Economists estimate extreme poverty could be drastically reduced for a fraction of global defence spending, yet military budgets continue to expand year on year, says JON TRICKETT MP, ahead of the Stop the War International Conference on Saturday
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Change UK: the audacity of hype
Change UK has crashed out of existence - but its centrist backers are unlikely to learn any lessons as to why, writes SOLOMON HUGHES
The short-lived new centrist hope: The Independent Group, a.k.a Change UK, a.k.a Tinge UK
As Unison launches its Year of Women Workers, ANNIE COGAN-THOMAS argues that stronger organisation and collective bargaining are essential to winning equality
Trade unions, trades councils and community organisations must work together to build lasting solidarity and resistance to the far right, argues DREW GILCHRIST
Recent violence in Belfast was not spontaneous — it was built on years of failure and political neglect, argues STIOFAN O NUALLAIN
As delegates meet in Brighton this week, Unison faces pressing questions about pay, organising, workers’ rights and political representation, explains ANDY CHAFFER
Andy Burnham’s growing stature has fuelled hopes of a Labour revival – but ALAN SIMPSON warns that Britain’s crisis runs far deeper than just its leadership and traces its roots to decades of financialised capitalism
THE failure of The Independent Group for Change — aka Change UK — shows that a whole way of “doing politics” doesn’t do the business anymore.
The theory was that politics involved selling a product to a passive electorate. The product, the party’s “retail offer,” should be selected from a narrow range of “sensible” positions, as designed and decided on by expert gatekeepers: corporate funded think tanks come up with the ideas.
National media pundits and editors decide which policies and parties are the “favourites.” Multi-millionaires fund the parties, which use the money to pay expensive consultants to package them. At some point party members might be brought in as cheerleaders and to do a bit of voluntary work and generally do as they are told.
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In the run-up to the Communist Party congress in November ROB GRIFFITHS outlines a few ideas regarding its participation in the elections of May 2026