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
Scottish independence - or a federal Britain?
VINCE MILLS argues the Labour Party conference should adopt a resolution supporting a federal solution to the Scottish question
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 long-term effects of chemical weapons such as Agent Orange mean that the impact of war lasts well beyond a ceasefire
THE Scottish Labour Party leadership may, in time, find that John McDonnell did them a favour when he said Labour would allow a second referendum on Scottish independence, if, after sufficient time, the Scottish people were not persuaded that Scotland was flourishing under a Labour government.
It is hardly surprising that they will not be thanking the shadow chancellor right now. His comments provoked a seemingly endless torrent of bad press as a result of the reckless and self-indulgent comments by Ian Murray MP and his gaggle of political familiars in the Scottish Labour parliamentary group.
As Stephen Low pointed out in a recent Morning Star, we were treated to the usual poisonous invocations drawn from the great cauldron of right wing potions, cackled in the eager ears of the harbingers of doom for socialism, otherwise known as the Scottish media.
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VINCE MILLS cautions over the perils and pitfalls of ‘a new left party’
While VINCE MILLS laments the resignation of Neil Findlay from Scottish Labour, he explains why he won’t be joining him outside the party in the ongoing struggle for a socialist future
The Scottish Labour conference this weekend will be the last call to save the party from electoral ignominy in 2026, argues CRAIG ANDERSON
As polls show Scottish Labour’s support crumbling and Reform rising even among independence supporters, an urgent need emerges for an alternative based on public investment paid for by radical progressive taxation, argues VINCE MILLS