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
Latest editorial
Minimum Services Levels – Fighting for the Future
TSSA general secretary MARYAM ESLAMDOUST on the challenge posed by the Tories' attack on the right to strike
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 winter trade unionists have every right to feel discontent about the government on many fronts but especially the imposition of legislation which strikes at the heart of the basic right to strike.
The Tory government, bunkered in the bowels of Westminster, has rushed a new law through Parliament which will mean 40 per cent of normal passenger and infrastructure services being run in the event of a strike on the railways. We are not alone; many other sectors will be badly hit by the draconian Minimum Service Levels Act.
Not only have ministers failed to listen to our union, sister unions, a range of MPs and the Tory chair of the transport committee which carried out a full investigation; they are willingly ignoring the flashing warning signs in front of their very eyes.
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