From London’s holly-sellers to Engels’s flaming Christmas centrepiece, the plum pudding was more than festive fare in Victorian Britain, says KEITH FLETT
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'Build a mass movement to defeat the Tory attacks on strike rights'
FBU general secretary and TUC president MATT WRACK tells Ben Chacko how he sees resistance developing as the first Special TUC Congress since the 1980s meets
FBU leader Matt Wrack
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
From a lockdown digital project to a vital tool for class solidarity, ROBERT POOLE and HENRY FOWLER reflect on half-a-decade of struggle
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
THIS weekend’s special TUC Congress — the first since the early 1980s — has been called to address the most draconian anti-strike legislation yet.
Fire Brigades Union Matt Wrack, who as TUC president this year has played a key role in organising this Congress, doesn’t underestimate the challenge facing unions.
The government’s Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Act could effectively ban strike action across whole sectors, with ministers defining “minimum service levels” that require everyone to work — in a recent strike in Sao Paulo, a labour court instructed rail workers to run 100 per cent of services at peak times and 80 per cent at other times.
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CWU leader DAVE WARD tells Ben Chacko a strategy to unite workers on class lines is needed – and sectoral collective bargaining must be at its heart
Incoming Usdaw general secretary JOANNE THOMAS talks to Ben Chacko about workers’ rights, Labour and how to arrest the decline of the high street
Sisters came together last weekend for the landmark launch of a new women’s group. ROS SITWELL reports
Persistent inequality for women shows we still have a long way to go, but Wales TUC leader SHAVANAH TAJ is confident we can build a fairer country when we work together