State machinery was widely employed to secure favourable outcomes in India’s recent regional elections against three progressive regional governments who dared to challenge Narendra Modi, asserts VIJAY PRASHAD
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The future should rest in the hands of the Scottish people
KATE RAMSDEN of Unison’s Scottish committee explains the challenge in the face of the demands for a second independence referendum and how the union is approaching it
It is too early to assume a US defeat in Iran — we must prepare for a long anti-war struggle, argues JOHN ROSS
ROGER McKENZIE says the ANC needs to respect South Africa’s Communists and their decision to stand independently at elections
KENNY MacASKILL remembers the woman who first translated The Communist Manifesto into English
The election offers a critical chance to shape the future of pay, care and community provision in Wales, says Unison’s JESS TURNER
As Scotland heads to the polls, the main parties offer variations on the same script, says MATT KERR
AS those of us on the left reel under the outcome of a terrible election defeat and struggle to understand why so many working-class people, especially in England, voted against their interests and rejected the best opportunity in decades for a government that would have bettered the lives of the poorest and most vulnerable, it feels like a sliver of optimism that those of us north of the border might just have an alternative to more years of Tory rule.
Many of our colleagues across England envy us the opportunity to vote to go it alone — to carve out for ourselves a different kind of society, one that is hopefully more caring and compassionate and above all more equal.
Because there is no doubt about it, however much Boris Johnson’s first Budget panders to the people who voted for him and gives what will be – if it happens – a welcome rise in funding for the NHS and other public services, his is still a government that is deeply rooted in inequality and casual discrimination.
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