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
The NHS is at the tipping point – it’s time for renewal
We have been fighting things getting worse — what is needed is to fight to get things better, and that requires a radical change in mindset, writes national officer of Rebuild Britain FAWZI IBRAHIM
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
The long-term effects of chemical weapons such as Agent Orange mean that the impact of war lasts well beyond a ceasefire
A NEW pamphlet by Rebuild Britain to be launched at the TUC identifies two main events that set the NHS on a trajectory towards a US-style health service: the introduction of the internal market in 1990 and the scrapping of the duty of the secretary of state to provide healthcare in 2012.
The pamphlet calls on trade unions to take responsibility for the health service and emulate the 1976 Lucas Aerospace shop stewards’ alternative plan, the workers’ response to the corporation’s decision to cut thousands of manufacturing jobs.
The plan wasn’t a pay-and-conditions claim, a wish list or a set of demands. It was a well-argued and well-researched alternative to industrial decline.
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Born from my communist social worker mother’s efforts to bridge healthcare gaps, Labour’s push for home-based care now risks becoming another avenue for the US corporate takeover of the NHS, writes RICHARD CLARKE
