As the government quietly upgrades the role of Britain’s special forces, their growing global footprint and near-total exemption from democratic oversight should alarm us all, says ROGER McKENZIE

A society that grows accustomed to ‘undesirable’ people also grows accustomed to undesirable deaths. Minneapolis serves as a wake-up call, including for our own refugee policies, writes MARC VANDEPITTE

On May 16 1944, Romani families in Auschwitz-Birkenau armed themselves with stones, tools, and sheer collective will, forcing the SS to retreat – leaving a legacy of defiance that speaks directly to the fascisms of today, says VICTORIA HOLMES

The government’s case for abolishing most jury trials doesn’t stand up to scrutiny, argues KIM JOHNSON MP – and it must be stopped before it does lasting damage to democracy

Former Labour MP LAURA SMITH makes the case for The Many slate in the elections to Your Party’s new executive

A past confrontation permanently shaped the methods the state will use to protect employers against any claims by their employees, writes MATT WRACK, but unions are readying to face the challenge

MEIC BIRTWISTLE offers an appreciation of the renaissance man GARETH MILES

JAN WOOLF ponders the works and contested reputation of the West German sculptor and provocateur, who believed that everybody is potentially an artist

SHARON GRAHAM reflects on the lessons of Murdoch’s confrontation with print workers – and argues that, in an age of AI, automation and net zero, only early organisation, collective power and planning can stop history repeating itself

VIJAY PRASHAD details how US support for Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa allowed him to break the resistance of the autonomous Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF)

Trump’s ‘Peace Council’ is not a peace project, but a war and colonial council that renews Western colonialism, writes SEVIM DAGDELEN

JOHN LANG recalls how Murdoch used scabbing electricians and even devised a fake newspaper to force a confrontation with printers – then sacked them all

Lawyers to challenge approval of data centre in Britain that ‘pollutes on the scale of an international airport’

The US attack on Venezuela raises grave threats to Cuba and the region, writes NATASHA HICKMAN of Cuba Solidarity Campaign

The newly catalogued News International Dispute Archive ensures the history of the Wapping dispute – and the solidarity it inspired – is preserved, accessible and alive for future generations, says MATT DUNNE

Forty years on, TONY DUBBINS revisits the Wapping dispute to argue that Murdoch’s real aim was union-busting – enabled by Thatcherite laws, police violence, compliant unions and a complicit media

Claims that digital media has rendered press power obsolete are a dangerous myth, argues DES FREEDMAN

Trump’s vision of ‘might is right’ signals the collapse of the postwar order — and a warning of who may be next, warns BOB ORAM

JULIA THOMAS unpicks the mental processes that explain why book-to-film adaptations so often disappoint

The once beating heart of British journalism was undone by technological change, union battles and Murdoch’s 1986 Wapping coup – leaving London the only major capital without a press club, says TIM GOPSILL

LAURA DAVISON traces how Murdoch’s mass sackings, political deals and legal loopholes shattered collective bargaining 40 years ago – and how persistent NUJ organising, landmark court victories and new employment rights legislation are finally challenging that legacy

As advertising drains away, newsrooms shrink and local papers disappear, MIKE WAYNE argues that the market model for news is broken – and that public-interest alternatives, rooted in democratic accountability, are more necessary than ever

LOUISA BULL traces how derecognition, outsourcing and digitalisation reshaped the industry, weakened collective bargaining and created today’s precarious media workforce

A handful of journalists at The Times faced a stark personal and political choice in 1986 – cross the picket lines for cash and career, or stand with organised labour at great personal risk. BARRIE CLEMENT recalls why refusing to scab at Wapping was not just an act of union loyalty, but a stand for the future of journalism

Four decades on, the Wapping dispute stands as both a heroic act of resistance and a decisive moment in the long campaign to break trade union power. Lord JOHN HENDY KC looks back on the events of 1986

Enduring myths blame print unions for their own destruction – but TONY BURKE argues that the Wapping dispute was a calculated assault by Murdoch on organised labour, which reshaped Britain’s media landscape and casts a long shadow over trade union rights today

On the 40th anniversary of the Wapping dispute, this Morning Star special supplement traces the long-planned conspiracy that led to the mass sackings of printworkers in 1986 – a struggle whose unresolved injustices still demand redress today, writes ANN FIELD

Trump threatens war and punitive tariffs to recapture Iranian resources – just as in 1953, when the CIA overthrew Mossadegh and US corporations immediately seized 40% of the oil, says SEVIM DAGDELEN

BRENT CUTLER welcomes a valuable contribution to discussions around the need to de-carbonise energy production

STEVE ANDREW is intrigued by a timely and well-researched book that demonstrates the conflicted history of the central Asian country

Once derided by Farage as a ‘fraud,’ Jenrick has defected to Reform, bringing experience and political ruthlessness to the populist right —  and raising the unsettling prospect of a Farage-led movement with a seasoned operative pulling the strings, says ANDREW MURRAY

Forward’s rise as the tournament’s leading scorer reflects a journey shaped by heritage and belief as Morocco reach the final, writes JAMES NALTON

JOHN GREEN’s palate is tickled by useful information leavened by amusing and unusual anecdotes, incidental gossip and scare stories

MOHAMMAD OMIDVAR, a senior figure in the Tudeh Party of Iran, tells the Morning Star that mass protests are rooted in poverty, corruption and neoliberal rule and warns against monarchist revival and US-engineered regime change

It is time to stop tolerating the governing elites incompetence which makes our lives a daily misery, argues MATT KERR

Including races at Ascot, Haydock, Lingfield and Taunton

RAMZY BAROUD looks at how entire West Bank communities have been shattered, their social and physical fabric deliberately dismantled by Israel to enable its formal annexation

International solidarity can ensure that Trump and his machine cannot prevail without a level of political and economic cost that he will not want to pay, argues CLAUDIA WEBBE

MARIA DUARTE recommends that this dramatic reconstruction of one instance of the Israeli killings in Gaza be seen as widely as possible

As the anti-fascist movement mourns the death of Gerry Gable, his long-time comrade and former Searchlight editor STEVE SILVER reflects on the life of an indispensable activist who spent six decades infiltrating, exposing and undermining fascism

Despite opposition from Greenland’s people and Denmark, Washington intends to control the Arctic territory one way or another. Strategic dominance, mineral wealth and military power are the driving forces at play, writes ROGER McKENZIE

NICK WRIGHT returns to Berlin and finds a city in darkness and political turmoil

DEIRDRE O’CONNOR warns about a big shift in how freedom of speech and protest are treated in new policy document before Parliament today

The Committee for the Defence of Iranian People’s Rights (Codir) welcomes demonstrations across Iran, which have put pressure upon the theocratic dictatorship, but warns against intervention by the United States to force Iran in a particular direction

MARIA DUARTE recommends a British boxing biopic about the stormy relationship between Nazeem Hamed and his trainer Brendan Ingle

PETER MASON applauds a stage version of Le Carre’s novel that questions what ordinary people have to gain from high-level governmental spying

Plans to delay access to the universal credit health element until age 22 have triggered fierce opposition from disabled people’s groups, who warn it would deepen poverty and entrench discrimination against young disabled people under the guise of ‘encouraging work.’ DYLAN MURPHY reports

Slot’s Reds face potential attacking blow with Salah away and Isak injured

CHRIS SEARLE speaks to Filipino-US saxophonist JON IRABAGON about the threat of AI in the time of Musk and Trump, and how an artist can respond

MAT COWARD takes a look at some of the options for keen gardeners as we enter 2026

Looking for moral co-ordinates after a tough year for rational political thinking and shared human morality

If true, the photo’s history is a damning indictment of the systematic exploitation of non-Western journalists by Western media organisations – a pattern that persists today, posit KATE CANTRELL and ALISON BEDFORD

Two inspring books — that’s your New Year’s musing from me on January 2 2026

JAN WOLF enjoys a British revival of the 1972 come of age farce/panto Pippin

BEN CHACKO says in different ways, the centenary of the General Strike and that of Fidel Castro’s birth point to priority tasks for the British left in the coming year

New releases by Porridge Radio, The Cribs, and Bjorn Meyer

Looking for moral co-ordinates after a tough year for rational political thinking and shared human morality

1943-2025: How one man’s unfinished work reveals the lethal lie of ‘colour-blind’ medicine

NICHOLAS MWANGI highlights a historic turning point in Sahelian sovereignty, as Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger bolstered their regional security through a unified military force

Campaigns against nuclear weapons on the Clyde, financial backing for arms firms and rising militarism are converging with solidarity for Palestine, as Scotland’s peace movement builds momentum ahead of the 2026 Holyrood election, says ARTHUR WEST

A US air strike in north-west Nigeria, publicly framed as a Christmas act of counterterrorism, reveals a deeper shift in how power is exercised in Africa, argues RAIS NEZA BONEZA

Snippets of news from around the globe

Snippets of news from the sporting world

JOSEPHINE BARBARO welcomes a diverse anthology of experiences by autistic women that amounts to a resounding chorus, demanding to be heard

PAUL BUHLE recommends an eminently useful book that examines the political opportunities for popular anti-fascist intervention

PETER MASON is entertained by the autobiography of Charlie Harper, one of punk’s most enduring figures

JAMIE BRITTON reaches for the sick bucket as he is forced to engorge detail after detail of the Royal Family’s wealth

CIVILIAN police workers are to go on strike in the new year amid disputes over pay

CHRISTMAS 2025 is celebrated under the shadow of the hunger strikers imprisoned in British jails because of their solidarity with the Palestinian people.

NEU members at Woodfield School in north London are taking sustained industrial action against enforced cuts to learning support assistants’ hours and pay. MARY ADOSSIDES reports

On January 2 2014, PJ Harvey used her turn as guest editor of the Today programme to expose the realities of war, arms dealing and media complicity. The fury that followed showed how rare – and how threatening – such honesty is within Britain’s most Establishment broadcaster, says IAN SINCLAIR

As Ash Regan’s Unbuyable Bill sparks debate in Scotland, the real issue remains unaddressed: a digitalised sex industry and a neoliberal economy that repackages exploitation as empowerment while leaving women’s material conditions unchanged, argues LAUREN HARPER

From Reform UK to Trump, Orban and beyond, the far right is organised across borders and growing. Waiting for it to collapse is a fatal error – building an international, locally rooted left alternative is now an urgent necessity., argues ROGER McKENZIE

Labour’s long-promised Act has scraped through the Lords. While the law marks a step forward, its lack of collective rights leaves workers short-changed — and sets the stage for a renewed campaign for an Employment Rights Bill #2, argues TONY BURKE

As fossil fuels have had their day, JOSIE MIZEN makes it clear that it is now the government’s responsibility to initiate the transition to alternative employment in a manner that is organised, efficient and effective

JAMES NALTON on Munyua’s stinging success at the World Darts Championship 

As the dollar falters and US power turns predatory, Britain and Europe must abandon transatlantic illusions and build a collectivist alternative before the system implodes, writes ALAN SIMPSON

SCOTT ALSWORTH searches for something – anything – worth recommending from the year’s releases

Although this production was in rehearsal before the playwright’s death, it allows us to pay homage to his life, suggests MARY CONWAY

IAN SINCLAIR recommends an important and timely book for climate politics right now and in the future

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

ANDY HEDGECOCK, MARIA DUARTE and ANGUS REID review The Six Billion Dollar Man, Avatar: Fire and Ash, Goodbye June, and Super Elfkins

The catastrophe unfolding in Gaza – where Palestinians are freezing to death in tents – is not a natural disaster but a calculated outcome of Israel’s ongoing blockade, aid restrictions and continued violence, argues CLAUDIA WEBBE

After years of austerity and denial under a new Reform UK council, a failing Send service was pushed into the spotlight by staff, unions and parents — culminating in a £1.3m funding boost and a 50% increase in front-line workers. MARTIN PORTER explains

Held at a last-minute undisclosed venue amid fear of disruption, a Women’s Rights Network event brought together authors and activists, offering a day of debate on feminism’s past, present and future. JADE MIDDLETON reports

The federal government’s plans to finance the war in Ukraine with Russian assets, and a possible deployment of German troops, put the population in Germany in the highest danger, argues SEVIM DAGDELEN

As we approach the half-anniversary of the Grenfell tragedy, the community gathers to remember loved ones while grappling with mixed emotions surrounding the ongoing deconstruction of the tower and the hopeful plans for a memorial, writes EMMA DENT COAD

The new plan sets out an uncompromising bid for global dominance, casting even allies as obstacles to be subdued, writes DIANE ABBOTT

Including races at Cheltenham, Fairyhouse, Doncaster and Wolverhampton

SYMON HILL looks at Tommy Robinson’s bid to use Christmas to spread division and hate — and reminds us that’s the opposite of Jesus’s message

Charles Lubselski pays tribute to a lifelong communist and supporter of the Daily Worker and Morning Star

MARK JONES responds to issues raised in the recent report from Richard Hebbert on the Communist Party’s Congress debate on nuclear power