Zack Polanski has said he wants the Green party to replace Labour and is already building links with trade unions. Photograph: Gareth Fuller/PA
Leader understood to have spoken to 10 trade unions after party claimed working class voters are turning to them
Zack Polanski has kicked off a charm offensive designed to convince trade unions to stop funding Labour and throw their weight behind the Green party, as he delivered the first in a series of speeches to union conferences.
The Green leader has had “good conversations” with 10 trade unions, including some affiliated to Labour, according to party sources, and is due to address the University and College Union and the Bakers, Food and Allied Workers Union, not affiliated with Labour, in the coming months.
The UK’s largest unions – Unite and Unison – were among those that denied negotiating with Polanski and said they remained affiliated to the Labour party. However, Unite is holding internal discussions about its future relationship with Labour before a special conference in 2027 at which it could potentially decide to disaffiliate.
…
The Greens have enjoyed a huge boost in polling since their first national byelection victory in Gorton and Denton, and the party’s membership has tripled in England and Wales since last September to about 200,000.
A Green party source said: “When Zack became Green party leader he said his goal was to replace Labour – and building strong links with trade unions is a central part of that plan.
“Working class people are increasingly looking to the Greens as the only party which will tackle the cost of living crisis and stand up for their rights. Zack’s first priority is to push unions to stop funding the Labour party – a party which in opposition made huge promises to workers and is now watering down and U-turning on those promises.”
A sticker supporting the strikes on a bin as agency refuse workers collect rubbish in the Saltley area of Birmingham, January 6, 2026
UNITE is to cut its Labour affiliation by £580,000 amid anger over the long-running Birmingham bin strike, the union announced today.
Members of Unite began a continuous walkout on March 11 last year over cuts to their pay, with little sign of a breakthrough.
A year on, the union said the council “dither[s] around a deal” as streets fill with rubbish and residents and workers suffer.
Unite said it decided to substantially cut its affiliation by 40 per cent ahead of its rules conference next year, and will now formally consult with its members on whether they want to remain Labour-affiliated.
It said it made clear that the actions of Labour against the workers “will not continue to be tolerated.”
Keir Starmer says that the Labour Party under his leadership is intensely relaxed about assaulting those least able to defend themselves – the very poorest and most vulnerable.
A Job Centre Plus shop in central Portsmouth, Hampshire
THE government must cut interest rates and invest in youth as new unemployment data shows one in six young people are jobless, unions and experts warn.
Unemployment unexpectedly rose to a near five-year high with young and disabled Britons hardest hit by the shock data published by the Office for National Statistics today.
Outside of the coronavirus pandemic, this marks the highest three-month reading since the autumn of 2015.
The TUC called on Chancellor Rachel Reeves to boost spending and support fragile jobs, pointing to the record level of precarious zero-hour contracts reaching 1.2 million.
Its general secretary Paul Nowak said the job market will only get better once the economy starts to recover after the ONS said the unemployment rate rose by 0.2 per cent to 5.2 per cent into the last quarter.
It also found that employment was unchanged at 75.0 per cent and inactivity is down 0.2 to 21.0 per cent.
A sticker supporting the strikes on a bin as agency refuse workers collect rubbish in the Saltley area of Birmingham, January 6, 2026
BIRMINGHAM CITY COUNCIL faced a residents’ revolt in court today after a judge refused to immediately ban bin strike supporters from solidarity action.
The Labour-run local authority sought an injunction against “persons unknown” — a catch-all to include any and all protesters — after a series of disruptive demonstrations at the gates of its four bin depots at Birmingham High Court.
It comes after a series of “megapickets” organised by StrikeMap, backed by the Fire Brigades Union and rail union Aslef, twice shut down all collections.
Judge Mr Justice Pepperall announced he will reserve his written decision to a later date after residents stood up against the council in court.
They slammed the authority for seeking to quash protest instead of settling the dispute with Unite, now into its 14th month of strikes.
Retired teacher Stuart Richardson, the only person present in court who claimed to be one of the “persons unknown,” vowed to protest against this “utterly draconian police state measure” that the council is applying for.
He said that all of the several protests he had attended had been peaceful and cited a long tradition of protest and deliberate direct action that must be retained.
Strike banner in Ancona, reading: “The port that resists wars, rearmament, and fascist laws.” Source: Potere al Popolo Terni/Facebook
On February 6, dockworkers in more than 20 Mediterranean ports went on strike against war, militarization, and port privatization.
Dockworkers in more than 20 ports across the Mediterranean marked a historic moment today as they launched an international day of strike and protest against war and rearmament. Dockers also protested the privatization and militarization of port infrastructure.
Unionists involved in preparing the action described it as the result of a long and complex process, built on dockworkers’ solidarity with Palestine and their struggles for dignified working conditions at home.
The impact of the strike was felt even before it fully unfolded on February 6, as reports emerged of ships – vessels that regularly transport military cargo to Israel – disrupting their itineraries due to the actions.
“Ports are places of sweat, not blood”
Demonstrations began in the morning in the Greek ports of Piraeus and Elefsina, in Türkiye’s Mersin, and in Bilbao and Pasaia in the Basque Country. The trade union Liman-İş Sendikası rallied hundreds of its members to send a message against genocide and in solidarity with Palestine, echoing similar dispatches by their comrades from LAB in the Basque Country.
In Greece, dockworkers highlighted the contradiction between massive European investments in rearmament and the imposition of austerity on public services and infrastructure, which is leading to increasingly unsafe working conditions. “We won’t accept work without rights,” said Damianos Voudigaris of the Greek union ENEDEP later in the day. “Development should mean going home alive. Ports are places of work, not war. They are places of sweat, not blood.”
Demonstration during the strike in Piraeus Port. Source: PAME International
Some of the largest mobilizations of the day took place in Italy. Strikes were organized in Ancona, Bari, Cagliari, Civitavecchia, Crotone, Genoa, Livorno, Palermo, Ravenna, Salerno, and Trieste, involving not only dockworkers and port employees but also students and members of the public. The map of the strikes once again underscored the momentum built by Italy’s labor movement over the past year, including three general strikes for Palestine – mobilizations that have drawn inspiration from some of the dockers collectives’ anti-war activism.
The trade union Unione Sindacale di Base (USB) reported from all striking ports, with union representatives addressing assemblies prominently displaying Palestinian and Cuban flags. Workers stressed that Europe’s labor movement must find an internationalist orientation in order to block the anti-worker agenda of the European Union and right-wing governments. Governments including that of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, which, as USB activists noted during live broadcasts, was rattled by the determination shown by workers after years of stagnation. According to trade unionists, this panic has translated into a new wave of repression, including measures targeting union members involved in Palestine solidarity actions. USB, however, insisted that resistance to Meloni’s policies would only intensify in the coming weeks.
“Today it’s the ports, tomorrow it will be the entire logistics sector”
While uniting around shared demands – to prevent the militarization of ports, reject rearmament, and stop a war economy from stifling all other priorities – striking workers also raised local concerns. Dockworkers in Trieste warned against port privatization. Elsewhere, including in Bari and Ravenna, workers and students described how port infrastructure was being used, sometimes covertly, to transport military and dual-use materials to Israel. “Everyone here has had enough of that,” one activist in Ravenna said.
Demonstrations held in Civitavecchia, Livorno, and Ancona on Friday evening were notable, with strikers in Ancona describing the day as “monumental.” In Genoa, as has become customary, turnout was massive. Members of the collective CALP – who had previously vowed that “not one nail” would leave the port if Israel attacked the Global Sumud Flotilla en route to Gaza – led the protest. Speaking to media and fellow activists, they stressed that the success of the international strike once again proved that dockworkers keep their promises.
“We promised to block everything – and we blocked everything. We promised a general strike – and we had a general strike. We promised an international strike – and here we are,” they said.
Students in solidarity with dockworkers in Ravenna. Source: Cambiare Rotta Bologna
The international dockworkers’ strike, however, is not the end of the road, workers emphasized. “Today it’s the ports, tomorrow it will be the entire logistics sector, and then it will be all workers,” strikers in Ravenna concluded.
Actions were also reported in the ports of Fos-sur-Mer near Marseille, the German hubs of Bremen and Hamburg, and in Corsica. Dockworkers from Morocco’s Democratic Labor Organization (ODT), who had been involved in preparing the strike throughout the process, were forced to postpone their industrial action due to extreme weather conditions that led to port closures.
Genocide denier and Current UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is quoted that he supports Zionism without qualification. He also confirms that UK air force support has been essential in Israel’s mass-murdering genocide. Includes URLs https://www.declassifieduk.org/keir-starmers-100-spy-flights-over-gaza-in-support-of-israel/ and https://youtu.be/O74hZCKKdpAKeir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza’s hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.Orcas discuss Genocide-supporting and complicit Zionists. Donald Trump, Keith Starmer, David Lammy, Rachel Reeves, Angela Rayner and Wes Streeting are acknowledged as evil genocide-complicit and supporting cnuts.
A sticker supporting the strikes on a bin as agency refuse workers collect rubbish in the Saltley area of Birmingham, January 6, 2026
