell - 72 seconds moment of silence

Sean Taylor performs song tribute to Grenfell

Guest speakers: 

Nabil Choucair and Yvette Williams MBE, Justice4Grenfell (J4G) - Campaign Update

J4G is a community-led organisation, focused on the long-term goal of obtaining justice for the bereaved families, survivors, evacuated residents and the wider local community, collaborating with representative organisations. 

Nabil Choucair, former bus driver and mechanic. On Wednesday 14 June 2017, Nabil lost six of his family members in the fire that roared through Grenfell Tower. The Choucair family lived in two flats on the 22nd floor of Grenfell Tower. Sirria Choucair, (Nabil’s Mum) 60, who was born in Lebanon, lived in flat 191. Her daughter Nadia, 33, son-in-law Bassem Choucair, 40, and their three children, Mierna, 13, Fatima, 11, and Zainab, three, lived in flat 193. All six were trapped and died in flat 193. The last phone call from the flat was at 3.24am. That was the last known contact with the Choucair family and those who had taken refuge in their flat. Eleven bodies were later found there and identified.  Nabil has consistently said that he is convinced that there is a wide-ranging conspiracy to hide the truth about what happened from relatives and survivors. Nabil is a founding member of the Grenfell Tower Trust.

Yvette Williams MBE, long term activist and trade unionist, Yvette has lived in Notting Hill for over 35 years. She worked with the Mangrove Community Association and served tenure as a Trustee for the Tabernacle Community Centre and the Pepper Pot Club. Founding member of Operation Black Vote. Yvette was head of Equality and Diversity for the Crown Prosecution Service in London for 14 years, developing hate crime prosecution policies and community engagement strategies. Co-founder of the Justice 4 Grenfell Campaign and witnessed the fire on the night with her daughter after receiving a phone call from a friend who had been evacuated.

In October 2019 the J4G team won the Significant Contribution award as Woman of the Year; and in April 2020 the Campaign won the Education Category at the New York Film festival for the film Grenfell and Social Murder

Lester Holloway, Policy Officer: Anti-Racism, TUC Equality and Strategy Department - TUC Anti-Racism Taskforce Update. 

Lester has a background in policy and anti-racism including spells with Runnymede Trust, Operation Black Vote and The 1990 Trust. He was previously an activist and executive member at the Anti-Racist Alliance, and was news editor at The Voice, and editor of the New Nation newspapers. He was also a founder member and secretary of the National Association of Black, Asian and Ethnic Minority Councillors. Lester joins from CLASS (Centre for Labour and Social Studies), a union-supported think-tank.

Please register: lese@tuc.org.uk / 020 7467 1220

A discussion of ongoing attempts across Europe to rewrite the history of the 1930s/40s anti-fascist alliance and present-day pushback .

Contact
Email: info@marx-memorial-library.org.uk

Chaired by Dr Jonathan White, speakers include Dr Almudena Cros, President of Spain's Asociación de Amigos de las Brigadas Internacionales [Association of Friends of the International Brigades] and Dr Vladimir Vasilik, Institute of History, St Petersburg University.

This third of three online panels organised jointly by Marx Memorial Library and the Society for Co-operation in Russian and Soviet Studies on the battle for historical memory brings together representatives to discuss the background to the ongoing attempts across Europe to rewrite the history of the anti-fascist alliance in the 1930s and 1940s and present-day initiatives to combat them.

Register here

Details of the two previous panels in this series:

The first panel (on 22 June 2020) explored the role of the Soviet Union/communism in the fight against fascism in the 1930s and its defeat in the Second World War. 75 years since victory over Nazi Germany in 1945, the speakers reflected on how and why this history is now under attack, with particular reference to the resolution passed by the European Parliament "On the importance of European remembrance for the Future of Europe" in September 2019.

The second panel (on 19 Nov 2020) featured speakers from organisations involved in practical work to preserve historical memory: Marx Memorial Library and Workers' School (MML); Society for Co-operation in Russian and Soviet Studies (SCRSS); International Brigade Memorial Trust; and Soviet War Memorial Trust.

Recordings of past events are available on the Marx Memorial Library website here

In this third and final lecture, Professor Vijay Prashad examines the transition from Capitalism to Socialism.

State power, transitions and eras of social revolution - a series of three lectures

What is revolutionary change and how do we make a transition to a socialist society? This series of lectures examines the Marxist idea of revolution as encompassing the passage of state power from one class to another as part of the transition from one mode of production to a higher one. Three lectures will examine the importance of the Marxist concept of the mode of production, of the idea that history is shaped by eras of social revolution in which one mode of production is replaced by a new, more sophisticated one, and the importance of state power in these revolutionary transitions.

A first lecture examining these themes in Marxist theory and history will be followed by two lectures examining particular revolutionary transitions: the one that unleashed the capitalist mode of production and a final lecture looking at the ongoing struggle to give birth to the socialist mode.

Register separately for each individual lecture by clicking the links in the titles below:

Wednesday 2nd June:  ‘The Marxist theory of revolutionary change as transitions between modes of production’  Dr Jonathan White

Thursday 10th June: ‘The transition from feudalism to capitalism’ Professor James Crossley

Thursday 17th June: ‘The transition to Socialism’  Professor Vijay Prashad

The TUC are pleased to announce the date of our first Union Learning Rep Network Forum!

These online meetings will be hosted by us every two months to provide a space, exclusively for ULRs to meet, talk, extend their worker voice as well as sharing experience. Our Learning Support Officers will be in attendance to offer support and guidance to ULRs across Wales.

We hope to develop these regular two hour meetings to respond to the requests from our ULRs in terms of content and will provide guest speakers and content as requested.

In a nutshell, this is your forum, your space and we look forward to seeing you develop this into a strong network that extends and builds from its collective voice.

Contact: wtuc@tuc.org.uk

Please email the Branch for an MS Team invitation.

On 17 May 1649, three soldiers were executed on Oliver Cromwell’s orders in Burford churchyard, Oxfordshire. They were Levellers, with beliefs in civil rights and religious tolerance. They stood up to Cromwell’s arrogance and they were shot for their pains.

Nearly 300 years later 2500 British and Irish men and women saw the evils of fascism and the appeasement of their national leaders and they joined the International Brigades in Spain to fight for freedom and justice for working people. 526 died on the Spanish battlefields.

Levellers Day has been an annual celebration of the fight for justice since 1975. This year’s event will be online and it is being jointly organised by the TUC London East and South East (TUC LESE) and the Oxford International Brigades Memorial Committee.

We have an exciting line up for you from 10:30 am through to the evening. The programme will include the annual acts of remembrance at Burford Church and at the Oxford International Brigade Memorial; film clips from earlier Levellers Days, from the Diggers occupation of St Georges Hill Surrey, and from International Brigade archives. We will have a panel of keynote speakers and a Q&A session on the theme of “The World Turned Upside Down”. And we will have music and entertainment and virtual stands from our radical campaigning comrades.

Do please join us. Tickets are free but a solidarity contribution towards platform costs and for building the 2022 event are welcome - HERE

Facebook: HERE

1 in 2 women and 2 in 3 LGBT+ workers experience sexual harassment in the workplace. 

In this webinar we'll be joined by Deeba Syed, Rights of Women and Nikki Pound, TUC Women's Officer to talk about how union reps can stand against sexual harassment in their workplace and support people who disclose. Specifically we'll discuss:

• What is sexual harassment

• As a rep, how to support someone who discloses experiences of sexual harassment

• What actions employers should be taking to prevent sexual harassment

If you have any questions for our panel of experts, please post them in the ‘Ask a Question’ box.

Contact: tuceducationhelp@tuc.org.uk

This course will take place online on the 6th, 13th and 20th May 2021 - learners will need to attend each session.

Course delivery: 

Online group sessions, facilitated by a trade union education tutor via Microsoft Teams.

Who should attend?

This course is aimed at both new and experienced green/environmental reps as well as other trade unionists who wish to take action on the climate and nature emergency in their workplace. It is suitable for all union officers, branch officials, reps, health and safety reps, union learning reps and equality reps who wish to find out more about the trade union approach to sustainability.

Course description:

Workers across all sectors will be affected by changes and will be part of the efforts to decarbonise and move Wales to a more sustainable, zero-waste, circular economy. And trade union members have the knowledge and ideas to help deliver the changes needed.

Workers have a huge amount of knowledge that can help organisations looking to reduce their environmental impact. It’s often the workers on the ground who are most likely to understand how to do this effectively. Trade unions can play a key role in identifying and delivering best environmental practice at workplace level. 

Unions can ensure that efforts to reduce an organisation’s environmental impact are developed collaboratively and in full consultation with workers. Involving workers can make sure that changes are fair, effective and have the full support of people in the workplace.

This course focusses on the practical skills needed to develop union-led sustainability initiatives in the workplace. It covers the core skills required for trade unionists who want to take practical action on the environment in their workplace or become a trade union environmental or ‘green’ representative.

Across Wales, union reps are already working with their members to make workplaces more sustainable. They are finding ways to cut carbon and reduce waste, campaigning for cleaner air and creating green spaces to support nature. This course uses the Wales TUC's new Greener Workplaces for a Just Transition toolkit as a resource and aims to support all trade unionists who want to be involved in the movement to green our workplaces.

The course covers:

➔ Understanding the climate and environmental emergency and identifying the impact on your workplace.

➔ Working with the branch and members to identify sustainability issues that need to be raised with management.

➔ How to carry out workplace environmental audits.

➔ How to review and develop workplace environmental policies and agreements

➔ Awareness raising and promotion of green workplace practices.

How to apply:

Applications to: John James, Trade Union Studies Centre, Coleg Gwent
Tel: 07527 450276

Email: John.James@coleggwent.ac.uk

Join the TUC for a Workers' Memorial Day online meeting, where we will be hearing from trade union voices from around the world, fighting for the health and safety of working people and remembering those who lost their lives to work.

Speakers

• Sharan Burrows, General Secretary of the ITUC

• Frances O'Grady, General Secretary of the TUC

• Louise Adamson, Families Against Corporate Killers (FACK) Campaign

The G7 will meet in the UK this year, at the greatest emergency of the post- war age.  The TUC is hosting a discussion of global economic priorities, as part of lobbying around the process and the parallel ‘L7’ Labour Ministers’ gathering.

Long before the pandemic hit, austerity policies had revealed the bankruptcy of thinking in the face of the 2008-09 crisis of financial globalisation. Workers and their families have endured decades of worsening conditions, and now confront a climate emergency and nationalist politics. Too few governments and institutions support the structural change needed to address chronic global inequalities and ensure decent work for all, even though the IMF and OECD now caution against austerity for rich economies.

A distinguished line up of speakers from across the world, including Heather Boushey of President Biden’s Council of Economic Advisers, Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer Anneliese Dodds, TUC General Secretary Frances O’Grady and leading academics and campaigners, will ask what a labour internationalism would look like, how new global rules ​can deliver better for workers, and what we need to do to make that happen. 

Programme and speakers

1300 GMT:  Introduction   

Richard Trumka, President of the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations

1310-1400: How power imbalance and inequalities have meant a failed economy

Matthew Klein will discuss his book Trade Wars are Class Wars as point of departure to a discussion of the economics of wages versus wealth, the interplay with international finance, and how a labour economics can overcome renewed nationalism.

Chaired by Filip Stefanovic, TUAC Economic Policy Advisor

Matthew C. Klein, economics commentator at Barrons and co-author of Trade Wars are Class Wars.

Ann Pettifor, Political Economist and author of The Case for the Green New Deal

Geoff Tily, TUC senior economist

1400-1450: How global rules and institutions have privileged corporations over workers

Across each of the international monetary and financial system, rules for global trade and global development and poverty agendas, speakers will discuss how the few have been advantaged at the great expense of the many, and look to setting the balance right.

Chaired by Sarah-Jayne Clifton, Executive Director, Economic Change Unit, formerly Director of the Jubilee Debt Campaign

Luiz Vieira Coordinator of the Bretton Woods Project

Rosa Crawford, TUC Policy Officer leading on international trade

Caroline Khamati Mugalla, General Secretary, East Africa Trade Union Confederation and Tolu Fagbemigbe, Nigeria Labour Congress

1500-1600: Plenary discussion: building a new internationalism – what we need to do now

A high-level panel of politicians, trade union leaders and academics will offer their take on the way forward, and the panel will discuss questions from the audience.

Chaired by Gail Cartmail, Assistant General Secretary Unite and TUC President

Heather Boushey, President Biden’s Council of Economic Advisers (CEA)

Anneliese Dodds, Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer

Frances O’Grady, TUC General Secretary

Jayati Ghosh, Professor of Economics at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, USA

Pierre Habbard, General Secretary of the Trade Union Advisory Committee to the OECD

Registration is essential and you can access all sessions with the same registration link.

Please email the Branch for an MS Team invitation.

Examination of some of the economic causes and consequences of the scale and impact of the Covid pandemic and a consideration of the longer-term global implications.

One of a series of occasional online lectures taking place on:

Thursday 18 March 7 p.m

In this lecture, the Marxist economist Michael Roberts will examine some of the economic causes and consequences of the scale and impact of the Covid pandemic in Britain and globally and then consider the longer-term implications for the world economy. Michael Roberts’s most recent books are:

The World in Crisis: Marxist Perspectives on Crash & Crisis (2018), and Engels 200 (2020).

We are thrilled to announce that Angela Rayner MP, Deputy Leader of the Labour Party, is now confirmed to give the 2021 Mary Macarthur Lecture.

Angela advanced through the trade union movement whilst working in social care before becoming elected as an MP in 2015 and Deputy Leader of the Labour Party in 2020.  It is an inspiring story about the vital roles trade unions play in giving opportunities to women to pursue their ambitions to their fullest and we are delighted that Angela can share her thoughts with us at this year's lecture.

This year, marking 100 years since the untimely passing of the great Mary Macarthur, we will also hear from a number of leading women in the academia and trade unions, as we discuss what lessons we should learn from Mary's experience organising vulnerable working women and how we build a more progressive future for working women.

Further keynote speakers include:

• Mary Bousted, Joint General Secretary, NEU

Born in Bolton, Mary was a  secondary school teacher before becoming a lectuer at the University of York. Mary progressed to Head of Secondary Education at Edge Hill College and then Kingston University before becoming General Secretary of ATL in 2003 which merged with NUT in 2017 to form the NEU 

• Dr Cathy Hunt, academic and historian

An academic focussing on people’s lives in Britain in the late 19th and first half of the 20th century, Dr Cathy Hunt is an authoratiative voice on the life of Mary Macarthur and the women whom she organised. To commemorate the 100th anniversary of her death, Cathy has worked with the TUC Library to create a special exhibition about Mary Macarthur's life.

• Sarah James, GMB national women's equality lead

Sarah works locally to the home of the women chainmakers at Sandwell Council. A powerful and articulate advocate for equality and justice, helping to form and drive forward the GMB's 'BOSS' group and taking on a national role on equality within the GMB, Sarah is a great example of articulate and brave trade unionism - a true legacy of Mary Macarthur and the women chainmakers of Cradley Heath 

• Louise Regan, NEU & TUC Midlands Chair

Louise is a teacher who is the NEU's National Officer. A previous NEU President Louise is the current TUC Midlands Chair and a leading voice in the midlands, constantly pushing for greater fairness, justice and equality

• Chaired by Sylvia Heal - Patron of the Women Chainmakers' Festival and ex Halesowen and Rowley Regis

Sylvia was famously first elected to the House of Commons at the Mid-Staffordshire by-election  in 1990 in a contest that was largely fought over the Poll Tax.

Elected in 1997 for the Halesowen and Rowley Regis she was a frontbench spokeswoman for health and women as well as spending time on the Education select committee. A passionate advocate of the TUC Women Chainmakers' Festival, Sylvia has supported and promoted the festival from its inception and is today the patron of the festival,