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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What are nations, nationality and nationalism?
It may seem that Marxism’s promotion of internationalism and class coming before country means it opposes ‘the nation state’ — but the truth is actually one of pragmatic acceptance, explains the MARX MEMORIAL LIBRARY
The 1789 French revolution is often seen as the turning point in creating what we understand as nation states today
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
LET’S start here by investigating “nations” and “nationality.” We’ll consider what nationalism is in the next Full Marx column.
Nations — surely, are places on the map with their own government. England, Scotland, Wales: all “nations” now, at least in common discourse. So what about “Great” Britain? Or Ireland? One criterion is the existence of a territorial “state” — or the aspiration of populations (claiming a distinct cultural identity) to establish one.
Books on “British” history often go way back beyond 1066 — some even go back to the Neolithic or before. In reality, the concept of the nation as understood today is a relative novelty.
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