ROGER McKENZIE looks at how US doublespeak on the ‘war on drugs’ is used to camouflage its intended grab for of Latin America’s natural resources
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Introducing skirret – a long-forgotten vegetable
Despite being tasty and nutritious, this root veg did not fit into the capitalist mould, so never won the popularity of the more durable potato, writes MAT COWARD
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Plans to delay access to the universal credit health element until age 22 have triggered fierce opposition from disabled people’s groups, who warn it would deepen poverty and entrench discrimination against young disabled people under the guise of ‘encouraging work.’ DYLAN MURPHY reports
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Saluting an internationalist and a courageous and uncompromising seeker of the truth
The US assault on Venezuela is brazen and unlawful – yet our PM claims uncertainty. By refusing to confront Trump’s naked imperialism, Starmer abandons international law, mortgages British policy to Washington, and clears the ground for war, argues ANDREW MURRAY
RAINER RUPP examines former CIA analyst Larry Johnson’s description of the US operation to kidnap Nicolas Maduro as a tactically successful but strategically disastrous move, with shades of Bush’s disastrous intervention in Iraq
When Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, Western outrage was absolute. Yet today, the tone is markedly more subdued regarding US aggression against Venezuela. The manner in which the media and politicians frame this invasion exposes a profound ideological double standard, writes MARC VANDEPITTE
IT TASTES good, it’s nutritious, it’s easy to grow and you can harvest it more or less all year round. So why isn’t skirret better known?
The answer, I suspect, lies in the transition from one mode of production to another: skirret (Sium sisarum) is a vegetable well suited to gardeners growing for their own use. But it doesn’t lend itself to capitalist agriculture, which requires, amongst other factors, uniformity of product and a decent shelf-life. Skirret doesn’t keep well, doesn’t travel well, is of unpredictable size, shape and quality, and it’s fiddly to clean before cooking.
The potato, on the other hand, fitted into the industrial revolution like a jigsaw piece, meeting the needs of busy, hungry, dispossessed proletarians and of the landowners. Potatoes are easy to market and to use. As a result, many of our traditionally popular root crops disappeared, at least until the allotment movement.
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