Friedrich Merz’s call for a new Plaza Accord ignores how Washington’s 1985 currency ambush destroyed Japan without fixing US deficits — China, a sovereign socialist state with 1.4 billion consumers, cannot be bullied the same way, writes CARLOS MARTINEZ

ANGUS REID and ANDREW JOHNSTONE report on an initiative that we must take this summer

From post-human revolution in Puerto Rico to trans poetics and queer mythmaking, these three books that imagine new ways of being together

GEORGE FOGARTY is dazzled by a breathtakingly skillful puppet version of Shakespeare’s greatest love poem

PETER MASON thrills to the sound of south London-born Yussef Dayes, and the galaxy of musicians drawn into his orbit

Expanding Britain’s nuclear capability increases the risk of nuclear confrontation. It does not keep us safe – it makes us a target, argues CAROL TURNER

The US blockade of Cuba raises risks of a new global pandemic, experts warn at Unison conference

HENRY BELL follows the lineage of revolutions, from the English to the Chinese, and asks where revolutionary politics exists today

MARJ MAYO sees the contemporary relevance of this account of the consequences of a society’s accommodation with evil

The new Employment Rights Act is a step forward, but restoring collective bargaining and union power remains essential to tackling insecurity, outsourcing and low pay, says PAUL WHITEHOUSE

Trade unionists are mobilising to support Cuban workers and public services, amid escalating US pressure on the socialist island. RONAN OGILVY explains

The defence secretary’s resignation reveals not a split over principle but a dispute over pace of military spending, as Britain’s political Establishment unites behind deeper Nato commitments, argues NICK WRIGHT

The ceasefire may have halted the fighting for now, but years of economic warfare and recent military attacks have left millions of Iranians facing hardship and uncertainty, says Codir’s RUBEN BRETT

The struggle for Palestinian freedom has become a defining issue for everyone committed to justice, democracy and peace, says PETER LEARY ahead of the Stop the War International Conference on Saturday

British military spending is among the highest in the world, diverts scarce resources from far better causes and fuels international conflict. It’s time we made different choices, argues LIZ PAYNE

Economists estimate extreme poverty could be drastically reduced for a fraction of global defence spending, yet military budgets continue to expand year on year, says JON TRICKETT MP, ahead of the Stop the War International Conference on Saturday

Trade unions, trades councils and community organisations must work together to build lasting solidarity and resistance to the far right, argues DREW GILCHRIST

As delegates meet in Brighton this week, Unison faces pressing questions about pay, organising, workers’ rights and political representation, explains ANDY CHAFFER

As Unison launches its Year of Women Workers, ANNIE COGAN-THOMAS argues that stronger organisation and collective bargaining are essential to winning equality

Cuba continues to embody a vision of internationalism that imperialism has never forgiven, argues ZOLTAN ZIGEDY

While international attention focuses on ceasefire frameworks, Israel is openly advancing plans for a permanent expansion of its control over Gaza, writes RAMZY BAROUD

ROGER McKENZIE explains why he can’t support this year’s World Cup

PCS general secretary FRAN HEATHCOTE explains why opposing war is inseparable from defending jobs, wages and public services – and why readers should come to the London Peace Conference on Saturday June 20

BOB NEWLAND appreciates an important contribution to the debate about how slavery helped to build the wealth of Western companies and states

WILL PODMORE admires an account of the liberation of Berlin that overthrows the conventional US army-inspired account

MARJORIE MAYO recommends a highly useful guide to the benefits and hazards of different approaches to immigration

PAUL DONOVAN recommends a thorough explanation of why Starmer’s Labour travels light on policy, and bending to knee to neoliberalism

Peter Murrell’s weakness for the allure of prestige goods is symptomatic of modern consumer culture, says MATT KERR

Including races at Epsom and Doncaster

CHRIS SEARLE recommends a work of love and deep admiration for a great musician

A remarkable excavation in the Netherlands has raised hopes of locating the grave of Louis XIV’s famed captain of the King’s Musketeers. JOHN CALLOW introduces the real figure behind the hero of Dumas’s novels

KENNY MacASKILL looks at the depth of the corruption tolerated within the Scottish National Party and the efforts to keep it from public scrutiny

The growing argument that welfare must be sacrificed for ‘security’ is built on nothing but myth, argues MICHAEL BURKE

NADIA JOSEPH welcomes a survey of the role that TV played in the debate over apartheid and race relations in Britain

The real ‘humanitarian threat’ isn’t Cuba but the United States, where poverty, lack of healthcare and illiteracy abound, writes LINDA PENTZ GUNTER

ROGER McKENZIE draws attention to the much-neglected oral traditions of the global South that define the identity – and therefore the liberation – of its custodians

Established as a landmark victory for the climate movement, the CCC promised to hold governments to account. Today, it is understating the danger of climate chaos and impeding the radical action needed, says IAN SINCLAIR

Labour movement history in Britain shows workers secured reforms through collective pressure and political representation, rather than being gifted from above, writes KEITH FLETT

MARJ MAYO recommends a well illustrated and very positive account of an extraordinary period in local government history

RITA DI SANTO takes us through the prize winners, and takes the temperature of a festival that prioritised narratives of exile, state violence and class division

CLAUDIA WEBBE looks at how Britain’s Nato ally has upped the stakes in its effort to silence domestic dissenting voices

Do frozen colonists carry the virus of empire? Why is monstrosity a great way to describe capital? Was God a dustman?

The US president’s adventurism in Iran began as a display of overwhelming force but has swiftly become a lesson in over-reach, says ANDREW MURRAY

ROGER D HARRIS and SARA FLOUNDERS challenge propaganda against the blockaded socialist island

Burnham launches his campaign to return to Westminster

The HS2 debacle exposes what happens when public infrastructure is handed to private contractors – especially when set against China’s state-led high-speed rail success, says CARLOS MARTINEZ

Pep Guardiola leaving City marks the end of an era of peak modern football, says JAMES NALTON

MIRANDA RICHMOND relishes the gloriously liberated art of Roy Oxlade, and traces his method back to the thinking of David Bomberg, his acknowledged teacher  

Rita Di Santo speaks to Hungarian director LASZLO NEMES about his new film, a portrait of the French Resistance leader and hero, Jean Moulin

With a political crisis engulfing the Labour Party, the case for PR is back on the agenda. TONY BURKE argues trade unions must now engage on changes to our voting system

The Bard does Bearded Theory, and lodges a complaint about bandnames

YVETTE WILLIAMS and JOE DELANEY dissect the institutional dawdling that rubbed salt into the Grenfell open wounds prolonging the agony of survivors

Premier League champions Arsenal will finally lift the coveted trophy this weekend after 22 long years. LAYTH YOUSIF pays tribute to and remembers those who are not here to see it

A lifelong communist and community organiser, Pinder helped shape anti-racist and anti-colonial activism in Britain while dedicating himself to youth work and collective struggle, writes David Horsley

After battling hills, rain and injury in a three-day cycle ride ending at the CWU conference, MATT KERR reflects on why class unity remains the answer to injustice

Through marches, music, schools and political debate, campaigners in Tower Hamlets are using the 90th anniversary of Cable Street to inspire resistance to modern racism. GLYN ROBBINS explains

GAVIN O’TOOLE recommends a methodical unmasking of the US media’s complicity in the Israeli genocide, that should be a template for what’s needed to bring Britain’s corporate media to book

ALEX HALL is amused at the way the UFOs appear exactly where commercial interests, conspiracies, militarism and right-wing media overlap

MARTIN HALL examines the way the Roman orator took on different schools of philosophy

TOMASZ PIERSCIONEK is intrigued by a the changing significance of its vast areas of forest to Russia’s history

ROGER MCKENZIE recalls the one-in-a-generation communist leader murdered at the dawn of a new South Africa 33 years ago last April 10

ANDY HEDGECOCK is astonished by a portrait of contemporary Greece, complete with political protest, organised crime and people trafficking, told from the point of view of — wait for it — runaway poultry

CHRIS SEARLE recommends a new album featuring Pat Thomas and Ahmed, and marvels at the tempestuous power of a live performance

JENNY CLEGG looks at the key points that defined the China-US relationship, for now

The ghosts of Custer’s doomed campaign haunt a modern America still devoted to waging imperialist war, says STEPHEN ARNELL

ANGUS REID applauds the potential of an ambitious show about Gaza, and encourages it to keep its nerve

ROGER McKENZIE looks at how ancient traditions practiced today can be the cornerstone of anti-imperialism in Africa

The Met Police's refusal to act against British nationals accused of war crimes in Gaza is a green light for Israel's genocide, writes CLAUDIA WEBBE

The new Scottish Parliament looks set to continue a cycle of managerial tinkering while public services face the axe, writes STEPHEN LOW

Newly revealed documents reveal that MI5 taught Brazilian secret police the techniques deployed by the 1964-85 military dictatorship in horrific prisons like Rio de Janeiro’s House of Death. SARA VIVACQUA reports

Years of underfunding are eroding Scotland’s local services and deepening inequality in communities, says VINCE MILLS

On the day of the election, MARTIN GOLLAN reflects on the perennial relationship between the far-right and the back-hander

The election offers a critical chance to shape the future of pay, care and community provision in Wales, says Unison’s JESS TURNER

As antisemitism grows, the labour movement must recommit to defence of minorities while navigating the complexities of Gaza and global politics, argues NICK WRIGHT

RUTH AYLETT recommends that this mixture of memoir, diary and poetry by a young Gazan writer be read as widely as possible

As Scotland heads to the polls, the main parties offer variations on the same script, says MATT KERR

David Nicholson spoke to BETH WINTER about her bid to become a Senedd member as an independent running on a community grassroots campaign

ANGUS REID recommends that you discover a uniquely intimate community venue in central Edinburgh for an evening of beer and ambitious jazz

Plaid Cymru’s Caerffili by-election win raised hopes on the left — but the complex realities of Wales suggest the Senedd election may be far less predictable, argues CATRIN ASHTON

Read this book and be aware that this is our history, says RUTH AYLETT

The General Strike exposed the power of the working class — and the limits of its leadership, writes Dr DYLAN MURPHY

ADRIAN WEIR charts the intercontinental trade union solidarity with Cuba and its desperate predicament

ANGUS REID appreciates the political candour expressed in Bansky’s latest and brilliant work of public art

MATTHEW HAWKINS relishes the literary output of autistic writers, and recommends its insight to readers both including and beyond the community themselves

ALEX HALL is fascinated by a lucid and historically convincing account of how rent has dominated capitalist economies from feudalism to modernity

ELLIS RAE recommends a stunning history of the active role played by the British monarchy in establishing and profiting from slavery

MARY CONWAY applauds the timely revival of Miller’s study of people fatally deformed by the economics of survival

SYLVIA HIKINS recommends a fascinating, revealing, superbly acted evening of theatre