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
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Democracy: the writing on the road
Forget the shenanigans about Tory Party partying, something far more insidious is taking place — something eating away at the foundations of British democracy — and socialised distraction is just a cover for doing so, warns ALAN SIMPSON
Insulate Britain climate activists take part in a demonstration on Vauxhall Bridge in central London
CHRISTOPHE DOMEC speaks to the France Insoumise politician facing constant persecution from French authorities
It can be hard to discern conspiracy theory from reality and under the Trump regime the two might just be the same thing, writes Linda Pentz Gunter
ALAN SIMPSON says responses to the Golders Green attacks risk deepening divides across our country
Capturing the general strikes history is a vital part of our struggles today, posits HENRY FOWLER
On a tumultuous day in Welsh politics DAVID NICHOLSON looks at the key issues for progressives in Wales to grapple with the rise of the far right
AS Boris Johnson knows all too well, insecurity is the handmaiden of authoritarianism. Create it and you erode public confidence in an array of democratic rights painfully fought for over centuries.
So it is now. Under the cloak of Covid insecurity, Brexit cock-up, climate crises and supply bottlenecks, Johnson’s government is rolling back the frontiers of democracy at an alarming rate. The libertarian right rails against having to wear masks on public transport and in shops, but says nothing about greater liberties they would gleefully remove in the grotesque Policing Bill.
The press seem happy to aid and abet this process, more enthusiastically chasing stories about the anti-mask “party” antics rather than anti-democratic ones. There is, however, an important link between the two. It is the conflict between the politics of individualism and collectivism; encapsulated, paradoxically, by the brothers Corbyn.
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While politicians fixate on defence budgets, the real answers lie in peace-building and economic justice, says ALAN SIMPSON
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
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
The collapse of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation poses an existential threat — but do today’s politicians have the capacity to deliver the more resilient and sustainable economics of tomorrow, wonders ALAN SIMPSON