General secretary of the General Federation of Trade Unions GAWAIN LITTLE calls for support and participation in the national partnership organised to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the 1926 general strike
Latest editorial
Doing battle with war: the Luton Peace Riots 1919
MAT COWARD delves into the riots that saw ex-soldiers ransack a banquet, commandeer a piano and torch the town hall, enraged by tone-deaf officials’ elitist armistice celebrations
11 - Luton war memorial
After brutal police crackdowns on pensioners and the forced approval of secret IMF deals, trade unions are finally responding to grassroots pressure and fighting back against savage neoliberal reforms, reports BERT SCHOUWENBURG
Bizarrely, Trump’s latest attacks now include the National Zoo, but his real and racist agenda is to strip everything black from the country’s cultural institutions, writes LINDA PENTZ GUNTER
The transformation of a stable secular state into a fractured ruin largely ruled by Western-backed fundamentalists exposes the hollow nature of ‘multipolarity’ and the absence of principled anti-imperialism today, writes ZOLTAN ZIGEDY
Facing economic turmoil, Jim Callaghan’s government rejected Tony Benn’s alternative economic strategy in favour of cuts that paved the way for Thatcherism — and the cuts-loving Labour of the present era, writes KEITH FLETT
The economic value of disability benefits far outweighs their cost, argues Dr DYLAN MURPHY
As tensions rise in the Middle East, the role of Iran in the region’s political balance becomes ever more significant. STEVE BISHOP assesses the current situation
WE’VE heard of bread riots, race riots, and even cheese riots — but the category of “peace riot” must surely be a pretty select one.
It sounds a bit like a joke, but the Luton Peace Riots, which took place between July 19-21 1919, weren’t funny at all: there were many injuries, hundreds of thousands of pounds-worth of damage was done to the town centre, the town hall was burned down and subsequently demolished, and eventually only a military occupation ended the uprising.
And all of this was over the handling of the armistice celebrations.
More from this author
High quality pulp, rollicking online murders, Abnorman Britain, and high skates drama: reviews of The Get Off, Everyone In The Group Chat Dies, Pagans and First To Fall
A no-nonsense ex-Garda female cop, Scandi-noir’s newest flawed hero, the lure of Aussie gold, and unexpected decency in Silicon valley
MAT COWARD recalls the occasion when the first man in space paid a visit to our shores in 1961
It’s a dead easy crop to grow and can be made into one of Britain’s best sauces. MAT COWARD explains how
