Both Conservative and Labour administrations have now refused to release research showing PIP payments are vital for disabled people’s survival, exposing the ideological nature of planned welfare ‘reforms,’ writes Dr DYLAN MURPHY
HEROES & VILLAINS OF 2024
The Morning Star sorts the good eggs from the rotten scoundrels of the year
Western media dismisses the National People’s Congress while ignoring its extensive consultation processes, massive public participation mechanisms, and a tiered structure involving millions of deputies, explains JENNY CLEGG
Despite caring for vulnerable children and often covering classes, support staff remain undervalued, with some earning less than supermarket workers — but GMB’s campaigning offers new hope, argues DONNA SPICER
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
Man-made canals like Panama and Suez face unprecedented challenges from extreme weather patterns and geopolitical tensions that reveal the fragility of our global trade networks, write ROX MIDDLETON, LIAM SHAW and MIRIAM GAUNTLETT
As climate change makes vast mineral deposits accessible, the island’s 56,000 residents face unprecedented pressure from Trump’s territorial ambitions while struggling to maintain their traditional way of life, writes JOHN GREEN
Student Mahmoud Khalil’s arrest and threatened deportation are terrifying — but the moribund Democrats are still failing to mount any meaningful resistance against the slide toward autocracy, reports LINDA PENTZ GUNTER
Heroes
Julian Assange
Free at last, the WikiLeaks founder should never have had to strike a plea bargain to be granted his liberty — and in the judiciary’s connivance at a blatantly political extradition bid, and determined blind eye towards outrages such as the US considering assassinating him on British soil, we learned almost as much about the way so-called British justice works as we did about the crimes of US and British imperialism from the invaluable revelations on war crimes committed in Iraq and Afghanistan.[[{"fid":"72658","view_mode":"inlineleft","fields":{"format":"inlineleft","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":"Julian Assange","field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":"Julian Assange"},"link_text":null,"type":"media","field_deltas":{"2":{"format":"inlineleft","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":"Julian Assange","field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":"Julian Assange"}},"attributes":{"alt":"Julian Assange","title":"Julian Assange","class":"media-element file-inlineleft","data-delta":"2"}}]]
A happy new year to Julian and his family from us at the Morning Star — we won’t forget what you’ve taught us.
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