One hundred years ago Europe was in the middle of a bloody world war. With tensions rising in the Middle East, the Korean peninsula, and the South China Sea – and given whose fingers are on red buttons all over the world – should we be worried about the possibility of a similar situation today?
The number of people struggling to make ends meet despite being employed is growing and growing. The Tory Party’s boasts about cutting unemployment are clearly misleading, John Russell explains, as an increasing number find themselves with falling real wages, zero-hour contracts, and in temporary employment.
With “Corbyn-mania” sweeping the country, the whole political climate in Britain is going through a massive transformation. To the horror of the establishment, the ideas of socialism and public ownership are firmly back on the table. Now is the time to get organised, finish the Tories, and fight for a socialist Labour government.
The Trussell Trust Food Bank Network has reported that over 1.18 million people received emergency food parcels in the last year, the highest such figures to date. Their report has laid bare the extent to which capitalism is harming working class families in Britain and how the Tory government is disregarding those most in need.
The question of the European Single Market and Britain’s relationship to it is a prominent issue surrounding the Brexit negotiations. Blairite Labour MPs such as Chuka Umunna have attempted to use this question as a thorn in the side of Corbyn’s leadership. But what position, Josh Holroyd asks, should socialists have towards the EU and the Single Market?
Student debt has risen at an alarming rate in recent years. A recent headline in the Metro newspaper announced that “student loans [are] worse than a mortgage”. The existing fees and funding system is therefore clearly broken. We need mass direct action in order to make the dream of free, accessible university education a reality.
The Venezuelan opposition is stepping up its campaign, organising a “sovereign consultation” last Sunday, 16th July. The opposition has announced that Sunday’s consultation marks the “zero hour” for a national, permanent and open ended “trancazo” (road blockades), until the “fall of the dictatorship”. The aim is clear: to overthrow the government of Nicolas Maduro.
This July, following a five month long rent strike, the ‘Cut the Rent’ campaign at University College London (UCL) announced that students have secured major concessions from management for university accommodation rents, worth £1.5 million altogether. This victory will give confidence to students and workers to take further action going forward.
We publish here a report of a recent meeting organised by Kensington and Chelsea Momentum, held to commemorate the disaster’s victims, to discuss the political questions surrounding it, and to resolve on what action to take. The report includes a model motion, passed in the meeting, which should be raised through the labour movement.
For the last month the Gulf state of Qatar has been blockaded by its neighbours Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, who along with Egypt have severed all diplomatic ties with the country. These events have opened up a crisis situation in the Gulf region, which is being viewed with trepidation by the major powers on the world stage.
Social media has been alight this week with responses to two incidents of racism from prominent politicians: first from a Tory MP and then from liberal poster boy Emmanuel Macron. In today’s world, where sensitivity to racism has never been so acute, how is it – Ben Gliniecki asks – that leading politicians still manage to unthinkingly spout such racist remarks?
Almost ten years after the initial announcement of the building of two aircraft carriers, the first behemoth, HMS Queen Elizabeth, began its journey on the seas. Far from demonstrating the UK’s military strength, however, the new ship has become an embarrassment for the Establishment, highlighting the weakness of British imperialism.