Labour Days: a labour movement podcast
35 episodes - English - Latest episode: 9 months ago - ★★★★★ - 4 ratingsA podcast about trade union issues and labour history.
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Episodes
Ep 31: The History of Anti-Strike Laws in the UK
October 17, 2023 07:06 - 1 hour - 72.4 MBTony Blair once reassured a journalist that, even after New Labour’s moderate reforms to employment law, Britain would still have “the most restrictive union laws in the western world.” What do those laws consist of, where do they come from, and how can we resist them? Prof. Mustill, Ellie, and Daniel rattle through the chronology. Ellie also bigs up the ongoing election campaign of John Moloney, standing to be re-elected as Assistant General Secretary of her union, PCS. We’ve mentioned Jo...
Ep 30: James Connolly's Industrial Unionism
August 28, 2023 10:11 - 1 hour - 44.4 MBOur own Liam McNulty has written a new political biography of the Irish revolutionary James Connolly, entitled ‘James Connolly: Socialist, Nationalist & Internationalist.’ In this episode we discuss Connolly as a workplace organiser and theorist of trade union organisation, looking at his role in the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) and in major disputes such as the 1913 Dublin Lockout. You can buy Liam’s book here: https://www.merlinpress.co.uk/page/backlist/?act=search&find=connolly ...
Ep 29: The 2022-3 Strike Wave in Britain
July 31, 2023 13:04 - 59 minutes - 44.2 MBYes, we're back... did you miss us? No, we didn't think so. But, we're back anyway. The promised episode on Liam's book about James Connolly, which we teased back in January, is still in the pipeline, but we decided to just get back on the road with a loose discussion about the ongoing strike wave that's been taking place in Britain since summer 2022. With Ellie and Liam absent, you're stuck with Edd and Daniel, a duo of smug, irritating men who were in the podcast game long before Campbell/...
Ep 29 TEASER: James Connolly
January 16, 2023 22:56 - 10 minutes - 13.9 MBIt's been a while since our latest episode but we're back. Our producer Liam McNulty has just had a new book published which will be of interest to Labour Days listeners. James Connolly: Socialist, Nationalist, and Internationalist by Liam McNulty is published by Merlin Press. You can order it here: https://www.merlinpress.co.uk/page/forthcoming-books It takes a look at one of the key figures in Irish labour movement history, James Connolly, who has featured in a number of our episodes. T...
TEASER: James Connolly
January 16, 2023 22:56 - 10 minutes - 13.9 MBIt's been a while since our latest episode but we're back. Our producer Liam McNulty has just had a new book published which will be of interest to Labour Days listeners. James Connolly: Socialist, Nationalist, and Internationalist by Liam McNulty is published by Merlin Press. You can order it here: https://www.merlinpress.co.uk/page/forthcoming-books It takes a look at one of the key figures in Irish labour movement history, James Connolly, who has featured in a number of our episodes. T...
Ep 28 – Workplace Occupations and Sit-Down Strikes
January 05, 2021 17:32 - 1 hour - 92.3 MBEdd takes us through the history of the tactic of workplace occupations, and we discuss their re-emergence in Britain and Ireland in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crash. We're very lucky to be joined by Jaymie Rigby, one of the workers who occupied the Vestas wind turbine blades factory on the Isle of Wight in 2009. As we face a new wave of job losses, can we rediscover these tactics? Some selected additional reading: “How sit-down strikes built unions in the USA” https://www.workersl...
Ep 28: Workplace Occupations and Sit-Down Strikes
January 05, 2021 17:32 - 1 hour - 92.3 MBEdd takes us through the history of the tactic of workplace occupations, and we discuss their re-emergence in Britain and Ireland in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crash. We're very lucky to be joined by Jaymie Rigby, one of the workers who occupied the Vestas wind turbine blades factory on the Isle of Wight in 2009. As we face a new wave of job losses, can we rediscover these tactics? Some selected additional reading: “How sit-down strikes built unions in the USA” https://www.workersl...
Ep 27: Strikes for Black Lives, with guest Robert Cuffy
September 04, 2020 16:10 - 51 minutes - 70 MBWhat role has organised labour played in anti-racist and civil rights struggles, past and present? We look at recent actions by workers and unions as part of the Black Lives Matter movement, and the historic role of black workers' organisers and socialists in the US civil rights struggle. We also discuss the unfortunate presence in the US labour movement of “unions” representing the police, and what might be done to challenge that. This episode also features an excerpt of an interview with R...
Ep 26: 'Class Power on Zero Hours': an interview with the Angry Workers
May 23, 2020 12:12 - 39 minutes - 53.6 MBThis episode features an interview with two comrades from the Angry Workers, a revolutionary collective whose members have been involved in workplace and community organising activity in the supermarket, food, and logistics sector in west London. Their new book, 'Class Power on Zero Hours', is available to buy now from PM Press: https://pmpress.org.uk/product/class-power-on-zero-hours/ The Angry Workers are online at https://angryworkersworld.wordpress.com/ Anyone interested in the issue o...
Ep 25: Three Strikes And Out
April 26, 2020 18:57 - 26 minutes - 36.1 MBIn a break from pandemic-related content, our hosts each pick a little-known, unusual, or otherwise distinctive strike from history, and briefly tell its story. Daniel spoke about the artisan tomb builders’ strike from ancient Egypt in 1157 BCE; Ellie chose the strike of Haudenosaunee (“Iroquois”) women in the 1600s, which was a strike of domestic and reproductive labour; and Edd talked about the “Skylab controversy”, a strike of three Nasa astronauts in 1973, the first strike in space. T...
Ep 24: Coronavirus Pandemic - No Class Peace in the Crisis
March 29, 2020 17:55 - 30 minutes - 42.4 MBA special episode produced in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, looking at how bosses are attempting to exploit the crisis, and what workers are doing to resist it. In such a fast moving situation, a lot of the situations we discuss had changed more or less as soon as the episode was recorded, so some of the stuff in this episode will now be out of date. There are also lots of other ongoing and developing workers’ struggles which we didn’t mention, with new ones springing up all the time....
Ep 23: Discussing Yorkshire & Humber TUC's "Summer Patrols"
December 07, 2019 19:07 - 43 minutes - 60.4 MBIn our last episode of 2019, we speak to Caty and Chris, two activists involved in TUC Yorkshire and the Humber's "Summer Patrols" project. We discuss the aims of the project, and the broad horizon of organising young workers and reviving the labour movement. This episode was recorded in early November, before election fever really set in, so there isn't much election chat in this one. The list of disputes Edd mentions in the outro is also now somewhat out of date. You can read more about t...
Ep 22: Sex workers organising
August 22, 2019 20:00 - 56 minutes - 77.7 MBIn this episode, Edd speaks to Stacey Clare, author of the forthcoming book ‘The Ethical Stripper’, about her experiences as a stripper and sex workers’ rights activist with campaigns and unions such as the GMB’s sex workers’ branch, the East London Strippers Collective, and United Voices of the World. Edd and Ellie then discuss the issues posed by the interview. Daniel was absent for this episode, hence a distinct lack of Local 574 references. Check back in next month for more of those. ...
Ep 21: Rank-and-file trade unionism (Live from Southampton Transformed)
August 08, 2019 20:00 - 16 minutes - 22.9 MBThis mini episode consists of a talk our co-host Daniel gave at the Southampton Transformed event on 8 June. He spoke on a panel entitled “how can the labour movement organise in a way that includes everyone?”, alongside Sofia from Brighton Acorn, Si Cotton from Unite, and Callum Cant from Notes from Below. Daniel’s talk discusses the meaning of a rank-and-file approach to union organising, picking up themes discussed in our recent episode on this topic. Southampton Transformed was a local ...
Ep 20: Animators and Games Workers
June 10, 2019 20:19 - 1 hour - 92 MBThis month we discuss the 1941 Disney animators' strike before looking at workers' organisation in the contemporary video games industry. Our guests were Jamie Woodcock (@Jamie_Woodcock on Twitter) of Notes from Below (https://notesfrombelow.org/), whose new book 'Marx At The Arcade' looks at games workers' struggles, and Marijam Didžgalvytė (@marijamdid on Twitter), games worker, writer, and activist, who hosts the online show 'Left Left Up', and is involved in Games Workers, an internarion...
Ep 19: The Sheffield Workers' Committee 1914-1920
May 02, 2019 08:05 - 1 hour - 89 MBIn the midst of the First World War, engineering workers in Sheffield built a shopfloor organisation that confronted the bosses, the state, and the conservatism of their own union leaders. We discuss how and why. For the background to this episode, check out Edd’s pamphlet, available to buy here: https://spokesmanbookshop.com/epages/36621f87-f6e8-411d-b941-d46fe29be74c.mobile/en_GB/?ObjectPath=/Shops/36621f87-f6e8-411d-b941-d46fe29be74c/Products/Mustill1&Locale=en_GB Also, JT Murphy’s ‘The...
Ep 18: Rank-and-filism 101: What's "the bureaucracy"? What's "the rank and file"?
February 14, 2019 00:38 - 1 hour - 119 MBTrade union activists, particularly those on the left, will almost certainly be familiar with the terms “bureaucracy” and “rank and file”. But what do they mean? In this episode, with Ellie sadly absent, Edd gives us a historical sketch of the development of trade union officialdom, and talks about some Marxist approaches to understanding it. Daniel worries that he might himself have become a bureaucrat. Finally, we talk to Rhian Keyse, an activist in the University and College Union, abou...
Ep 17: The Christmas (Island) Episode
December 23, 2018 14:31 - 10 minutes - 13.8 MBIn our first seasonal special, we tell the inspiring story of the Union of Christmas Island Workers (UCIW), a trade union on the Australian territory of Christmas Island, so named by an East India Company explorer who arrived there on Christmas Day, 1643. The UCIW’s story is one of inspiring working-class internationalism against racism, and we feel it contains a lot of important messages for many issues facing us today. Thanks to our researcher Holly for researching and writing this epis...
Ep 16: Education in the labour movement
November 29, 2018 15:13 - 1 hour - 85.8 MBIn excerpts from panels at The World Transformed and the Ella Baker School of Transformative organising, we bring you Colin Waugh talking about the history of Ruskin College and the Plebs' League; Ian Manborde talking about contemporary trade union education; and a bit from Daniel on education programmes in the the International Ladies' Garment Workers Union (ILGWU) in the early 20th century, mainly cribbed from Daniel Katz's 2011 book 'All Together Different'. There's also a brief appearance...
Ep 15: The red-state walkouts: an interview with Lois Weiner
August 31, 2018 12:53 - 1 hour - 101 MBReturning to our secret North London bunker-studio following last month’s live cast, we turn our attention to the recent walkouts of teachers and other school workers in Republican-voting states in the USA such as Kentucky, West Virginia, and elsewhere. We were very lucky to have the opportunity to talk to Lois Weiner, an American socialist and trade union activist and author of the book ‘The Future of Our Schools: Teacher Unions and Social Justice’ (2012, Haymarket), a member of the editori...
Ep 14: Labour Days live: A new New Unionism?
July 24, 2018 11:53 - 1 hour - 89.3 MBThis is our very first live podcast, recorded at Ideas for Freedom, a weekend of socialist debate and discussion hosted by Workers’ Liberty, on 23 June. We were joined by Tom Kelly, a striking workers from the East Dulwich Picturehouse cinema, to discuss “a new New Unionism?”, looking at whether burgeoning low-paid workers’ struggles can lead to a revival and recomposition of the labour movement in the same way that the “New Unionism” of the 1880s did. Ellie was on compering/chairing duti...
Ep 13: Police vs Picket Lines
May 26, 2018 09:40 - 1 hour - 89.2 MBWhat attitude should the labour movement take to the police? Does the way strikes have been policed in the past give us some clues about the police’s fundamental role? With the Labour Party adopting an explicitly pro-cop position, distributing leaflets shaped like police helmets calling for 20,000 more police on the streets, we argue for the labour movement to take a more cautious, and ultimately hostile, to the role of the police, who we believe ultimately exist to defend the power of capit...
Ep 12: We go full Dobbs - The Minneapolis Teamsters' strike of 1934
April 11, 2018 13:13 - 1 hour - 98.7 MBIt's our first birthday, and after a year of frankly unseemly pleading, cajoling, and tantrum-throwing from Daniel, the Labour Days crew has finally allowed him, as a special birthday treat, to give a presentation about the 1934 Minneapolis teamsters' strike. It's a story that has it all: courageous action against the odds, pitched battles with the cops, and an abundance of lessons about how a core of dedicated activists in a given workplace or union can catalyse huge struggles that pose the...
Ep 11: 'One Hand Tied Behind Us' - Women workers, trade unions, and the fight for suffrage
March 10, 2018 13:56 - 53 minutes - 73.9 MBIn the centenary year of the "Representation of the People Act", which extended the franchise to certain, propertied, women, Labour Days looks at the question of working-class and labour movement involvement in the women's suffrage movement, and introduces listeners to the activity of labour-movement suffrage fighters like Julia Varley, Sylvia Pankhurst, and Ada Nield Chew. The reccommended reading for this episode is Jill Norris and Jill Liddington's book 'One Hand Tied Behind Us', which lo...
Ep 10: On New Terrain - an interview with Kim Moody
February 11, 2018 13:59 - 1 hour - 116 MBIn this episode, we take a deep dive into questions of class composition and labour movement strategy via an interview with Kim Moody. Kim is a labour movement writer and activist, who co-founded Labor Notes in the USA (www.labornotes.org). His new book, ‘On New Terrain: How Capital is Reshaping the Battleground of Class War’ is published by Haymarket, and is available to buy here: https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/1106-on-new-terrain We begin the episode with a rattle through some rece...
Ep 9: Green Bans and Workers' Plans - How organised labour can save the planet
December 10, 2017 12:30 - 1 hour - 113 MBWith Ellie out of action, wafflers-in-chief Daniel and Edd discuss whether trade unions have a particular role to play in the struggle to prevent the planet becoming a charred husk (spoiler: they do). Verity Burgmann, co-author of ‘Green Bans, Red Union’, joins us to discuss the New South Wales Builders Labourers’ Federation’s “green bans” of the 1970s, before Edd talks us through the history Lucas Aerospace Workers’ plan of 1976, and Daniel reminisces about his time campaign on a roundabou...
Ep 8: Unions and the Russian Revolution
November 14, 2017 19:13 - 59 minutes - 82.3 MBHow did trade unionists, and the trade union movement, respond to the revolutions of 1917 in Russia? Edd The Brain takes us through a few examples, and we discuss what implications they have for contemporary working-class solidarity. As promised in the episode, here's Labour Days' Great (But Not Exhaustive) Russian Revolution Reading List: General histories of the Russian Revolution Leon Trotsky, The History of the Russian Revolution (1930) - https://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1930/h...
Ep 7: Trade unions against fascism
October 21, 2017 08:59 - 58 minutes - 80.5 MBWith far-right and fascist movements growing across Europe and North America, how can trade unions resist? We look back through history at some examples of how organised labour has confronted fascism, exploring specifically trade-union movement organisation rather than wider community-led anti-fascism, and focusing on perhaps less well-known examples rather more famous episodes such as the Battle of Cable Street. We examine transport workers’ resistance to fascism in the 1920s and 30s, an...
Ep 6: The 2017 #McStrike and the 1912 New York waiters' strike
September 02, 2017 09:13 - 1 hour - 71.3 MBWith McDonald's workers in two stores set to stage their first ever official strike in UK history, we interview striker and BFAWU activist Steve about the campaign, and discuss the issues it raises. We look back on the "McDonald's Workers' Resistance" network, whose archives are online at https://libcom.org/tags/mcdonalds-workers-resistance, and discuss Unite New Zealand's "Supersize My Pay" campaign (watch a documentary about it here: https://vimeo.com/54901659), and the ongoing "Fight for...
Ep 6 preview: #McStrike!
August 28, 2017 12:46 - 7 minutes - 10.5 MBAs a teaser for our forthcoming sixth episode on food service workers' struggles past and present, we're sharing part of our interview with McDonald's worker and BFAWU activist Steve, who talks about the reasons behind McDonalds workers' upcoming strike on 4 September. The full episode, which also includes a look back at the 1912 New York waiters' strike, will be released next week. For more information on the #McStrike, and how you can support it (including by donating to their strike fu...
Ep 5: Unions on screen
August 04, 2017 10:43 - 1 hour - 106 MBHow have unions been portrayed in film and TV, and why aren't there more representations of unions and class struggle on screen? The Labour Days crew attempts to answer these questions, with (mostly passing!) reference to TV shows and films including The Simpsons, The Wire, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, Days of Glory, Matewan, Pride, Made in Dagenham, Newsies, Our Friends In The North, GBH, Boys From The Black Stuff, Coronation Street, Brookside, and many more. Joining us to discuss the is...
Ep 4: Industrial unionism
July 07, 2017 06:25 - 1 hour - 84.4 MBIn this episode, Professor Edmund "the Brain" Mustill takes the gang through a potted history of industrial unionism, and discusses how it differs from craft-based models of trade unionism. We hear from Jade Baker, a teacher and National Union of Teachers (NUT) activist in south London, about the NUT's upcoming merger with the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL), to form the National Education Union (NEU). Daniel talks about his experiences as a rep and activist in National Union ...
Ep 3: Trade unions and immigration
June 02, 2017 18:26 - 1 hour - 105 MBDaniel, Ellie, and Edd discuss migrant workers' struggles past and present, and explore debates in the historic and contemporary labour movement around immigration controls, arguing that trade unions are strongest when they oppose border controls and seek to organise all workers, regardless of immigration status or national origin. The episode features interviews with Sujata Aurora from the Grunwick 40 Committee, who explains the history of the Grunwick strike and the Committee's work to co...
Ep 2: May Day
April 30, 2017 21:09 - 34 minutes - 47 MBIn this episode, Edd, Ellie, and Daniel take a look at the origins of International Workers’ Day and how it is still celebrated around the world. Further reading on the radical origins of May Day: https://www.marxists.org/subject/mayday/index.htm Picturehouse cinema workers are striking again on May Day. Donate to their strike fund here: https://www.crowdpac.co.uk/campaigns/250/picturehousestrike Intro music and audio motif taken from 'Labor' by Aesop Rock. We do not own this music, whic...
Ep 1: Cinemas and Music Halls
April 07, 2017 23:32 - 1 hour - 86.4 MBIn our first episode Edd, Daniel, and Ellie discuss their hopes for what the podcast might achieve. We talk to Kelly Rogers, union rep at the Ritzy, about the growing Picturehouse Cinema workers' strike. Edd takes us through the story of London's great Music Hall Strike of 1907. The Picturehouse workers have a number of pages you can follow to support their dispute and donate to their strike fund: Brixton: https://www.facebook.com/RitzyLivingWage/ Hackney: https://www.facebook.com/Hackney...