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AUDIO TRANSCRIPT
Hi, you're probably here looking for the new episode of the Working Class History podcast. We have released some new episodes, but unfortunately our podcast will no longer be available on SoundCloud because we have moved our podcast hosting. SoundCloud wasn't really giving us what we needed, so we have had to move our podcast elsewhere, and unfortunately unlike most podcast services, SoundCloud doesn't let you listen to episodes hosted on other platforms.
But we would really love to keep you as a listener. So please do subscribe to our podcast and listen on another platform. As far as we know, we are available on just about every podcast app out there. Like Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, Podcast Addict, Overcast, Stitcher and loads more. You can also listen to episodes on our website at workingclasshistory.com. Our podcast is made possible by our patreon supporters, so all of our episodes are available first on patreon, where there are also lots of exclusive bonus episodes. Check it out and support us at https://patreon.com/workingclasshistory, link in the show notes.
We'll pop links in the show notes to find our podcast on some of the most popular apps. If WCH isn't available on your favourite podcast app, just drop us a line on info@workingclasshistory.com to let us know and we will try to make sure we get on it.
Sorry about this inconvenience, but we hope that you will join us again!

The Working Class History podcast has now moved from SoundCloud so please give us a follow elsewhere

It'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.

This is a short preview in which Liam introduces and reads an extract from the book, made exclusively available to Labour Days listeners.

A full episode discussing the book and its relevance to those active in the labour movement will follow.

For now, over to Liam!

TEASER: James Connolly

Yes, 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/Stewart and Balls/Osborne. They chew over a few questions that have arisen in the strike wave, including strike tactics and strategy, the role of the law, the need for clear demands, and how we can develop independent rank-and-file organisation.

Some background links for this episode:

- "UK Workers Strike Back" (January 2023), an article by Daniel for the US socialist collective Tempest: https://www.tempestmag.org/2023/01/uk-workers-strike-back/

- A video presentation by Daniel based on the above article, hosted by the US socialist group Speak Out Now: https://youtu.be/_p5I2Zj66tc

- The Washington Post article on the strike wave, featuring our very own Ellie Clarke (March 2023): https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/03/02/uk-strikes-inflation-pay/

"- On being in it for the long haul" (January 2023), an article from the Our Common Endeavour blog: https://medium.com/@ourcommonendeavour/on-being-in-it-for-the-long-haul-bd3c8100d0b7

- "On the dangers of ballot fatigue" (June 2023), ditto: https://medium.com/@ourcommonendeavour/on-the-dangers-of-ballot-fatigue-33412dcc9864

- You can also read regularly-updated analysis on the disputes on London Underground and the national rail, written by rank-and-file workers, on the Tubeworker and Off the Rails blogs:
https://www.workersliberty.org/twblog
https://www.workersliberty.org/blogs/rails

- Daniel and Edd were both involved in the "Troublemakers' Conference" held in Manchester on 29 July, check out the project at: https://troublemakersat.work/

- We also recommend checking out the groups/networks/caucuses that have formed in various unions/sectors to mobilise opposition to dodgy deals and which we hope can develop into permanent rank-and-file networks:

NHS Workers Say No: https://twitter.com/NurseSayNO
Posties Say No: https://twitter.com/PostiesSayNo
PCS Says No: https://twitter.com/PCSsayNo
Educators Say No: https://twitter.com/educatorssayno

The intro music is from 'Labor' by Aesop Rock (Definitive Jux, 2001). We do not hold the copyright for this music.

Ep 29: The 2022-3 Strike Wave in Britain

Our 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

For further reading, try Liam’s article on ‘Connolly’s Legacy’: https://workersliberty.org/legacy-james-connolly-wl-373

You can also learn more about Connolly’s trade unionism in the Workers’ Liberty pamphlet ‘Effective Trade Unionism’, which brings together several of Connolly’s writing on workplace organisation and features a foreword by Liam: https://www.workersliberty.org/connolly-unions

See previous episode descriptions for copyright info on our intro music.

Ep 30: James Connolly's Industrial Unionism

Tony 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 John on a previous episode (https://soundcloud.com/labour-days/rank-and-filism-101-whats-the-bureaucracy-whats-the-rank-and-file), particularly highlighting his pledge to take the same salary he was paid as a rank-and-file worker and donate the rest of his official’s salary to the PCS strike fund.

Voting for PCS members opens on 9 November and closes on 14 December. Check out John’s campaign here: https://john4ags.org/

John is running alongside Marion Lloyd, who is standing for General Secretary: https://twitter.com/Marion4GS

Throughout the episode, we refer to the Free Our Unions campaign, which you can check out online at https://freeourunions.org.

We also acknowledge that we’re recording several days into the latest war in Israel/Palestine, with Israel besieging Gaza following Hamas attacks. It’s beyond the scope of our podcast to meaningfully discuss the issues involved, but we wanted to link to workers’ organisations active in Palestine and Israel in a spirit of international class solidarity:

Democracy and Workers Rights Centre (Palestine): https://dwrc.org/
Ma’an Workers Association (Israel/Palestine): https://wac-maan.org.il/home-eng/
Koah L’Ovdim - Power to Workers (Israel): https://workers.org.il/?lang=en

See also the call from Palestinian trade unions for workers’ action to block arms shipments to Israel: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1RPslgoxPrXNsjTjA4mxnUWtU_KeXctm3

The quote at the top of the show is taken from the Modern Records Centre's Pentonville Voices audio archive: https://warwick.ac.uk/services/library/mrc/archives_online/speakingarchives/pentonville/

Ep 31: The History of Anti-Strike Laws in the UK

It'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 question of class power.

You can buy a copy of 'Teamster Rebellion', Farrell Dobbs's classic account of the strikes, direct from the publisher here: http://www.pathfinderpress.com/s.nl/it.A/id.658/.f

We'd also recommend Bryan Palmer's article "Red Teamsters", in Jacobin magazine, as a good introduction: https://www.jacobinmag.com/2014/10/red-teamsters

There are also a few shouts outs and bits of news in the episode, but rather than post them here, we'll just trust that you'll listen and make a note of them, as any diligent student of labour history should.

The newsreel clip at the beginning can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m44DLk-IX1s

See previous episode descriptions for copyright disclaimers.

Ep 12: We go full Dobbs - The Minneapolis Teamsters' strike of 1934

A podcast about trade union issues and labour history.

Ep 12: We go full Dobbs - The Minneapolis Teamsters' strike of 1934

Labour Days

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