The annual commemoration of anti-fascist volunteers who fought fascism in Spain now includes a key contribution from Italian comrades
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The Internet Archive: our online commons are under attack
What was being celebrated as a modern-day Library of Alexandria giving free access to billions of resources, along with the brilliant Wayback machine, is now under attack by corporate publishers, reports JOHN HAWKINS
The Islamic Republic’s suddenly weakened regional position exposes the nation to grave threats from US imperialism
DONG XUE explains why US tariffs hold no significant threat to China
ANSELM ELDERGILL asks whether artificial intelligence may decide legal cases in the future, in place of human judges, and how AI could reshape the legal landscape
Like pieces on a chess board, centrist parties lose ground as they accommodate rather than challenge far-right agendas — socialists must play things better, warns MATT KERR
Yanis Varoufakis and Jeremy Corbyn laid out a roadmap for peace, justice and equality as they celebrated the legacy of inspirational socialist Tony Benn, reports LINDA PENTZ GUNTER
The NEU’s annual conference promises heated debate, with motions on international politics, curriculum reform and union amalgamation likely to provoke strong reactions and challenge the status quo, writes Education for Tomorrow editor ROBERT POOLE
IT HAS been said that one of the great losses of the ancient world was the destruction of the Library of Alexandria. It housed some of the literate world’s great documents, estimated to have been around 400,000 scrolls at its height. Then Julius Caesar lit Alexandria on fire in 48 BC and the library burned to the ground.
One of the great treasures of the contemporary world is an online library called the Internet Archive (IA). Established in 1996 by Brewster Kahle, a US digital librarian, computer engineer from MIT, and advocate of universal access to all knowledge.
This makes him a champion of the commons. And the public online library he has built is a wonder of the modern world. As of September 5 2024, the Internet Archive held over 866 billion web pages, more than 42.5 million print materials, 13 million videos, 3 million TV news, 1.2 million software programmes, 14 million audio files, 5 million images, and 272,660 concerts in its Wayback Machine.
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