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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Not 'a gap year job' — London's TEFL teachers struggle for recognition
Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) in Britain is a raw deal. ANNA CLARK of the TEFL Workers’ Union tells Ben Cowles how teachers are fighting back
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 bosses of the Delfin English language school in London must have thought that they had finally dealt with their uppity teachers when they made them all redundant just before Christmas 2019.
Who were these workers to expect holiday pay, paid meetings, paid prep time, paid training and anything other than zero-hours contracts and statutory sick pay?
Getting rid of them all during the most expensive time of year would treat them right for involving themselves with the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) and forming the TEFL Workers’ Union.
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