DAVE CALFE, general secretary of Aslef, the train drivers’ trade union, writes exclusively for the Morning Star as the union’s five-day annual conference opens in Birmingham

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

JOHN REES replies to Claudia Webbe

GORDON PARSONS salutes the apt return of Brecht’s vaudevillian cartoon drama that retains the vitality of the boxing or the circus ring

While politicians fixate on defence budgets, the real answers lie in peace-building and economic justice, says ALAN SIMPSON

New releases from Kneecap, Sam Blasucci, and Juni Habel

DAVID NICHOLSON recommends the staging of this Wagnerian classic minus one or two insignificant quibbles

CHRIS MOSS joins the hunt in Argentina for the works of Poland’s most enigmatic exile

SYLVIA HIKINS welcomes a survey of successful contemporary worker co-operatives and economy-based co-operative systems

RON JACOBS recommends a book that charts the disparate circumstances that defined the lives of two prominent black Afro-Americans — one a communist, the other an anti-communist

Outsourcing is at the heart of inequality. Only collective unity in the trade union movement can topple the Establishment’s obsession with it, says SAM GURNEY

TONY BURKE talks to Garth Cartwright author of Princes Amongst Men — Journeys With Romani Gypsy Musicians

Bezalel Smotrich’s measures to extend Israeli property law into the West Bank are a continuation of a decades-long project to dispossess Palestinians and preclude statehood, argues HUGH LANNING 

SETH SANDRONSKY recommends a production that looks back at the political Tinseltown in the mid-1970s when US cinema ‘didn’t pander to trends’

Mass strikes over cost-of-living protections have escalated into a broader confrontation over democracy, after the government moved to impose a pay freeze by decree, writes KIVANC ELIACIK

Campaigners urge government to ignore profiteering oil lobbyists and help those hit hardest by rising energy prices

Cuts are sweeping campuses as cash-strapped universities slash staff and politicians fail to act on a growing funding emergency. VINCE MILLS reports

DENNIS BROE observes how cutbacks, mergers and AI create content detached from both reality and history itself

From Vietnam to Iran, US leaders repeat a failed strategy of terror bombing – one that history shows cannot break a determined, resilient society, says DYLAN MURPHY

Long before modern labour movements, England’s farmworkers fought back against their oppression – and for some, like Elizabeth Studham, the price was exile to Australia. MAT COWARD tells the story

MARY DAVIS welcomes a remarkable documentary about the general strike — politically spot on, and featuring accounts from the strikers themselves — that is available for screenings

ANSELM ELDERGILL looks at the legality of the wars in the Middle East and the means used to fight them. It is said that truth is the first casualty of war, so what is the truth with regard to the legality of America’s and Israel’s wars in Iran, Palestine and Lebanon?

PETER MASON welcomes collected writings from Britain’s first black female publisher that focus on the place of black writers in literature

RICHARD SHILLCOCK examines an enjoyable, but philosophically conventional book, and urges Marxists to employ their capacity to embrace the totality in any explanation

MARTIN GRAHAM welcomes, with reservations, a scholarly addition to the unfinished business of understanding how capital works on a world scale

The bard tours Finland and tampers with the cuisine

In his fortnightly Borderlands column, MARK SEDDON visits overgrown forts along Offa’s Dyke and reflects on wars past and present

The Committee for the Defence of the Iranian People’s Rights (Codir) cautiously welcomes the ceasefire, but remains suspicious of US and Israeli intentions

Washington’s response to a downed jet shows a superpower still reaching for overwhelming force even as its wars repeatedly fail, says NICK WRIGHT

Outrage greeted Donald Trump’s suggestion earlier this year that Britain stayed off the front lines. But evidence suggests our forces were at times pulled from the most dangerous fighting — not by military failure, but by pressure at home, says IAN SINCLAIR

Fertiliser chaos triggered by Gulf conflict could send prices soaring and leave millions facing devastating hunger, writes DYLAN MURPHY

With attacks on industry, healthcare and education intensifying, JAMSHID AHMADI warns of a deliberate drive to cripple Iran and calls for urgent global action

JAN WOOLF invigilates images that meditate on Palestine, and the people who witness them

BEN COWLES samples the many sonic and social therapies of Manchester Punk Festival 2026, and is ready again to smash capitalism

A packed fringe meeting at the National Education Union conference heard from Iranian teachers, campaigners and journalists

Including races at Haydock Park, Musselburgh and Fairyhouse

CLAUDIA WEBBE says the US is tightening the noose to destroy Cuban socialism — the need for immediate, international solidarity is urgent

Cypriot lawyer and former central committee member of the Progressive Working People’s Party (Akel) TOUMAZOS TSIELEPIS discusses the case for expelling the British military from Cyprus

The sheer number present on the day, estimated at half a million, points to organisational acumen and bodes well for developing the movement, says DIANE ABBOTT

In the second and final part of his article MIKE SCOTT posits that if we don’t control AI while we’ve got the chance, we could be signing the death warrant for our children and grandchildren

LEO BOIX, ANGUS REID and MARIA DUARTE review Night Stage, Two Women, Kim Novak’s Vertigo, and Fuze

MIKE SCOTT assesses the AI threat to jobs in the first of a pair of articles on the problems it poses

The Morning Star here publishes a speech that would have been given by Stop the War officer and longtime NEU and NUT activist Alex Kenny on the eve of the verdicts handed to Chris Nineham and Ben Jamal this week. He also explains why he couldn’t give it

A setback for IG Metall at Tesla’s Berlin plant has ignited claims of intimidation and raised fears for the future of collective bargaining and workplace democracy, says TONY BURKE

The question for the media, in the US and across the globe, says ROGER McKENZIE, is will they do their job fearlessly and call Donald Trump out?

The PM is drawing cautious distance from Donald Trump over Iran – but history suggests Britain’s support may run deeper than it appears, just as it did during the Vietnam war, says KEITH FLETT

As extremist movements grow on the streets and at the ballot box, the emergence of the Together Alliance points to a vital strategy: unity across trade unions, campaigners and communities, says TONY CONWAY

Midlands trade unionists are turning challenge into opportunity through collective power and renewed confidence, says STUART RICHARDS

Italians reject controversial judiciary reforms in a referendum that boosts the left, reports NICK WRIGHT

RAMZY BAROUD and ROMANA RUBEO analyse how the US has consistently negotiated in bad faith to secure the element of surprise in military attack

Coal-fired stoves in traditional homes are the primary source of extreme levels of air pollution in over-crowded Ulaanbaatar. As more people become climate-displaced, the situation is likely to worsen, write SCIENCE AND SOCIETY

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

Bruni de la Motte 1951-2026

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’

by Megan Janetsky

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

TOM GALLAHUE argues that asking what role Irish diaspora educators can play in shaping Irish unity is to ask a deeper question about democracy itself

On January 29, US President Donald Trump declared Cuba an ‘unusual and extraordinary threat’ to US national security and tightened the blockade against the island nation MANOLO DE LOS SANTOS reports

For those who lived in Yanoun, its disappearance is not just a local tragedy, but a stark symbol of escalating violence, displacement and impunity across the occupied West Bank, says JANE HARRIES

The selection, analysis and interpretation of historical ‘facts’ always takes place within a paradigm, a model of how the world works. That’s why history is always a battleground, declares the Marx Memorial Library

JULIA TOPPIN recommends Patti Smith’s eloquent memoir that wrestles with the beauty and sorrow of a lifetime

The fatal shooting of Alex Pretti, a registered nurse and union member, has sparked nationwide protests and renewed calls from National Nurses United to dismantle Ice and related agencies, says MARK GRUENBERG

If the government really wanted to address public finances, improve living standards and begin economic recovery, it would increase its borrowing for investment, argues MICHAEL BURKE

MARJORIE MAYO welcomes an account of family life after Oscar Wilde, a cathartic exercise, written by his grandson

KEN COCKBURN guides us through a survey of Chekov’s early short fiction, and the groundwork it laid for his later masterpieces

Megapicket to shut down Birmingham’s refuse sites

YUBIN DU explains why Britain and China should be natural partners in a restless world

A Vatican photo-op, a hard-right donor and a rhetoric of mass deportations reveal how appeals to ‘Christian values’ are being reshaped by Reform and Tory MPs, says SOLOMON HUGHES

Admission shows that councils can divest from Israel, campaigners say

One hundred years after 1.7m workers shut the country down in defence of the miners, the struggles that sparked the 1926 General Strike are still with us – and will be honoured on London’s May Day march this year, writes MARY ADOSSIDES