High pressures squeeze and crush, but low pressures damage too. Losing the atom-level buzz that keeps us held safe in the balance of internal and external pressure releases dangerous storms, disorientation and pain, write ROX MIDDLETON, LIAM SHAW and MIRIAM GAUNTLETT
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The South African billionaires fomenting a global race war
From their apartheid-era childhoods to Trump’s inner circle, billionaires Elon Musk and Peter Thiel bring a colonial ‘divide and rule’ mindset to the global far-right project, where the masses turn on each other, writes JOE GILL
Elon Musk speaks at Life Centre Church in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, on October 19, 2024
EDMUND GRIFFITHS makes a robust defence of sortition, the chosen method of picking attendees for the new left party’s inaugural conference from the membership at random, but sounds the alarm on the eye-watering number of suggested delegates
The NEU kept children and teachers safe during the pandemic, yet we are disgracefully slandered by the politicians who have truly failed our children by not funding a proper education recovery programme — here’s what is needed, explains KEVIN COURTNEY
The appalling bigotry and bias of London’s police force has been obvious for years – and the police leadership does not appear inclined to do anything about it, writes CLAUDIA WEBBE
As Holyrood elections approach, BRIAN LEISHMAN MP argues that Labour’s time has come — to open a new chapter which puts an end to the years of managed decline
ASSAF TALGAM talks to an Israeli Communist lawmaker about the need to use every tool of democratic and non-violent struggle; how Israeli society has changed since October 7 2023; and the persecution of the left in the parliamentary arena
THERE is a common origin story to the new far-right billionaire backers of Donald Trump: apartheid South Africa.
Both Elon Musk and Peter Thiel — the biggest tech billionaires backing Trump — grew up there, where their fathers grew rich, respectively, mining diamonds and uranium — sectors at the core of the apartheid economy.
“The centrality of South Africa for the far right and for neoliberals is quite extraordinary,” said Boston University’s Professor Quinn Slobodian in a recent interview. “For Musk himself the experience of growing up there with a very authoritarian dictatorial father was a very dystopian one, from the way his biographer recounts it.”
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JOE GILL wholeheartedly recommends an eloquent manifesto: how to change the world one local project at a time
![BY ANY MEANS POSSIBLE: Yanaocha mine in Cajamarca, Peru is the largest gold mine in South America operated by Newmont Corporation. It is considered the most profitable in the world [Pic: Elbuenminero/CC]]( https://msd11.gn.apc.org/sites/default/files/styles/low_resolution/public/2025-09/extractive%20caoitakism%20webpic.jpg.webp?itok=DEObb5jr)
JOE GILL appreciates a lucid demonstration of how capital today is an outgrowth of the colonial economy
JOE GILL looks at research on the reasons people voted as they did last week and concludes Labour is finished unless it ditches Starmer and changes course
The massacre of Red Crescent and civil defence aid workers has elicited little coverage and no condemnation by major powers — this is the age of lawlessness, warns JOE GILL
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Politicians who continue to welcome contracts with US companies without considering the risks and consequences of total dependency in the years to come are undermining the raison d’etre of the NHS, argues Dr JOHN PUNTIS
That should be warning enough to end the company’s contract with the NHS, writes LINDA PENTZ GUNTER
The new US administration’s policy decisions are already having seismic effects worldwide, argue ROX MIDDLETON, LIAM SHAW and MIRIAM GAUNTLETT
KEVIN OVENDEN cautions against a simplistic ridiculing of Trump, Musk or Farage as any such laughter might turn out to be at our expense