A State of Struggle: in conversation with John McInally and Mark Serwotka

Greater Manchester Morning Star Readers and Supporters Group are delighted to host a book launch for A State of Struggle, John McInally's recent book that combines a history of the PCS with a critical analysis of what is required now.

Within the framework of a history of civil service trade unionism, the book’s over-arching theme is the ongoing struggle, itself part of the wider class war, between collaborationist and militant trade unionism. It analyses the role of the state, political representation, bureaucratism and factionalism and argues why the trade union movement must transcend its 'narrow sectional interests to become a beacon for the struggling millions”.

McInally’s account of the development of Britain’s civil service trade unions reminds us that organising with an eye on the workplace and another on the social relations within which each workplace sits is the only way for workers to sustain their victories and to understand their defeats.

The situation is stark: we have a Labour government that has watered down to a very thin gruel its primary piece of legislation aimed at improving the lives of workers; we we have the drive to war, in which Britain is placing itself at the centre; we have the substitution of identity politics for class politics; and all within the most intense general crisis of capitalism and the climate crisis.

John and Mark will be sharing their analysis of the development of the PCS and offering a view on what needs to happen now for the trade union movement to represent and lead our class.

Please arrive by 6.50pm if you can. We will be in the Collier Room.