Zarah Sultana’s recent brave criticisms of Labour from 2015 to 2020, including Brexit triangulation, IHRA capitulation and insufficient fighting spirit, have ruffled feathers but started an essential discussion, writes ANDREW MURRAY
From Grenfell to Versailles: the cosy club where corporate killers meet ministers
SOLOMON HUGHES exposes how executives behind lethal cladding have pocketed £302 million since the tragedy, as Labour frontbenchers continue to schmooze at luxury conferences funded and organised by implicated firms
The Grenfell Memorial Wall in west London, September 3, 2024
US baseless accusations of drug trafficking and the outrageous putting of a bounty on a president of a sovereign country do not bode well, reports PABLO MERIGUET
Green Party MPs stand alone in Parliament in defending Palestine Action against Labour’s proscription of the group as a terrorist organisation — an outrageous move that the Tories supported and the cowardly Lib Dems abstained on, writes ELLIOT TONG
Mass mobilisations are forcing governments to seriously consider imposing sanctions and severing ties — even in places like Australia and the Netherlands — despite continued arms shipments to Israel’s war machine, writes RAMZY BAROUD
What we are learning today is that fascism can come to power even when the working class of almost every capitalist nation is very far from achieving revolution, argues DAVID LETHBRIDGE
TONY BURKE explains how an internationally significant breakthrough for workers’ organisation and recognition against two notoriously anti-union global mega corporations has been finally achieved in Canada
HOW was the Grenfell fire allowed to happen? The seven-year inquiry considered this question in great detail. But if you look at what has happened to some of those involved since the fire, it is pretty obvious.
This June, the Times published a useful investigation by its journalist Martina Lees, who has done a lot of investigative work on building safety. Lees looked at the fate of bosses of the firms implicated in Grenfell, after the fire.
“Bosses of Arconic, Kingspan and Saint-Gobain — which manufactured parts of the west London tower’s lethal flammable cladding system — have received a total of £302.3 million since 72 people died in the disaster seven years ago.”
As Lees says: “All three manufacturers had made fire-safety claims about their panels that turned out to be false.”
Let’s look at one of these bosses. Pierre-Andre de Chalendar was the long-standing chief executive of French construction firm Saint-Gobain. He is now the chair of the company.
Lees found: “Since the fire, Saint-Gobain has paid its chief executive Pierre-Andre de Chalendar £11.7m.”
St Gobain’s British subsidiaries, Celotex and St Gobain UK, made most of the flammable Grenfell insulation. St Gobain bought Celotex in 2013. Evidence at the Grenfell inquiry shows St Gobain pressured Celotex to increase profits by selling insulation for higher buildings.
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