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
Latest editorial
US maintains pressure on Venezuela as presidential election approaches
TIM YOUNG warns of possible destabilisation attempts by Washington as Venezuelans prepare to head to the polls later this year
DECISION TIME: National Electoral Council president Elvis Hidrobo Amoroso (centre) announces to the press that Venezuela’s presidential election will take place on July 28
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
AS VENEZUELA announces July 28 as the date for its next presidential election, US President Joe Biden is keeping the pressure on the South American nation by renewing for a further year the “declaration of national emergency” against it.
The declaration says Venezuela “poses an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States.” First imposed by president Barack Obama, this executive order enables the US to impose an array of sanctions against Venezuela in a drive to achieve “regime change” in the country.
In all, 930 coercive measures that are illegal under international law have been applied against Venezuela amounting to a fully fledged blockade of the country.
Similar stories
The global left must be unwavering in it is support for Venezuela as Washington increases its aggression, and clear-eyed about the West’s cynical motives for targeting it, says CLAUDIA WEBBE
Two months into Donald Trump’s second run as president, what can we glean about his policies towards Latin America so far, asks TIM YOUNG, ahead of this Saturday’s Socialism or Barbarism day school in London
FIONA SIM sees the Venezuelan anti-fascist and anti-imperialist initiatives as offering hope to the rest of the world