ON the 7th of June 1968, 187 women walked out of Ford’s sewing factory in Dagenham.

Working in one of the most profitable car-production plants in Britain, the women were employed to make covers for car seats.

Following Ford’s decision to re-classify its wage structure, women learnt that their pay would now be 15 per cent lower than that received by men working in the same plant.

Taking industrial action to oppose pay inequality, the strike inspired other female workers at a plant in Halewood, Merseyside to down their tools too.

Two years later, the government passed the 1970 Equal Pay Act which, for the first time in Britain, legislated to equalise the pay and employment conditions of men and women.

Higher public sector wages. A shorter working day. The weekend.

Organised labour, unions and industrial action have secured victories for us all. Today, the fundamental democratic right to strike is under threat from arcane Tory legislation.

New government plans, expected to be launched today, intend to override a worker’s right to withdraw their labour, forcing them to work against their will.

This includes a requirement for certain industries (including the health service, rail, education, fire and border security) to provide “minimum service levels”; bosses will be allowed to sue unions and sack employees if these mini­mum levels are not met.

The government has done its best to turn railway workers and postal workers into public enemies. Next, healthcare workers and teachers, campaigning to defend their jobs and defend our public services.

In accelerating its fight with unions, the government is forcing workers to pay the price for a crisis caused by decades of austerity, economic mismanagement and corporate greed.

And they are repealing a fundamental democratic right that undergirds our ability to secure a decent and dignified standard of living. In doing so, the government is in danger of contravening a right enshrined in the International Labour Organisation, signed in 1919, the oldest UN convention.

The government’s latest attack on workers is part of a much broader assault on human rights, intent on withdrawing from the European Convention on Human Rights and reneging on the 1951 UN Refugee Convention.

That the government is targeting ordinary workers and refugees at the same time is no accident: they have all become scapegoats for crises the Tories have created. In the end, we all pay the price.

We already have some of the toughest anti-union legislation in the world. Opposing these new oppressive plans is only the beginning.

My hope is that the government has overplayed its hand; we must mobilise in our thousands to fight back and repeal all legislation that infringes upon our right to organise.

We’re starting the year at a time of immense and intense stress for many workers, particularly in healthcare and education.

It is essential that we ensure the collective solidarity that we showed in 2022 not only carries into 2023 but grows in size and stature.

Today’s turbulent terrain and societal fractures cannot be resolved or healed without a politics that stands up for those who keep this country going.

Ultimately, the strikes up and down this country are not just about pay. They are about poverty, hunger, stress, insecurity, inequality and injustice within our society.

As women in Dagenham taught us in 1968, when you stand by striking workers, you stand up for a better world.

• Jeremy Corbyn is the MP for Islington North