Today marks the start of the third Global Labour Institute International Summer School at Northern College in Barnsley.

Over 80 labour movement delegates from 28 countries have descended on Barnsley for an inspiring week of debate, discussion and education on the situation of the international labour movement and its politics in the 21^st century.

Workers in 2014 face enormous challenges, from austerity to ecological destruction and political turmoil. #ISS14 hopes to provide a platform for debate as to how to deal with these global crises and to inspire a new generation of global union activists.

The International Summer School this year comes at a time as Britain is preparing for potentially its largest day of strike action since the General Strike of 1926, which will be taking place this Thursday.

Our team of conference rapporteurs and Union Solidary International (USi) will be live-blogging and reporting on the Summer School over the course of the week, both on the GLI and USi blogs. Feel free to get in touch if you have any questions – whether in person or on Twitter.

Make sure to follow and contribute to the debate on Twitter using the hashtag #ISS14 and following @GLI_UK and @USILive.

A huge welcome from the GLI team to those who have travelled far and wide for the Summer School!

We hope you have an excellent week and come away feeling re-energised and ready to take on the threats to workers across the globe.

 Solidarity!