A vast US war fleet deployed in the south Caribbean — ostensibly to fight drug-trafficking but widely seen as a push for violent regime change — has sparked international condemnation and bipartisan resistance in the US itself. FRANCISCO DOMINGUEZ reports
Latest editorial
Miners’ strike stalwarts mark epic struggle 40 years on
GREG CHALLIS reports on an event, organised by Chorley TUC, to remember the landmark struggle of the miners and their families, where calls were made for a return to working-class politics to address the issues of today
The support group’s banner on the march in 1984. Carrying the banner is the late Jack Aspinall, another miner from Coppull who worked at Bold colliery and was loyal to the end
ANSELM ELDERGILL recalls the misjudgments, mishaps and moments of farce that shaped his years in legal practice
MAT COWARD tells how 18th-century scholar and revolutionary democrat Joseph Ritson turned a medieval outlaw into England’s people’s hero — soon to be gracing panto halls around the nation
The Communist Party of Britain’s Congress last month debated a resolution on ending opposition to all nuclear power in light of technological advances and the climate crisis. RICHARD HEBBERT explains why
Amid the festive lights, Scotland faces a stark holiday truth: only real investment in public services and the workers who sustain them can lift communities out of poverty, argues LILIAN MACER
Behind the cute names of Scotland’s road gritters lies a workforce underpaid and overlooked – a fitting reflection of a Budget that protected profits, bungled its rollout and offered hardly a glimmer of hope, writes MATT KERR
VETERANS from the epic 1984-5 miners’ strike marked the 40th anniversary of the miners’ strike at an exhibition and rally in Coppull, Lancashire, with speakers from the former coalfield and National Women Against Pit Closures.
Organised by Chorley TUC, they shared experiences with activists locally about their role in sustaining the year-long struggle. Members of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) had refused to cross picket lines at Parkside, Wigan and Sutton Manor and Bold collieries in the St Helens area, set up by striking miners from Yorkshire, in March 1984.
They were resisting the threatened closure of pits and consequent devastation of local communities. It marked the start of the year-long miners’ strike that drew support from the labour movement across the world.
Similar stories
In the third extract from her new memoir, former NUM headquarters staffer HILARY CAVE recounts how women throughout the striking coalfields showed their mettle when the going got tough
Remembering KEN CAPSTICK, vice-president of the National Union of Mineworkers Yorkshire Area
With solidarity coming in from across Britain and the world, PETER LAZENBY speaks to the people who made Christmas 1984 a celebration of working-class resistance in Britain’s striking coalmining communities