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
Women are bearing the brunt of rising inequality
From the ‘motherhood pay penalty’ to low-paid care work, the Morning Star Women’s Readers and Supporters Group in Scotland has been looking at how neoliberalism has been pushing back women’s hard-won gains, writes KATE RAMSDEN
WHO CARES? Jobs considered ‘women’s work’ are still underpaid and undervalued
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
The long-term effects of chemical weapons such as Agent Orange mean that the impact of war lasts well beyond a ceasefire
LIKE most women activists of my generation, I’ve spent most of my adult life campaigning for equality for women as part of the struggle for social justice for all. There were times I even felt we were making progress.
However, as neoliberalism has taken a tight hold and inequality has grown massively, it has become very clear that as things worsen for our class as a whole, women bear the brunt of this.
As poverty has risen across Britain, women and children are the worst affected. A Women’s Budget Group analysis last year of women’s living standards since 2010 showed that, although most people in Britain have experienced a decline, on average, women experienced a higher annual loss than men, losing 9.4 per cent, to men’s loss of 5.8 per cent.
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Wherever prostitution laws are ‘liberalised,’ the result is a surge in human trafficking and abuse, writes STELLA BAILEY
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