ANSELM ELDERGILL recalls the misjudgments, mishaps and moments of farce that shaped his years in legal practice
Latest editorial
Peace News: a huge, irrevocable loss for the British peace movement
IAN SINCLAIR mourns the end of the longstanding activist newspaper that proudly stood ‘For Revolutionary Nonviolence’
From left to right: Leslie Barson (Peace News Ltd director and Peace News Trustees director), Gabriel Carlyle (finance and promos worker), Emily Johns (production worker), Muzammal Hussain (Peace News Ltd director), Milan Rai (editor), Emma Sangster (web manager), Henrietta Cullinan (Peace News Ltd director) and Eve Wedderburn (Peace News Ltd director)
[Erica Smith]
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
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
Commiserations if you failed this year, MAT COWARD offers six points which, if followed religiously, will ensure you succeed next year
In the final part of a serialisation of his new book, JOHN McINALLY explains how in 2018, after years spent rebuilding the PCS into a leading force against austerity, a damaging rupture emerged from within the union’s own left wing
PRABHAT PATNAIK looks at how the development of capitalism from the start divided the world into unequal segments
IN AUGUST all four members of staff at Peace News — Gabriel Carlyle, Emily Johns, Milan Rai and Emma Sangster — resigned in protest at how they have been treated by the activist newspaper’s parent company, Peace News Trustees.
Five members of the Peace News board also resigned. The group’s resignation letter noted the staff had experienced a “tidal wave of intimidation, harassment and threats” and a “relentless bullying campaign” from some of the trustees. The Morning Star’s National Union of Journalists chapel kindly published a statement of solidarity with the #PeaceNewsFour.
Like the Morning Star, Peace News has a long and fascinating history. First published in 1936, it was the official paper of the pacifist Peace Pledge Union until 1961, and from 1990 to 2004 was co-published with War Resisters International. Early contributors included Vera Brittain, Mahatma Gandhi and the Labour Party’s George Lansbury.
Similar stories
A chance find when clearing out our old office led us to renew a friendship across 5,000 miles and almost nine decades of history, explains ROGER McKENZIE
At the very moment Britain faces poverty, housing and climate crises requiring radical solutions, the liberal press promotes ideologically narrow books while marginalising authors who offer the most accurate understanding of change, writes IAN SINCLAIR
SOLOMON HUGHES highlights a 1995 Sunday Times story about the disappearance of ‘defecting Iraqi nuclear scientist.’ Even though the story was debunked, it was widely repeated across the mainstream press, creating the false – and deadly – narrative of Iraqi WMD that eventually led to war
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