While slashing welfare and public services, Labour’s spring statement delivers a bonanza for death-dealing bomb merchants. We now see the true and terrible face of austerity 2.0, writes MICHAEL BURKE
'Our priority is a stronger movement for peace'
German Communist Party leader PATRIK KOBELE speaks to Morning Star editor Ben Chacko about rising repression and the domestic ramifications of Germany's drive to war

FOR years, German communist weekly Unsere Zeit (UZ) held a biennial festival of left politics, culture and music, the “Pressefest,” in Dortmund’s Revier Park.
It was a big event, attracting thousands every other summer. Debates took place in a relaxed atmosphere: there was even a swimming pool in which comrades could take a dip when they fancied a break.
But the last Dortmund Pressefest took place before Covid, and UZ and the German Communist Party (DKP) held last weekend’s event — dubbed the Peace Days rather than the Pressefest — like 2022’s, on a much smaller scale in Berlin.
More from this author

Ben Chacko asks NIZAR TRABULSI of the now banned Syrian Communist Party (Unified) to explain the country's turbulent, and violent, post-Assad scene

From renewable tech to alternatives to the dollar, BEN CHACKO was encouraged by an optimistic meeting held by the China Media Group this week

Aslef general secretary MICK WHELAN speaks to Ben Chacko about rail renationalisation, the Employment Rights Bill and why we shouldn’t write off this Labour government
Similar stories

Ben Chacko talks to Bundestag member for the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance, SEVIM DAGDELEN, about the continuing war in Ukraine, the economic crisis, controversies over immigration, the failings of Germany’s liberalised prostitution policy, and the importance of free speech

With federal elections coming up in Germany in February, NICK WRIGHT takes a look at the class forces shaping the policies of the main parties, and sees little hope of a breakthrough for the left

Nakedly political judgement says newspaper is anti-constitutional for promoting 'a socialist-communist social order according to classical Marxism'