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 IMF must grant Venezuela’s bid for funds now
Venezuela’s appeal for an emergency loan worth $US5 billion to help it tackle the coronavirus crisis has been turned down. We cannot accept this, writes Unite's TONY BURKE
A woman wearing a mask walks wearing her cross at sunset during Holy Week in the Catia neighbourhood of Caracas, Venezuela, on Easter Sunday
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
THE Venezuelan government wrote to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) seeking funds from its rapid financing instrument (RFI) to “strengthen its detection and response systems” during the coronavirus pandemic.
The IMF claims that RFI loans “can be disbursed very quickly to assist member countries implement policies to address emergencies such as the coronavirus” and has allocated $50 billion (£40bn) to the fund.
This decision not to grant an RFI then, seems to illustrate that it is really the US Trump administration, with its unremittingly hostile policy of securing illegal regime change through sanctions against Venezuela, that is calling the shots at the IMF.
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