Washington’s inability to subjugate Iran is an example of how it is trying to preserve a regional order that no longer exists, argues RAMZY BAROUD
Homes for the people
STEWART McGILL introduces a major event on the issue of housing, hosted by the Morning Star
A housing estate in Bristol
US financial instability is exposing the limits of a dollar-dominated global economy — and giving the Global South a historic chance to build an alternative, says MURAD QURESHI
DOUG NICHOLLS says the parasitic finance markets must be challenged or another British government could be toppled
The late country singer’s Imagination Library has put hundreds of millions of books into children’s hands. We should build on that legacy by defending the libraries at the heart of our communities, says BRENDA AITCHISON
Deprivation is a fundamental factor in criminal behaviour that must be addressed but, KENNY MacASKILL argues, there needs to a major rethink in sentencing to tackle overcrowding
MML director MEIRIAN JUMP outlines the recently refreshed library’s busy autumn schedule that ranges from book sales, archival exploration, community work with online education and the ever popular site tours
TONY BURKE surveys the shifting political landscape and the challenges Labour needs to address if it is to prevail in the 2028 federal elections
IN 1979 over 40 per cent of the population lived in council and other social housing. Less than 10 per cent were living in private rented housing; owner-occupiers accounted for just over half of households in the country.
There was no housing crisis in 1979. Today less than 6 per cent of people live in council homes and we have a serious crisis that for many has become an emergency. Lorraine Douglas, convenor of the Communist Party’s Housing Commission, explains.
“Around two million council homes have been sold since the introduction of the Right to Buy in 1981. Around 40 per cent of these homes are now in the hands of buy-to-let landlords, charging up to three times the council rent for the same properties.
“The Tories’ claim to be the party of home ownership when an entire generation has been all but locked out of owning their own home, with no prospect of getting an affordable place to rent from their local council or housing association, has been exposed for the canard it always was.”
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Building is the solution for much of our housing crisis – and will also help to address poverty, ill health, and even anti-social behaviour and alienation, writes KENNY MacASKILL
CAROL WILCOX argues for the proper implementation of the land value tax, which could see unused plots sold off and landlords priced out of landlordism, potentially resolving the housing and planning crises