A roundup of news on the left…

1. Government choices have left workers paying the price as company profits soar – LabourList

Writing in LabourList this week, Unite general secretary Sharon Graham looks at how “profiteering is rife across multiple sectors”. She argues that with profit margins for the FTSE 350 having jumped by 89% since the period prior to the pandemic, the government could fund pay rises for workers using windfall taxes.

Graham writes that, “with just £50bn of these windfalls in taxes they could pay off the supposed £40bn ‘black hole’ in the government finances, offer a decent pay settlement for the NHS and still have lots of cash left over.”

2. Ofgem ignored 700,000 debt complaints before British Gas scandal – openDemocracy

British Gas and its parent company Centrica have been making headlines in recent weeks. First, British Gas were found to have sent bailiffs to break into vulnerable people’s homes to fit pre-payment meters. Then, Centrica announced a record £3.3bn in profit for 2022.

Now, openDemocracy has revealed that the energy regulator Ofgem received more than 700,000 complaints about energy companies’ treatment of customers in debt over the last five years. In the last year, Ofgem was alerted to 40,000 complaints relating to the forced fitting or disconnecting of pre-payment meters.

Despite this, openDemocracy claims the regulator only took action after a Times investigation revealed the force fitting of pre-payment meters.

3. Government Could Face EU Legal Challenge Over Anti-Strikes Legislation – Byline Times

According to a report from Joisah Mortimer in Byline Times, the UK government could face a legal challenge from the EU over its planned anti-strikes legislation. The widely condemned minimum service levels bill could be in breach of the UK’s agreement over its withdrawal from the EU.

Mortimer notes that the withdrawal agreement committed the EU and the UK not to weaken labour protections below the level they were at at the end of the transition period. According to Mortimer, “Now the EU is laying out its plans to enforce protections set out in its agreements with the UK, in a move which could bring the UK Government’s Minimum Service Levels Bill into sharp relief.”

4. How the mass Iraq protest of February 15 2003 was built – Morning Star

This week marked the 20th anniversary of the largest protest in British history, when over a million people marched through London against the military intervention in Iraq. The movement to stop the war was ultimately defeated, but it had a profound impact on British politics for the next two decades.

Lindsey German was one of the organisers of that demonstration as a coordinator of the Stop the War Coalition. Writing in the Morning Star this week, German explains how the demonstration was built and the legacy it has had on politics since.

5. University Workers Are Fighting for the Future of Education – Tribune

UCU members are currently engaged in another round of strike action in their ongoing dispute over pay, casualisation, conditions and pensions.

Writing in Tribune this week, Labour MP Beth Winter has set out the key issues in the dispute, setting out its long roots and drawing on her experience as a a researcher in the higher education sector.

In the piece, Winter writes: “Throughout my ten years of employment at the University I was on casualised fixed term contracts. I had no job security, experienced breaks in employment and had very limited career progression opportunities because I was having to continually move between jobs, often taking work that was outside of my areas of interest in order to remain in employment.”

And she goes on to conclude: “In universities, it is up to vice chancellors to resolve these disputes and start treating staff with respect. Until they do, I will be supporting my old colleagues on the picket line.”

Chris Jarvis is head of strategy and development at Left Foot Forward

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