Latest editorial
With speculation growing about a Labour leadership contest in 2026, only a decisive break with the current direction – on the economy, foreign policy and migrants – can avert disaster and offer a credible alternative, writes DIANE ABBOTT
Whitbread's workers deserve their human rights
Are workers' rights too much of a commitment for one of Britain's largest hospitality companies, ask RHYS McCARTHY and BEN COWLES
Repression against left-wing, anti-imperialist and Palestine solidarity structures in Germany is increasingly aimed at undermining their economic means of existence, says LEON WYSTRYCHOWSKI
Decades of centre-left accommodation and deepening inequality have opened the door to a hard-right restoration — posing stark challenges for the left, argues FRANCISCO DOMINGUEZ
Despite systemic racism and far-right hostility, Britain’s migrant and black communities continue to contribute, inspire, and resist. Through education, art, and intergenerational solidarity, the next generation can help shape a future rooted in justice, understanding, and hope, says ZITA HOLBOURNE
JULIA BARD looks at the persistence of anti-semitism on the political right – and its troubling emergence on parts of the left, too
From the mainstreaming of far-right ideas to Europe’s looming conflicts, 2025 has been a year of sharp warnings. The coming year demands decisive action before these crises escalate, writes ANDREW MURRAY
Last week Whitbread PLC — the supreme corporate overlords of Premier Inn, Costa Coffee and a host of other prominent hospitality businesses with an annual turnover of £3 billion— pulled itself out of the Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI) just 18 months after it signed up.
This prompted the ire of Unite which has tried for many years to organise workers in the hospitality industry, a sector riven with exploitation and abuse.
The union said Whitbread’s move was “a slap in the face to its 50,000-strong UK workforce, its customers and to workers in its overseas supply chain.”
Similar stories
Organised workers at the notoriously anti-union global giant are scoring victory after victory, and now international bodies are pitching in to finally force this figurehead of corporate capitalism to give in to unionisation, writes EMILIO AVELAR
It is only trade union power at work that will materially improve the lot of working people as a class but without sector-wide collective bargaining and a right to take sympathetic strike action, we are hamstrung in the fight to tilt back the balance of power, argues ADRIAN WEIR
TONY BURKE says an International Labour Conference next month will try for a new convention to protect often super-exploited workers providing services such as ride-hailing (taxis) such as Uber as well as fast food and package delivery