Once the bustling heart of Christian pilgrimage, Bethlehem now faces shuttered hotels, empty streets and a shrinking Christian community, while Israel’s assault on Gaza and the tightening grip of occupation destroy hopes of peace at the birthplace of Christ, writes Father GEOFF BOTTOMS
Grasping the will for radical change
Morning Star editor BEN CHACKO reports from the annual Rosa Luxemburg Conference held last weekend in Berlin
CLEAR VISION: Peter Mertens, of the Workers Party of Belgium (PTB) addressess the conference
After years hidden away, Oldham’s memorial to six local volunteers who died fighting fascism in the Spanish civil war has been restored to public view, marking both a victory for campaigners and a renewed tribute to the town’s proud International Brigade heritage, says ROB HARGREAVES
The June 2025 attacks on Iran have heightened the risk of a wider war, exposed the fiction of a rules-based international order and left ordinary Iranians trapped between external aggression and internal repression, says the Committee for Defence of Iranian People’s Rights
While pretending to seek peace, Europe is heading toward a collision course with Russia – using security guarantees, troop deployments, expropriation and censorship as tools, writes SEVIM DAGDELEN
A WWI hero, renowned ornithologist, medical doctor, trade union organiser and founder member of the Communist Party of Great Britain all rolled in one. MAT COWARD tells the story of a life so improbable it was once dismissed as fiction
The long-term effects of chemical weapons such as Agent Orange mean that the impact of war lasts well beyond a ceasefire
POLICE snatching Palestine solidarity demonstrators from the annual march to the tombs of Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht showcased an authoritarian new Germany.
Junge Welt, the Morning Star’s German sister paper which organises the annual Rosa Luxemburg Conference which took place last weekend, has been on the sharp end of this repression.
It has fought in the courts against its designation as “extremist” by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution: this does not ban the daily paper, but restricts its ability to advertise and sees access to it denied online at many universities and libraries.
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The annual Fenner Brockway Lecture, hosted by Liberation, was delivered this year by Peter Mertens, Chair of the Workers’ Party of Belgium. STEVE BISHOP reflects on some of the highlights of Mertens’ address
