Rather than hoping for the emergence of some new ‘party of the left,’ EMMA DENT COAD sees a broad alliance of local parties and community groups as a way of reviving democratic progressive politics
MI5 spied on Labour MPs including a serving defence minister, new files reveal
BRITAIN’S security service spied on Labour MPs, anti-fascists and anti-colonial activists, MI5 files released today reveal. PHIL MILLER went to the National Archives for a sneak preview, and found this newspaper’s predecessor, the Daily Worker, was essential reading for British spooks
Labour war secretary Manny Shinwell MP (centre) sees off 1,500 soldiers from Southampton docks to fight in Malaya in 1948. It has now emerged that MI5 kept a file on him from 1917 to 1968.
In the second of two articles, DANIEL POWELL looks behind the headlines celebrating Ukrainian resistance to a complex reality of neonazi battalions, forced conscription and sabotaged peace deals
ANSELM ELDERGILL draws attention to a legal case on Tuesday in which a human rights group is challenging the government’s decision to allow the sale of weapons used against Palestinians
The obfuscation of Nazism’s capitalist roots has seen imperialism redeploy fascism again and again — from the killing fields of Guatemala to the war in Ukraine, writes PAWEL WARGAN
From Workers’ Memorial Day to May Day rallies, TOM MORRISON examines the real challenges facing the labour movement as Reform UK’s glossy literature exploits legitimate grievances in traditional left strongholds
Calls have been made for the return to Venezuela of a two-year-old girl currently being held in the US, after being separated from her family by immigration officials, reports SUSAN GREY
Manny Shinwell: The war secretary with an MI5 file
ONE of Glasgow’s leading socialists Manny Shinwell first came to the attention of MI5 in 1917, when he was picked out for being a conscientious objector to World War I.
Shinwell would go on to become chairman of the Labour Party, nationalise Britain’s coalmines and serve as a minister in charge of British troops in Malaya and Korea — but MI5 remained wary of this remarkable character, whose great-niece is none other than the Lib Dem politician Luciana Berger.
Her relative was described by MI5 as early as 1917 as a “most eloquent and convincing speaker” who had been repeatedly arrested for protesting against conscription in Glasgow.
More from this author
Investigative journalist PHIL MILLER'S new book exposes the activities of Keenie Meenie Services, a powerful and secretive mercenary company which, from Sri Lanka to Nicaragua, has been involved in war crimes around the world.
US soldiers' 'entirely improper' driving of forklift truck crushed Captain Dean Sprouting
