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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Twenty years on from Iraq don’t forget Bush and Blair’s crimes
KEN LIVINGSTONE salutes the millions who marched against the war and looks back at how the London mayor’s office was able to aid the movement even as the Westminster government carried out its bloody invasion
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
IN my time as leader of the Greater London Council (GLC) and mayor of London, I had many occasions to be proud of the majority of ordinary Londoners, who again and again showed much better judgement on key political and social issues of the day than our political (mis-)leaders in Westminster.
One such example was in the run-up to the Iraq war in 2003, the 20th anniversary of which was marked last week.
At the GLC we had declared 1983 a “peace year” and 20 years on, progressives around the world again found ourselves needing to stand up to those who wished to make war.
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The wealth of the super-rich grows by £35 million daily while our NHS and schools collapse — that’s why thousands of us will be gathering in London demanding that the billionaires foot the bill for the many crises they have caused, writes TYRONE SCOTT
LYNNE WALSH tells the story of the extraordinary race against time to ensure London’s memorial to the International Brigades got built – as activists gather next week to celebrate the monument’s 40th anniversary
Trump has changed his tune from the deal-making peace-bringer and is now gearing up to attack Iran. We must take to the streets to keep Britain out of this new madness and all of Israel and the US’s wars, writes LINDSEY GERMAN
