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HEROES
Workers on strike
How do you choose? The nurses who have undertaken the first national strike action in their union’s history? The transport and postal workers standing firm in the face of bosses’ dirty tricks and a government determined to break their spirit, cut their pay and wreck their industries? The workers who have won hundreds of localised disputes and demonstrated again and again that there’s power in a union? RMT leader Mick Lynch has said “the working class is back” in 2022 — the struggle continues, but the courage and militancy we have seen this year is an inspiration.
Symon Hill
The extraordinary decision of police officers to arrest people for protesting at the anti-democratic travesty that was King Charles III’s accession to the throne showed how heavy-handed policing has become in Britain and how urgent is the fight for freedom of speech. Hill’s call of “who elected him?” at the king’s proclamation in Oxford saw him charged under the Public Order Act — but he spoke for millions of his fellows who would be citizens, not subjects.
Audrey White
The veteran activist, who as a TGWU activist in the 1980s sacked for challenging the sexual harassment of a colleague by an area manager led a campaign which won the first British legislation against sexual harassment, was expelled from Labour in July four days after confronting Sir Keir Starmer on having broken all the promises he made in his dishonest leadership campaign. The official reason — having once given an interview to a subsequently proscribed group — is familiar to thousands of others similarly mistreated in a party that is now a hostile environment for socialists.
The Lionesses
The England women’s team made footballing history this summer when they took the nation to its first victory in a major footballing tournament since the men’s World Cup win in 1966. The Euros final at Wembley set an audience record for the women’s game and Leah Williamson and the team have inspired new generations to get into the sport.
Gabriel Boric, Gustavo Petro and Lula
The red tide has swept Latin America this year. In Chile and Colombia, the election of socialists challenges their countries’ long domination by the right and in the latter especially its role as a proxy for US domination of the continent. Lula’s triumphant return to the Brazilian presidency this weekend after bogus convictions stopped him standing last time changes the balance of power in the whole region. The right-wing coup in Peru and violent counterrevolutionary unrest in Bolivia show the fight goes on, but we’re in a better place than a year ago.
Palestine Action
The direct action movement that has been fighting to rid Britain of Israeli arms firms had a successful year. Their impact and growth are down to the selflessness of the everyday people who volunteer, and this year they have faced bigger legal repercussions than ever before.
As we go to press there are four activists in prison for allegedly causing £1,000,000 in damage to Teledyne Technologies, manufacturers of combat drone technologies for Israel.
But it is working: under a hail of red paint and sledgehammers, Elbit Systems, who manufacture the armed drones used to bomb Palestinians, were forced to close down their Oldham factory and their swanky London HQ.
VILLAINS
Peter Hebblethwaite
The P&O CEO shocked the country in March after unceremoniously sacking his entire crew of 800 shipworkers via Zoom call, then having them hauled off their ships — for many where they were living as well as working — by hired toughs in balaclavas so he could replace them with worse-paid poorly trained workers.
Hebblethwaite’s brazen performance in Parliament — where he admitted to breaking the law but said he’d do it again — underlined the feeble nature of Britain’s employment laws. Ministers pretended to be outraged but attacks on employment legislation they are planning will guarantee more P&Os.
Neil Parish
The Tory MP’s disgrace after being caught watching pornography on his phone during Commons debates highlights the extent of misogyny and privilege that prevail in the “mother of parliaments.” His claim to have been distracted while looking up tractors gave us some comic relief but the scandal points to wider problems around the normalisation of “entertainment” based on sexism and broken lives.
Suella Braverman
Following the course of British home secretaries from Theresa May onwards is like descending through the circles of hell, but Braverman pulled off quite a feat in exceeding Priti Patel-levels of authoritarian cruelty. To boast at party conference that deporting people to Rwanda is your “dream” shows the sick state of the modern Conservative Party and the current government is moving full steam ahead with the attacks on our civil, social and workplace rights that Boris Johnson began.
Simon Thompson
Another CEO had to be included — the Royal Mail boss is a serial executive whose experience includes spells at Apple, HSBC and Ocado — and a starring role as managing director of the utterly dysfunctional Covid test-and-trace farce — but none of the 500-year-old essential service he is now wrecking. Splurging hundreds of millions on shareholder dividends then pleading poverty to justify attacks on wages and threats to jobs, it’s no surprise that “Thompson Out!” is among the commonest chants on posties’ picket lines.
Keir Starmer
Yes, it needs saying. Sir Keir escaped our villain lists in 2020 and 2021 despite breaking his pledges and removing the whip from his socialist predecessor, but 2022 has seen his Labour leadership plumb new depths.
Criticism of Nato or the US’s aggressive role in the world was banned for Labour MPs. At this year’s conference, the only speaker to oppose a motion on arming Ukraine was swiftly suspended, showing how little dissent is now allowed; the flood of expulsions of socialists for ludicrous non-offences accompanies a programme of parliamentary candidate stitch-ups so blatant even the right-wing press have noticed it.
We need to oust the Tories, but Sir Keir’s attempt to stamp out socialism in the Labour Party is a real threat too. The movement needs to take it more seriously.
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