TUC president and POA leader STEVE GILLAN speaks to Ben Chacko on the eve of Congress 2026
WITH the government’s chaotic handling of Covid-19 lockdown restrictions, suddenly announcing changes late at night on Twitter, the attractiveness of a summer break in Britain, for those still able to afford it, has more attraction than usual.
The August weather is notoriously unreliable, but for socialists there is a chance to visit some of the locations that Marx and Engels enjoyed in the second half of the 19th century.
Not quite all are by the sea. There are references in the correspondence to Buxton, then a major spa town, and within reach of Manchester, for example.
MML director MEIRIAN JUMP outlines the recently refreshed library’s busy autumn schedule that ranges from book sales, archival exploration, community work with online education and the ever popular site tours
It may have become a traditional month for holidays, but episodes from early British labour movement history show that class struggle never takes time off, argues KEITH FLETT
The Isle of Wight’s Victorian holiday boom drew visitors from across Europe, including the founders of scientific socialism, writes KEITH FLETT
The evacuation of thousands of Basque children became a landmark act of compassion during the Spanish civil war, write SIMON MARTINEZ and MANUEL MORENO


