KATE CLARK recalls an occasion when the president of the Scottish National Union of Mineworkers might just have saved a Chilean prisoner’s life
Latest editorial
Waiting for Nothing
MEDEA BENJAMIN argues that real security doesn’t come from tanks and missiles — it comes from strong communities, global co-operation, and urgent action on our shared crises
BEN CHACKO reports on the struggles against sexism, racism and the brutish British state that featured at Matchwomen’s Festival this year
As Labour continues to politically shoot itself in the foot, JULIAN VAUGHAN sees its electorate deserting it en masse
Europe is acquiescing in Trump’s manoeuvrings — where Europe takes over the US forever war in Ukraine while Washington gets ready for a future fight with China. And it’s working people who will be left paying the price, says DIANE ABBOTT MP
With Labour governments either side of the border, the distressing times we live in demand much more collaborative working, argues JESS TURNER
A “LOST” US classic of Depression-era fiction has been republished by Scottish imprint The Common Breath.
Tom Kromer wrote Waiting for Nothing in 1935, a fictional account of life among the homeless, the soup kitchens and the “Hooverville” encampments, which Kromer knew from personal experience.
It is a bit like John Steinbeck’s Depression-era novels — which it predates — only with a hard-boiled prose that is so spare and accurate it feels close to Samuel Beckett.
The book is tough as nails, but also heartbreaking, angry and sometimes grimly funny.
The Common Breath re-released Waiting for Nothing last October, and you can buy it directly from them for £8 (plus £2.50 P&P), and I strongly encourage you to do so (thecommonbreath.com).
More from this author
SOLOMON HUGHES explains how the PM is channelling the spirit of Reagan and Thatcher with a ‘two-tier’ nuclear deterrent, whose Greenham Common predecessor was eventually fought off by a bunch of ‘punks and crazies’
Israel’s combination of starvation, coercion and murder is part of a carefully concerted plan to ensure Palestinian compliance – as shown in leaked details about the sinister Gaza Humanitarian Foundation which reveal similarities to hunger manipulation projects in Vietnam, Malaya and Kenya, says SOLOMON HUGHES
SOLOMON HUGHES reveals how six MPs enjoyed £400-£600 hospitality at Ditchley Park for Google’s ‘AI parliamentary scheme’ — supposedly to develop ‘effective scrutiny’ of artificial intelligence, but actually funded by the increasingly unsavoury tech giant itself
SOLOMON HUGHES details how the firm has quickly moved on to buttering-up Labour MPs after the fall of the Tories so it can continue to ‘win both ways’ collecting public and private cash by undermining the NHS
