Prisons are overcrowded, probation services are chronically understaffed, and crimes from burglary to violent offences are on the rise. Despite successive governments’ promises to be ‘tough on crime’, Britain’s repressive institutions are falling apart.

2025 saw some incredible achievements for the RCP – particularly on campus, where we doubled our forces to 300 student members. With strikes and ferment ahead, and student union elections on the horizon, there’s plenty for communists to get stuck into!

Following his New Year intervention in Venezuela, Trump is feeling emboldened to embark on more adventures pursuing his declared aim of Peace: to Cuba, Greenland, and, of course, the Middle East. Blessed be the Peacemakers, for they shall inherit the Nobel Prize for Peace – sooner or later.

Heba Muraisi, Kamran Ahmed, and Lewie Chiaramello – jailed for taking direct action in support of Palestine – are on the verge of dying after going on hunger strike for weeks. If they starve to death, Starmer and his government will be to blame.

Hugo Chávez remains an inspiration for anti-imperialists across the world. In 2002, he was able to mobilise the masses to oust a CIA-backed coup, and subsequent events led him to take revolutionary measures against capitalism. But the revolution remained unfinished.

Trump is laying bare his imperialist policy. Having disgracefully kidnapped Maduro and declared the US would run Venezuela directly, Trump is implementing the ‘Donroe Doctrine’. This is a recipe for clashes and conflicts – which will eventually provoke mass resistance.