While slashing welfare and public services, Labour’s spring statement delivers a bonanza for death-dealing bomb merchants. We now see the true and terrible face of austerity 2.0, writes MICHAEL BURKE
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The mass uprising in Bangladesh and the fall of Sheikh Hasina
NISAR AHMED, former chair of the Bangladeshi Workers Council and long-time community activist, talks to Jamshid Ahmadi, editor of the Liberation Journal, about the momentous struggle that toppled a 15-year regime
Detailing the deluge of delusion and dishonesty pushed by the pro-war camp, IAN SINCLAIR identifies four key tactics corporate journalists use to confuse audiences and suppress opposition to the proxy war in the east
From ‘moral duty’ to ‘military Keynesianism,’ Labour manipulates language to justify slashing welfare but pouring billions into warfare, condemning communities like Glasgow South West to deeper poverty, writes MATT KERR
With politicians dismissing constituents’ fears of global war, the peace movement must look beyond Parliament to prevent catastrophe, writes TOM MORRISON
The mass movement supporting Palestine represents potential political power that the left must now embrace as central to its strategy, writes HUGH LANNING, ahead of this Saturday’s Socialism or Barbarism day school in London
Health Secretary Wes Streeting taking £53k from Tory-linked recruiter and outsourcer Peter Hearn’s OPD Group is a great example of how Labour’s rich donors shape policies targeting the poor – not their wealth, writes SOLOMON HUGHES
MAT COWARD recalls the communist and pacifist aristocrat whose commitment made a difference in the Spanish civil war, the Blitz and WWII Europe
Jamshid Ahmadi: Can you briefly outline the background of the student movement that led to the recent mass uprising in Bangladesh?
Nisar Ahmed: The background to the student movement lies in the quota system of allocating 30 per cent of government jobs to children and grandchildren of freedom fighters of the 1971 national liberation war that established the state of Bangladesh. After 53 years had elapsed, such a scheme did not make any rational sense to the students.
Moreover, in the past 15-year rule of the Awami League and Sheikh Hasina, it was misused to benefit party members and to politicise the state machinery. With acute unemployment among youth following two decades of neoliberal economic policies, it was a ticking bomb waiting to detonate.
More from this author
NISAR AHMED analyses the likely course of events under the interim regime of Muhammad Yunus, with progressive forces attempting to ensure genuine national sovereignty, but where internal or external military intervention remain distinct possibilities
by Nisar Ahmed
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NISAR AHMED analyses the likely course of events under the interim regime of Muhammad Yunus, with progressive forces attempting to ensure genuine national sovereignty, but where internal or external military intervention remain distinct possibilities
MOSHFIQUR NOOR reviews the different factions and their views on where the country should go after overthrowing Sheikh Hasina's regime
As an interim government takes shape, MOSHFIQUR NOOR examines the challenges ahead and the delicate balance between rapid reform and political stability, in the first of a three-part series
As deadly police violence escalates and fiery protests spread, ARKA BHADURI explains how a fight for fair recruitment for public service jobs has become a challenge to the ruling Awami League’s grip on power