In 2010, faced with the closure of their local library, a Buckinghamshire town’s locals turned to an unconventional tactic – borrowing every single book – to defend a cherished community space. MAT COWARD tells the story
CHRISTOPHE IMMER of the Morning Star’s German sister paper Junge Welt reports on a Berlin conference on the politics of art and the legacy of Marxist critic Hans Hess
Young Communist League general secretary GEORGINA ANDREWS says the far right are filling a vacuum created by Labour’s abandonment of working-class interests — we have to give our class a better offer
PHILIP ENGLISH says military spending will not create the jobs young people need — instead, build an economy based around needs, not profit
PATRICK CHURA reflects on the mass murder of civilians in wartime and his own visit, 10 years ago, to My Lai where US soldiers slaughtered over 500 men, women, children and infants
ALAN MORRISON recommends a consummate, heart-warming collection about a working-class upbringing in the industrial north-east
The media present Starmer as staying out of Trump’s war — but we’re already deeply involved in a conflict that sees the US and Israel kill civilians on a huge scale, argues IAN SINCLAIR
Morning Star international editor ROGER McKENZIE says Trump’s ceaseless belligerence is a desperate effort to prevent the emergence of a multilateral world
The unions are unhappy with the Employment Rights Act 2025 and with good reason. KEITH EWING and Lord JOHN HENDY KC take a close look at why the Bill promised more than it delivered
RAMZY BAROUD looks at how Western media are being forced to kowtow to the Establishment’s war narratives
KATAYOUN SHAHANDEH surveys Iran’s cultural heritage and explains what has been damaged and what could be lost
As the US intensifies its economic and political pressure it is now vitally important to demand the British government intervene to end US aggression, writes GEOFF BOTTOMS
NORMA AUSTIN HART reports from a conference on on the rights of women prisoners in the Scottish criminal justice system
In the second part of her critique of Wes Streeting’s TenYear Plan for Health, HELEN MERCER looks at the central planks of this privatisation blueprint
With more people dying each year and many spending their final days in institutions, researchers argue that wider access to palliative care could offer a more humane and cost-effective alternative, write ROX MIDDLETON, LIAM SHAW and MIRIAM GAUNTLETT
Police face ‘extreme hostility’ as fans clash following Scottish Cup tie
SEVIM DAGDELEN asks why the European Union is targeting the Swiss academic Jacques Baud, cutting off his access to banking services
DR HANA SAADA asks why a war crime against innocent children on this scale does not dominate the world’s coverage of the US-Israeli war on Iran
GORDON PARSONS is intrigued by a biography of the Marxist intellectual and author, made from the point of view of his son
JOHN GREEN argues that the spreading practice of closing bank account without proof of criminality is an infringement of an elementary human right
AARON SMITH discusses why the Protestant diaspora are still part of Yeats’s ‘Indomitable Irishry’, and an integral part of any future united Ireland.
DIANE ABBOTT exposes Keir Starmer's doublespeak on Britain’s involvement in the Iran war but takes heart from the growing organisation of the opposition to it
GEOFF BOTTOMS recommends an inspiring, political and bittersweet account of the munitions factory workers who are the fore-runners of the modern women’s game
MARY CONWAY is spellbound by superb performances in Arthur Miller’s study of the social and personal stress brought about by Nazi Germany’s Kristallnacht
In the second of a series of interviews with leaders of progressive parties in Wales ahead of the May 7 Senedd election David Nicholson talks to Welsh Green Party leader ANTHONY SLAUGHTER
Women’s fight against violence and legal erosion is central to building a democratic and just Iraq, says Dr SALMA SAADAWI
MAISSON HASSAN highlights how amid bombed-out cities and collapsing hospitals, women-led initiatives are keeping communities alive
The civilian toll climbs past 1,000 as women, children and families are struck in their homes, schools and public spaces – a stark illustration of the human cost of war. AZAR SEPEHR emphasises that the future of Iran is solely determinable by the people of that country and them alone
Afghan women living under the Taliban are navigating a system that makes their public existence conditional on male approval, writes SHUKRIA RAHIMI
The pioneering activist understood that freedom could only be won through solidarity across communities. Her legacy offers vital lessons at a time when progressive politics risks losing that shared purpose
The Morning Star republishes PRAGNA PATEL’s speech at the annual commemoration of Claudia Jones on February 22 2026
For generations black women have shaped Britain’s activism, arts and public life despite exclusion and discrimination. ZITA HOLBOURNE pays tribute to these political trailblazers and cultural icons, whose courage continues to inspire
Gisele Pelicot said ‘shame must change sides.’ We may think we agree, but, argues LOUISE RAW, society still has some way to go
Professor MARY DAVIS argues that feminism has been hollowed out by liberal co-option – and only a revival of socialist, class-based politics can restore International Working Women’s Day’s original, radical purpose
ANNA FISHER explores what would it mean for women’s equality and public safety if Britain embraces full commercialisation of the sex trade
Like the president in Wag the Dog, Donald Trump faces scandal at home and turns to conflict abroad. But the conflict with Iran risks igniting a regional inferno with global consequences, warns ROGER McKENZIE
From pirate statues to surplus Wembley seats, The Dripping Pan offers a reminder that the game’s soul survives beyond the Premier League glare, writes LAYTH YOUSIF
Comments from Matt Goodwin and Danny Kruger expose a reactionary vision in which falling birth rates are blamed on women, says JUDITH CAZORLA
SIMON PARSONS applauds an artist who rescues and rehumanises stories of women, the victims of violence, from a feminist perspective
As the world marks International Women’s Day, African women warn that wars, mineral grabs and militarism are drowning out promises of peace. Human rights defender MARIE-CLAIRE FARAY explains
Legal frameworks designed to safeguard women are too often weaponised against them, reinforcing male power and entrenching injustice. The FiLiA Ending MVAWG Team highlight some of the issues
Sexual harassment on Britain’s railways is rising sharply, according to the British Transport Police, yet too many women still feel reporting is futile. LYNNE WALSH asks why the burden of safety all too often remains on women themselves
As peers prepare to debate reform of the 1861 Offences Against the Person Act, Labour MP Tonia Antoniazzi leads a bid to end the criminalisation of women who end pregnancies at home. LYNNE WALSH reports
Half a century after transformative laws reshaped Britain, women’s rights are again contested. This International Women’s Day is a call to remember how change was won, and to organise to defend it, says KATE RAMSDEN
The legacy of socialist feminists such as Alexandra Kollontai challenges us today to confront an uncomfortable truth: framing prostitution as empowerment lets the abusers of the Epstein class off the hook, warns HELEN O’CONNOR
The government’s new immigration proposal risks creating a society where rights are earned, not guaranteed, warn feminist groups Project Resist and FiLiA in a joint statement
Tehran retaliates with attacks on Israel, the Gulf Arab states and crude oil flows
History shows from Iraq to Libya, and now Iran, that regime-change fantasies rarely deliver stability — but they always deliver human and economic cost, says MARYAM ESLAMDOUST
DAVID RABY explains the background of the recent upheavals in Mexico
Liverpool Trades Council has unveiled a ‘People’s Budget’ to fight £56m cuts and council tax rises. DEAN YOUNG reports
by Henry Fowler, General Strike 100 project co-ordinator
KENNY MacASKILL reminds us of the unprecedented political career of a Scottish miner’s militant son who stayed the course and true to his roots
LUKE FLETCHER outlines Plaid Cymru bold plans for wide-ranging policy consultations with trade unions in Wales
Investigation reveals NHS maternity services are failing women and babies
Statement of the World Peace Council
Evidence to peers from medical leaders, patient safety officials and the children’s commissioner has intensified fears that the Bill’s safeguards are inadequate, writes ADAM JAMES POLLOCK
Independent Football Regulator boss calls on Premier League and EFl to reach new financial deal
Anyone who criticises those in power in Kenya risks their freedom or worse. The brutal abduction of Booker Omole marks a new escalation in a country sliding toward authoritarian rule, says MARC VANDEPITTE
SUE TURNER is fascinated by a book that researches who the largely immigrant workforce were that built the Empire State
Wales is second from the bottom in terms of cultural services in the EU. HELEDD FYCHAN believes that needs to change if the country is to prosper
In the first of a series of interviews with leaders of progressive parties in Wales ahead of the May 7 Senedd election DAVID NICHOLSON talks to Plaid Cymru leader Rhun ap Iorwerth
SCOTT ALSWORTH recommends a film that is as informative as it is rage inducing
Channel 4’s Dirty Business shows why private companies cannot be trusted with vital services like water, says PAUL DONOVAN
By-election poll puts Starmer's future on a knife-edge
DENNIS BROE points out that two popular TV series promote police violence and disguise it as ‘fun’
TONY FOX reports from a commemoration of the legendary Battle of Jarama in which four Stockton-on-Tees volunteers fell
The biggest strike in global history is a template for our future. The silence tells you all you need to know, writes CLAUDIA WEBBE
CJ ATKINS commemorates one of the most dramatic moments in working-class history
May elections will soon be upon us and SABBY DHALU calls for a maximum mobilisation, across Britain, to defeat Reform UK and the right at the ballot box
On the 121st anniversary of communist Claudia Jones’s birth ROGER McKENZIE looks at political events that shaped her, and those she helped shape
ISAAC SANEY points to the global stakes involved in defending the Cuban revolution against imperialism and calls for resistance
SYLVIA HIKINS relishes Jeanette Winterson’s brilliant hijack of 1001 Nights to push aside the boundaries set by others
KENNY MacASKILL welcomes a meticulous account of the corruption of the vast US Department of Justice under Trump’s first and second terms
In Part 4 of her look at the Chinese revolution JENNY CLEGG addresses the relationship between the Peasant Movement and the National Movement
SUSAN DARLINGTON swoons in the presence of a magnetic frontman
Our political sphere, stripped of its popular component by decades of neoliberalism, sits apart from the public, writes COLL MCCAIL citing a telling parallel with the writings of French revolutionary Abbe Sieyes
The Carpathia isn’t coming to rescue this government still swimming in the mire, writes LINDA PENTZ GUNTER
Last weekend’s inaugural conference mixed warmth, unity and ambition with the unmistakable echo of old arguments. MATT KERR wonders whether the fledgling party’s difficulties can be overcome
MARY CONWAY becomes impatient with the intellectual self-indulgence of Tom Stoppard in a production that is, nevertheless, total class
MAYER WAKEFIELD has reservations about a two-handed theatrical homage to jazz’s most mercurial musician
In the centenary year of Fidel Castro, Cuba faces ferocious aggression from the United States — but we will not kneel, vows FIDEL CASTRO SMIRNOV
This by-election could plausibly see both Reform and Labour defeated — but splitting the left insurgent vote would put that at risk, argues CHRIS WILLIAMSON
Hundreds in Berlin gathered on January 15 to honour the US-born socialist who made East Germany his home. Florentine Morales Sandoval reports
Morning Star Wales reporter DAVID NICHOLSON analyses polling for the Senedd election — and it’s bad news for Welsh Labour
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