Labour’s cynical recruitment drive normalises militarism, diverts attention from youth unemployment and public service cuts, and seeks to build consent for an increasingly aggressive defence agenda, argues GEORGINA ANDREWS
‘A police horse ran full-pelt at me’
In the second of two features, ex-miner PAUL KELLY records his experiences at the battle of Orgreave when police mounted an unprecedented attack on striking miners, and what he did in the aftermath of the great strike
Miners keep an eye on the mounted police, deployed in the cornfield behind the Orgreave coking plant, May 31, 1984
JULIA BARD looks at the persistence of anti-semitism on the political right – and its troubling emergence on parts of the left, too
As unemployment rises and living standards fall, May’s economic announcement risks locking Britain into further decline rather than charting a new course, warns JON TRICKETT MP
Despite systemic racism and far-right hostility, Britain’s migrant and black communities continue to contribute, inspire, and resist. Through education, art, and intergenerational solidarity, the next generation can help shape a future rooted in justice, understanding, and hope, says ZITA HOLBOURNE
Campaigns against nuclear weapons on the Clyde, financial backing for arms firms and rising militarism are converging with solidarity for Palestine, as Scotland’s peace movement builds momentum ahead of the 2026 Holyrood election, says ARTHUR WEST
A US air strike in north-west Nigeria, publicly framed as a Christmas act of counterterrorism, reveals a deeper shift in how power is exercised in Africa, argues RAIS NEZA BONEZA
I HAVE been to Orgreave on two occasions. I first went on June 18 1984. I was driven over by a friend who was doing his apprenticeship at Forgemasters. We arrived late in the morning. He dropped me off at the top of Orgreave Lane.
It was a fine, hot day. I walked down the lane with some strikers who had come down from Ayrshire Barony pit and we all anticipated that we would be involved in a Saltley Gate and shut down the coking plant at the bottom of the lane.
I headed down to the railway bridge. I stopped at the bridge on the narrow road. A mass of pickets blocked the way. I climbed up onto the bridge. Looking down towards the plant I could see the police in huge numbers behind long shields.
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