In his May Day message for the Morning Star, RICHARD BURGON says the call for peace, equality and socialism has never been more relevant

MISHA GLENNY’S new series McMafia was launched on BBC TV on New Year’s Day. It is an appropriate if depressing opener for the new year.
It aims to highlight a new stage in the evolution of global capitalism: Mafia capitalism. We are, though, not talking here of a few family Cosa Nostras controlling the underworld, but well-organised crime syndicates, with links to governments and security services, gnawing their way to the core of capitalism.
The recent revelations from WikiLeaks and the Panama and Paradise Papers exposing massive tax evasion by global companies only show the seemingly less grubby aspect of capitalist venality.

JOHN GREEN recommends a German comedy that celebrates the old GDR values of solidarity, community and a society not dominated by consumerism

JOHN GREEN welcomes an insider account of the achievements and failures of the transition to democracy in Portugal

Mountains of research show that hardcore material harms children, yet there are still no simple measures in place

Peter Mitchell's photography reveals a poetic relationship with Leeds