The left must call out the fact that BlackRock and private billionaires have merged with the state apparatus as our leaders abandon any pretence of there being a ‘free market’ for direct and overt corporate control, writes JOE GILL
Why is there money for ‘defence’ but austerity for the people?
JO GRADY explains why we must call for investment to be redirected away from militarism and foreign wars towards the public good
Hunan province’s transformation shows how state investment can lift millions from deprivation — but Western states avoid discussion of this while ramping up military spending instead, writes FIONA EDWARDS
A crucial part of the war effort, the Home Guard, was launched partly due to the influence of Tom Wintringham, a revolutionary communist with a passion for DIY grenades and guerilla warfare, writes MAT COWARD
The super-rich falsely claim inheritance tax changes will devastate small farmers, while millionaire landowners continue enjoying numerous tax advantages — why is the SNP supporting this nonsense, asks RICHARD LEONARD
In a powerful speech, celebrated Scottish-Egyptian actor and campaigner KHALID ABDALLA addressed the rally for Palestine on Whitehall this past Saturday on bearing witness to genocide’s unbearable truths
Undaunted by Big Oil success, ALAN SIMPSON looks at alternatives to lack of courage and imagination stifling the Labour government and it policies
DIC PENDERYN reports on the Communist Party’s Wales congress, where delegates debated plans for a radical manifesto and broad alliance to challenge Reform UK at the polls and make a clear break with Starmer and Westminster
BRITAIN’S public infrastructure is broken, degraded by years of Tory cuts. Massive public investment to rectify this situation — in our colleges, universities, schools, hospitals, railways, local councils, you name it — could not be more urgent. Yet we must be patient, the new Labour government insists, as the Tories have “maxed-out the credit card.”
It seems odd, then, that while the government take policy decisions that will keep hundreds of thousands of children in poverty and subjects many more pensioners to freezing homes justified by fiscal prudence, the Prime Minister and Chancellor can nevertheless find billions for defence.
Though the Prime Minister has not yet named a specific timeline, he is steadfastly committed to hiking British defence spending — already the third-highest in Nato in absolute terms — to 2.5 per cent of GDP.
More from this author
ROS SITWELL reports from a conference held in light of the closure of the Gender Identity and Development Service for children and young people, which explored what went wrong at the service and the evidence base for care
ROS SITWELL reports from the three-day FiLiA conference in Glasgow
ROS SITWELL reports on a communist-initiated event aimed at building unity amid a revived women’s movement
London conference hears women speak out on the consequences of self-ID in sport
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RMT president ALEX GORDON exposes the government's bellicose foreign policy
As political rhetoric tilts towards militarisation from both major parties, we must push on to redefine the role of the international courts and the very concept of ‘security’ itself, writes ARTHUR WEST