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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The return of ‘neoliberalism as usual’ will go nowhere
Biden’s in, and so are old ideas about Britain as junior partner in an imperialist Atlantic alliance like the Blair-Clinton years — but Labour’s right are dreaming if they think this wins elections, writes NICK WRIGHT
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
A new biography of a man who was arguably Labour’s most antisemitic leader has provoked something of a discussion about the roots of imperialist ideology in the British Labour movement.
The twice turncoat Lord Adonis, now readmitted to the parliamentary Labour Party after a mid-career defection to the Coalition Liberal Democrats which torpedoed a Labour election bid, is the author of Ernest Bevin, Labour’s Churchill.
Bevin was a key figure in the building of the Transport and General Workers Union and was minister in the wartime Churchill government and in the postwar Labour administration of Clement Attlee.
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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
In the run-up to the Communist Party congress in November ROB GRIFFITHS outlines a few ideas regarding its participation in the elections of May 2026
The left must avoid shouting ‘racist’ and explain that the socialist alternative would benefit all