Deprivation is a fundamental factor in criminal behaviour that must be addressed but, KENNY MacASKILL argues, there needs to a major rethink in sentencing to tackle overcrowding

The late country singer’s Imagination Library has put hundreds of millions of books into children’s hands. We should build on that legacy by defending the libraries at the heart of our communities, says BRENDA AITCHISON

MML director MEIRIAN JUMP outlines the recently refreshed library’s busy autumn schedule that ranges from book sales, archival exploration, community work with online education and the ever popular site tours

DOUG NICHOLLS says the parasitic finance markets must be challenged or another British government could be toppled

Some thinkers and authors on the right are openly discussing the possibility that the historically successful party of the British ruling class may be exhausted

Class struggle is the motor of history but the direction and detail of change at any time and place is the outcome of many factors, suggests the Marx Memorial Library and Workers’ School

Merseyside’s proud tradition of internationalism is being kept alive through events organised by trade unionists and allies in the region, writes ROBERT MACDONALD

After months of uncertainty over printing and distribution, the first Scottish-printed edition of the Morning Star is soon to roll off the presses

Labour cannot win another election by accommodating racism, instead it should focus on finding solutions to social concerns that too often seek scapegoats, writes DIANE ABBOTT

JOHNNIE HUNTER reports from the German Communist Party’s (DKP) weekly Unsere Zeit (Our Newspaper)-organised Peace Days festival in Berlin last weekend

Les Preger was one of Manchester’s first volunteers to volunteer in support of republican Spain, writes his daughter JANEY PREGER

Our priority must be to defend hard-won protections while linking equality law to trade union power and wider social transformation, says MARY DAVIS, on behalf of the Women’s Liberation Alliance