As Colombia approaches presidential elections next year, the US decision to decertify the country in the war on drugs plays into the hands of its allies on the political right, writes NICK MacWILLIAM
Wilko: we once came close to preventing these crises
The 12,500 jobs lost at Wilko echo the industrial vandalism of Tories in the 1980s. New Labour had plans to put in place a safety net — but will Keir Starmer resurrect these, asks KEITH FLETT
General view inside Wilko in Brownhills near Walsall, one of the first Wilko stores to close down
The move against alleged PKK members that sparked outrage as a community centre in north London was raided last year has now come to trial, writes TONY BURKE, but in the meantime, the peace process abroad has changed the situation almost entirely
A new report points a way to overcome complacent framing of climate issues, ‘by sparking a wider public reckoning with climate realities,’ and reconnecting with working-class people. IAN SINCLAIR reports
We cannot understand today’s world without understanding the rise of China – and we cannot understand China without understanding how it was shaped by the second world war, writes JENNY CLEGG
NICK WRIGHT reports from Italy, where 80 cities saw Gaza strikes as unions paralysed transport and massive crowds clashed with police in Milan — but France is also kicking off, and Westminster, in a very different way, is facing a crisis of legitimacy too
Escalating anti-China rhetoric from the West has a clear purpose – to manufacture consent for the new cold war, and potentially a hot one, argues CARLOS MARTINEZ
DESPITE the best efforts of the GMB union it seems like all Wilko stores will close in the next few weeks with the loss of 12,500 jobs.
The impact will be significant. People will lose jobs in a cost-of-living crisis and communities will lose another well-used high street shop. A powerful speech by a Wilko union rep at the TUC in Liverpool rightly received unanimous support.
Further, Labour leader Keir Starmer recognised the point on social media, arguing that a Labour government will give people like the Wilko workers, thrown on the scrap heap by owners who paid themselves millions when the company was in trouble, hope for the future.
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In 1981, towering figure for the British left Tony Benn came a whisker away from victory, laying the way for a wave of left-wing Labour Party members, MPs and activism — all traces of which are now almost entirely purged by Starmer, writes KEITH FLETT
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