From Chartists and Suffragettes to Irish republicans and today’s Palestine activists, the treatment of hunger strikers exposes a consistent pattern in how the British state represses those it deems political prisoners, says KEITH FLETT
THE German and French governments have fallen, and in South Korea, there has been a coup. The G7 countries, the club of major industrialised nations in particular are struggling with numerous internal political problems.
In France, the government fell in December 2024 after failing to pass a budget. Although a new prime minister has been appointed, the issues persist, and some observers speculate that President Emmanuel Macron will step down before the end of his term in 2027.
In Germany, the government has been virtually rudderless over the past year. In December, Olaf Scholz’s “traffic light coalition” finally collapsed, paving the way for new elections.
From Reform UK to Trump, Orban and beyond, the far right is organised across borders and growing. Waiting for it to collapse is a fatal error – building an international, locally rooted left alternative is now an urgent necessity., argues ROGER McKENZIE
Far-right forces are rising across Latin America and the Caribbean, armed with a common agenda of anti-communism, the culture war, and neoliberal economics, writes VIJAY PRASHAD
TONY CONWAY assesses the lessons of the 1930s and looks at what is similar, and what is different, about the rise of the far right today
Ecuador’s election wasn’t free — and its people will pay the price under President Noboa



