Berlin’s Soviet war memorials are becoming the latest front in a political struggle to ‘de-Sovietise’ German history. NICO POPP reports
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How poverty itself shaped A Christmas Carol
Charles Dickens was facing a return to the destitution that had blighted his childhood, and it was this which drove him to write the remarkable best-seller which changed the politics of Christmas forever, writes MAT COWARD
Actors rehearsing for a performance of Another Christmas Carol at the Charles Dickens Museum in London in 2016
Newly revealed documents reveal that MI5 taught Brazilian secret police the techniques deployed by the 1964-85 military dictatorship in horrific prisons like Rio de Janeiro’s House of Death. SARA VIVACQUA reports
Western Marxism is a particular version of Marxist theory developed in – and acceptable to – the capitalist nations of Europe and North America and largely divorced from political action, argues the MARX MEMORIAL LIBRARY
CHRISTOPHE DOMEC speaks to the France Insoumise politician facing constant persecution from French authorities
The new Scottish Parliament looks set to continue a cycle of managerial tinkering while public services face the axe, writes STEPHEN LOW
It can be hard to discern conspiracy theory from reality and under the Trump regime the two might just be the same thing, writes Linda Pentz Gunter
MILLIONS of people this month will be watching, reading or listening to some version of An Appeal to the People of England, on behalf of the Poor Man’s Child. Many will return to the original text; others may prefer the Muppets’ interpretation.
In 1843, Charles Dickens (1812-70) had two worries on his mind; one personal, and the other … well, the other personal as well, in a way.
His immediate problem was that his career appeared to be on its deathbed. He’d been a successful writer since his mid-twenties and had become, in a short time, a superstar throughout the English-speaking world. This was the first time he’d experienced professional failure.
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Long before modern labour movements, England’s farmworkers fought back against their oppression – and for some, like Elizabeth Studham, the price was exile to Australia. MAT COWARD tells the story
‘Honest’ Tom Wharton’s 1682 drunken rampage through St Mary’s church haunted his political career, but his satirical song Lillibullero helped topple Catholic James II during the Glorious Revolution, writes MAT COWARD
MAT COWARD tells the extraordinary story of the second world war Spitfire pilot who became Britain’s most famous Stalag escaper, was awarded an MBE, mentored a generation of radio writers and co-founded a hardline Marxist-Leninist party
MAT COWARD tells the story of Edward Maxted, whose preaching of socialism led to a ‘peasants’ revolt’ in the weeks running up to the first world war