VIJAY PRASHAD examines why in 2018 Washington started to take an increasingly belligerent stance towards ‘near peer rivals’ – Russa and China – with far-reaching geopolitical effects
Death by a thousand cuts
We need candidates ready to build a united front to defend our services and communities, and stand up against the politics of despair which can only grow when people ‘lose faith’ with the Establishment parties, argues NATHAN HENNEBRY
ROGER McKENZIE looks back 60 years to the assassination of Malcolm X, whose message that black people have worth resonated so strongly with him growing up in Walsall in the 1980s
At least 1.5 million tons of crude oil has been spilt in the Niger Delta since 1958, writes PAVAN KULKANI
ANDREW MURRAY surveys a quaking continent whose leaders have no idea how to respond to an openly contemptuous United States
Based on his experience of Haringey Council Councillor MARK BLAKE believes only a radical policy rethink will reconnect councils with the alienated constituencies they are supposed to serve
Last week the CPUSA launched a new Rapid Response project aimed at mobilising a popular resistance to policies enacted by the new government. CAMERON HARRISON explains
CONTINUOUS cuts to local councils have become the norm for well over a decade now. Our local high streets lie empty, council-run services continue to be liquidated into the hands of private monopolies and public transport has been decimated. These cuts are a conscious choice.
At a national level, the Scottish government does have the power to allocate crucial funds away from the private enterprises and back into the council-run services. They have made the conscious choice not to.
Locally, it is the officers of the council who establish budgets based on cost-cutting. Councillors should be playing a vital role in opposing budgets which see services and facilities liquidated. Many councillors across Scotland have failed in this duty to their constituents, most notably in Lanarkshire.
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With local authorities and services in a dire state, what should be the strategy of the left? DREW GILCHRIST argues that building support for no-cuts budgets can be a powerful way of defending our communities
As the mainstream party leaders trade forgettable platitudes, fired-up hospitality workers in Glasgow raised vital funds for Palestinian medics — and are building a workers’ co-op, reports MATT KERR
