From London’s holly-sellers to Engels’s flaming Christmas centrepiece, the plum pudding was more than festive fare in Victorian Britain, says KEITH FLETT
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So how would you actually ‘remain and reform' the EU?
NICK WRIGHT looks at the reality of passing left-wing treaties in the European Parliament — rather than simply leaving it
Jean-Claude Juncker rings a bell during a weekly College of Commissioners meeting at the EU headquarters in Brussels
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
From a lockdown digital project to a vital tool for class solidarity, ROBERT POOLE and HENRY FOWLER reflect on half-a-decade of struggle
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 MOST contentious issue in Britain’s politics for a generation finds socialists — who agree on almost every political question of significance — at loggerheads over whether Britain should leave the European Union.
Set against the clear injunction from the British people and backed by what we might describe as the “Lexit internationalist left” — to leave the European Union — we have a spectrum of views which equally claim an internationalist identity and assert that the EU can be transformed in a socialist direction.
There has always existed a trend in Labour, on the right and centre of the party, which saw first the Common Market, and later the EU in its various mutations, as the place for a Labour government to situate Britain.
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Starmer sabotaged Labour with his second referendum campaign, mobilising a liberal backlash that sincerely felt progressive ideals were at stake — but the EU was then and is now an entity Britain should have nothing to do with, explains NICK WRIGHT
Deep disillusionment with the Westminster cross-party consensus means rupture with the status quo is on the cards – bringing not only opportunities but also dangers, says NICK WRIGHT
The left must avoid shouting ‘racist’ and explain that the socialist alternative would benefit all
NICK WRIGHT examines how Farage’s party has attracted five distinct voter tribes with incompatible views on economics, immigration and state intervention — presenting both a challenge and opportunity for left organising