Forty years ago this month, the power of the organised working class was demonstrated outside a West Midlands fuel depot. The lesson was not lost on both unions and bosses. The example of Saltley Gate remains as relevant today as ever in the face of renewed attacks by the bosses and their government on the working class. Terry McPartlan looks back at the events of February 1972.

With all the hype surrounding the Hollywood version of Margaret Thatcher as the ‘Iron Lady’ who (supposedly) brought the miners and trade unions to their knees, there now comes the real story of the Miners Strike of 1984 from Betty Cook and Ann Scargill, two women who not only played their part during the strike but who now say that the events of that historic year changed their lives forever.

Belfast in 1907 was a hotbed of militancy.  It was the fastest growing city in the British isles. Its most successful industries were labour intensive. 

Yesterday’s Eurogroup meeting in Brussels finally reached a deal and, in the most provocative manner, put a seal on the drama that the Greek working people have had to endure for the past two years.

Around two million people marched in 57 trade union demonstrations all over Spain on February 19 against the counter-reform of the labour law imposed by the right-wing PP government. Now the pressure is on the trade union leaders of the CCOO and UGT to step up the pressure by calling a general strike.

The result of the vote on the latest austerity measures in the Greek parliament on Sunday, February 12, was a "Pyrrhic" victory for the Papademos government. It had earlier set itself the goal of winning the support of more than 200 MPs. Eventually 199 MPs voted in favour of the measures “in principle”, while 190 actually voted for the overall package.

Catholics who have been born and raised up in the North of Ireland will have had some experience of being on the receiving end of comments like the following: Having a child with ADHD is “punishment for sleeping with a Catholic” or “no longer hangs out her washing at home, the smell of Catholics being atrocious." These comments were made in a workplace, not in a factory, not among blue collar workers - as polite society would have us all believe is the only place where sectarianism lurks - but in a social work setting.

Conditions in Greece are becoming desperate as unemployment continues to rise, wages and pensions are slashed, many small businesses close and the country slides towards a likely disorderly default. The pressure on ordinary working people is relentless.

Just short of a year since the General Election and the Croke Park Agreement is in the news once more. This is no surprise, we explained in advance that because of the economic situation any deal that was struck would be short lived. On the one side the Government would come back for more and the commitment to no wage cuts for four years would be meaningless. On the other hand the agreement to “reform” public services under these conditions was a sign of serious weakness from the ICTU leadership, which could lead to a serious assault on the working class. Less than 11 months after the General election a number of Fine Gael TD’s have demanded that the deal is dumped. Here’s what the

The Greek crisis has now reached the point of a pre-revolutionary situation. On Sunday we saw the biggest demonstration in the history of Greece. Hundreds of thousands of people gathered to protest the reactionary deal before the Athens parliament. Here was the real face of the Greek people: workers and students, pensioners and shopkeepers, young and old, came onto the streets to express their rage.

Hundreds of thousands of workers, unemployed, pensioners and youth tried to gather On Sunday [February 12] in Syntagma Square and in the main squares of dozens of other cities across Greece, to protest against the government and the Troika. Sunday’s massive mobilisation was unprecedented, reflecting both widespread anger at the reduction in the annual income of workers by an equivalent of three months’ wages, the reduction of the "net" minimum wage to 410 euros (and to 320 euros for youth up to the age of 24) and the new reductions in pensions.

February 11 saw 300,000 people march in the Portuguese capital Lisbon against the reform of the labour law and the austerity measures proposed by the government as part of the bailout agreed with the troika. The CGTP trade union, which organised the demonstration under the slogan of “no to exploitation, inequality and impoverishment”, described it as the largest in 30 years.

Tuesday's 24-hour general strike in Greece – the 16th day of general strike in the last two years – highlighted on the one hand the willingness to fight which exists within the working class and on the other, once again, the ineffectiveness of such strikes that are not part of a more general and coordinated and long-term struggle.

On January 30 the three Belgian trade unions called a 24-hour general strike in both the public and private sectors. It was the first general strike since 1993. The immediate background was the public sector general strike on December 22 against the austerity measures of the new Socialist Party government led by Elio Di Rupo.

In the Netherlands there is a very militant cleaners’ strike that has been going on for more than a month. This is not the first time; in 2010 they were out on strike for nine weeks, the longest strike in the Netherlands since the 1930s. There are lessons in this for the whole labour movement.