Once the bustling heart of Christian pilgrimage, Bethlehem now faces shuttered hotels, empty streets and a shrinking Christian community, while Israel’s assault on Gaza and the tightening grip of occupation destroy hopes of peace at the birthplace of Christ, writes Father GEOFF BOTTOMS
Resisting the Labour right hijack in Bristol
Bristol North West’s local Labour Party has been paralysed by its own paid officials, but members are fighting back with a protest on June 25, writes ESTHER GILES
Esther Giles
After years hidden away, Oldham’s memorial to six local volunteers who died fighting fascism in the Spanish civil war has been restored to public view, marking both a victory for campaigners and a renewed tribute to the town’s proud International Brigade heritage, says ROB HARGREAVES
The June 2025 attacks on Iran have heightened the risk of a wider war, exposed the fiction of a rules-based international order and left ordinary Iranians trapped between external aggression and internal repression, says the Committee for Defence of Iranian People’s Rights
While pretending to seek peace, Europe is heading toward a collision course with Russia – using security guarantees, troop deployments, expropriation and censorship as tools, writes SEVIM DAGDELEN
A WWI hero, renowned ornithologist, medical doctor, trade union organiser and founder member of the Communist Party of Great Britain all rolled in one. MAT COWARD tells the story of a life so improbable it was once dismissed as fiction
The long-term effects of chemical weapons such as Agent Orange mean that the impact of war lasts well beyond a ceasefire
IN 2015, after Corbyn became Labour leader, there was a surge in the membership of Bristol North West’s local Labour Party, with the left on the rise. The executive committee (EC) of the local party achieved a socialist majority from 2017 and in 2019, the party elected an almost entirely socialist executive.
However, the constituency’s MP Darren Jones, together with his allies in Labour’s South West Regional Office, has undermined the progress of the left at every turn.
This has culminated in a full-scale campaign to remove, silence and ultimately replace socialists from the EC roles in the local party at a rigged annual general meeting earlier this month. This is why we have arranged a protest at the regional office on June 25.
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