Passengers disembark at Paddington station during the May 1926 general strike. Trains were driven by inexperienced crews of ‘blacklegs’ recruited by the government to undermine the strike.Photo: Piemags/An24

Off the tracks

Britain’s rail unions reflect on the legacy of 1926.

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NI 561 - Trade Unions - May, 2026
A worker from the FATE tyre factory holds a collection box to support the struggle after the 50-year-old factory was shut down.Photo: Patricio A Cabezas

Reclaiming the collective

Josefina Salomón and Patricio A Cabezas report on the workers resisting Javier Milei’s anti-labour agenda – from occupying factories to bringing the country to a standstill.

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NI 561 - Trade Unions - May, 2026
Thousands brave the cold in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on 23 January 2026, to protest Trump’s deadly immigration raids. The ‘Day of Truth and Freedom’ saw one in four people from the city down tools.Photo: Todd Strand/Alamy

A General Strike by Any Other Name

Minnesota’s victory over ICE shows how people are reclaiming and redefining the general strike for a new era, says Kim Kelly.

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NI 561 - Trade Unions - May, 2026
Workers hold placards during a protest against the anti-trade union minimum service levels bill in London on 16 January 2023. The legislation was recently repealed by the current Labour government.Photo: Sopa Images Limited/Alamy Live News

What stands between us and a general strike?

Labour lawyer Franck Magennis talks to Decca Muldowney about the legacy of strike-breaking legislation.

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NI 561 - Trade Unions - May, 2026
Striking miner William Muckle (centre front row), and other jailed miners, along with their wives and friends celebrating their release from Maidstone Prison. Muckle was among eight men jailed for derailing a passenger train during the strike.Photo: Working Class Movement Library

Voices from the Nine Days of Wonder

The general strike of 1926 is often told through the voices of those who opposed it. Less known are the rich and diverse experiences of the working-class people who leapt to the defence of striking miners around the country: downing tools, setting up strike commitees and soup kitchens.

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NI 561 - Trade Unions - May, 2026
Strikers march through London during the 1926 general strike.Photo: General Strike Photograph - GS001/People’s History Museum

‘The meek shall inherit the earth’

As millions of British workers downed tools in 1926, solidarity for the locked-out miners spread across the globe. Edd Mustill explores the forgotten international story that shaped the struggle.

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NI 561 - Trade Unions - May, 2026
Strike! The Facts

Strike! The Facts

1926; State of the union; Walk out!; Workers under attack.

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NI 561 - Trade Unions - May, 2026
Placards at a train station during the general strike of 1926.Photo: General Strike Photograph - GS071/People’s History Museum

The general strike

From 1926 to 2026. A century on, Bethany Rielly and Decca Muldowney examine Britain’s only general strike, a walk out with a scale and impact that remains unprecedented in the country’s history. What can movements learn from it today?

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NI 561 - Trade Unions - May, 2026
Glass empire: An aerial view of the plush Dubai Marina, a symbol of the UAE’s inordinate wealth and global ambition.Photo: Audrius Venclova/Alamy

The quiet empire

Through ports, militias and business deals, the United Arab Emirates has built an architecture of control stretching across the Red Sea, writes Eiad Husham.

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NI 560 - AI: the people behind the machine - March, 2026
US Navy guided-missile destroyer USS Winston S Churchill, left, patrols with the Guyana Defence Force patrol vessel GDFS Shahous, right, during operations in the Caribbean Sea on 22 November 2025.Photo: MC2 Rylin Paul/US Navy Photo/Alamy Live News

The return of petro-imperialism

While Caribbean governments have been quiet about US intervention in Venezuela, and the build-up of military activity in the region, activists have been taking a stand, writes Colin Bogle.

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NI 560 - AI: the people behind the machine - March, 2026
Bali, a Bhil farmer inside her home in Madhya Pradesh in December 2024.Photo: Fabio Lovati

A claim for the future

Would a separate state improve the lives of Indigenous communities in India? Fabio Lovati reports on the movement that thinks it would.

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NI 560 - AI: the people behind the machine - March, 2026
President Donald Trump at a press conference at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida on 3 January 2026, following US military actions in Venezuela and the kidnap of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro.Photo: Molly Riley/American Photo Archive

Another failure of the ‘war on drugs’

Kojo Koram places the abduction of Venezuela’s leader within the long history of US drug policy being used against Latin American governments that resist its geopolitical or economic interests.

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NI 560 - AI: the people behind the machine - March, 2026
Illustration:  Boris Séméniako/Ikon Images

Approaching infinity

Is the artistic process in danger? Novelist Rémy Ngamije considers the role of human creativity in a world embracing generative AI.

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NI 560 - AI: the people behind the machine - March, 2026
A military drone strike, 26 September 2024.Photo: Mairusz Burcz/Alamy

The kill chain

AI is making warfare even more deadly. Decca Muldowney speaks to Chris Cole of Drone Wars about the risks of weapons that make their own decisions.

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NI 560 - AI: the people behind the machine - March, 2026
Illustration: Hanna Barakat & Cambridge Diversity Fund/betterimagesofai.org/creativecommons-by-4.0

The janitors of the internet

Adio-Adet Dinika explores the hidden stories of the workers who prop up artificial ‘intelligence’, and their efforts at organized resistance.

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NI 560 - AI: the people behind the machine - March, 2026
Smoke stacks dot the Pennsylvania landscape. The AI boom is increasing reliance on fossil fuels.Photo: Livia Garofalo

‘Pennsylvania is perfect’

Tech companies are building enormous data centres and reconfiguring energy infrastructure across the US, all to power the burgeoning AI industry. On a road trip, Maia Woluchem and Livia Garofalo trace the impacts of – and resistance to – this development push.

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NI 560 - AI: the people behind the machine - March, 2026
Illustration: Clarote & Al4Media/betterimagesofai.org/creativecommons-by-4.0

The myth of inevitability

Is AI really an unstoppable force? Paula Lacey unpicks the complex web of companies, investments, and ideologies behind the ‘bubble’.

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NI 560 - AI: the people behind the machine - March, 2026
Artificial intelligence - The Facts

Artificial intelligence - The Facts

The bubble; Thirst for data; Ghost workers in the machine.

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NI 560 - AI: the people behind the machine - March, 2026
A plane surveys a distorted landscape.Photo: Lone Thomasky & Bits&Baume/betterimagesofai.org/creativecommons-by-4.0

AI and its discontents

Imagery generated by artificial intelligence has become the beloved aesthetic of today’s dictators, argues Decca Muldowney. A robust media is needed to combat misinformation and its miseries.

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NI 560 - AI: the people behind the machine - March, 2026
A Palestinian walks through the ruins of a building damaged by an Israeli strike the day before, in Gaza City, 20 November 2025. The ceasefire supposedly took effect on 10 October, but has been routinely ignored by Israel.Photo: Jehad Alshrafi/Associated Press

Neocolonialism in Gaza

Palestinian futures are being decided for them yet again as they are dispossessed by the new Trump Plan, argues Yara Hawari. When will Palestinians be free of repackaged colonialism?

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NI 559 - The new nuclear arms race - January, 2026

Articles in this category displayed as a table:

Article title From magazine Publication date
Trade Unions May, 2026
Trade Unions May, 2026
Trade Unions May, 2026
Trade Unions May, 2026
Trade Unions May, 2026
Trade Unions May, 2026
Trade Unions May, 2026
Trade Unions May, 2026
AI: the people behind the machine March, 2026
AI: the people behind the machine March, 2026
AI: the people behind the machine March, 2026
AI: the people behind the machine March, 2026
AI: the people behind the machine March, 2026
AI: the people behind the machine March, 2026
AI: the people behind the machine March, 2026
AI: the people behind the machine March, 2026
AI: the people behind the machine March, 2026
AI: the people behind the machine March, 2026
AI: the people behind the machine March, 2026
The new nuclear arms race January, 2026
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