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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Saving the planet means ending capitalism
Climate catastrophe cannot be averted without a planned approach. And a planned approach means necessarily impeding the drive to super-profits, says NICK WRIGHT
Police officers watch over members of Extinction Rebellion during a protest on St Vincent Street, during the Cop26 summit in Glasgow
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
COP26 in Glasgow is notionally where world leaders rub shoulders with climate change activists, scientists, experts and the media.
That is the illusion. If Joe Biden and Boris Johnson were to follow a few bevies with a late-night trip on Glasgow’s Subway they might get an earful from locals annoyed that conference participants get an integrated pass to the disparate bits of Glasgow’s partly privatised transport network while Glaswegians have to juggle with different and expensive ticketing systems.
This is a telling example of inefficiencies that the anarchy of the capitalist market system imposes. Biden’s gas-guzzling 100-vehicle convoy is as much a symbolic representation of the global disparities which underlie the discussions at Cop26 as it is of prevailing class distinctions.
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