RUBEN BRETT of Liberation explains why the narratives we hear about the poverty-stricken Caribbean nation are deeply misleading
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Britain’s communist guerilla who launched the WWII ‘Dad’s Army’
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
A PEOPLE’S ARMY: A broomstick parade on a London roof by a City firm’s staff eager to support the Home Guard, May 1940
PRABHAT PATNAIK looks at how the development of capitalism from the start divided the world into unequal segments
Labour, like the Tories, sees rising mental ill health simply as a spending problem — but it reflects a diseased society, argues DR DAVID MATTHEWS
As Palestine Action prisoners go weeks without food, alleging dangerous neglect and detention without trial, campaigners warn that a near-total media blackout is hiding a crisis that could turn fatal – and fuel a growing wave of public anger. ELIZABETH SHORT reports
As the new party emerges from its founding conference with a bold socialist identity, its future hinges on whether it can provide the organisational clarity needed to turn class sentiment into class power, argues NICK WRIGHT
RICHARD BURGON MP argues the left must build on recent victories and urgently unite around a bold cost-of-living programme
WHEN he was in his nineties, former Labour leader Michael Foot was asked by the BBC how he would have reacted if Lord Halifax, the foreign secretary, had made peace with Hitler in 1940. “I’d have killed him,” said Footy. And he wasn’t speaking metaphorically.
In the run-up to the second world war, a number of unorthodox leftwingers had come to the conclusion that Britain could only win against Germany if it underwent a socialist revolution. This would inevitably involve a degree of civil war and the formation of workers’ militias.
As it turned out, of course, they were wrong. Britain remained capitalist — although forced, for the sake of efficiency and productivity, to temporarily adopt some socialistic measures — and yet successfully resisted invasion. But at the time, their views made a lot of sense to a lot of people.
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