The Strike that Changed the Rules

BARRY WINTER reviews the second edition of Jack Dromey and Graham Taylor’s book about the Grunwick dispute which has been republished by Lawrence & Wishart to mark the strike’s 40th anniversary. Forty years ago an amazing trade-union struggle took place in Brent in north London. Beginning very locally at the Grunwick Photo Processing Plant in...

Pigs, PR and Politics

GERRY LAVERY reviews Call Me Dave, the recent very unauthorised biography of the prime minister, and asks what Labour and the left have to learn from his and the Tories’ electoral success....

Halting the Unions’ Decline

Trade unions are in a spot of bother, according to SHEILA BANKS. And Labour is partly to blame. The party needs a new way of connecting to union members that taps directly into their workplace experience. Throughout my working life, I have been an active trade unionist and representative, so I want to look at...

Assessing the Blair Supremacy

BARRY WINTER considers the culture, impact and legacy of Tony Blair’s leadership of the Labour Party, greatly aided by Lewis Minkin’s The Blair Supremacy, published to great acclaim two years ago. In his dual role as academic and political insider, Lewis Minkin has produced three monumental books on the Labour Party. Each is a substantial...

An Editor Reflects

MIKE DAVIS became editor of the Labour left publication Chartist 40 years ago. Here he reflects on the very different political world of 1974, how the left has been weakened in the intervening years, and the daunting challenges it faces today. Chartist was a very different political animal when I took over editing in spring...