Robinson successfully defended his school from closure, fought for the unification of the teaching unions, mentored future trade union leaders and transformed teaching at the Marx Memorial Library, writes JOHN FOSTER
Deja vu all over again?
STEPHEN ARNELL looks to 2024, which will see 190 years since the Tolpuddle Martyrs and 200 years after the passing of the 1824 Vagrancy Act
A judge in a German court ruled that the ban activity imposed on renowned Dr Ghassan Abu-Sittah was unlawful, reports LEON WYSTRYCHOWSKI
At the very moment Britain faces poverty, housing and climate crises requiring radical solutions, the liberal press promotes ideologically narrow books while marginalising authors who offer the most accurate understanding of change, writes IAN SINCLAIR
From Gaza protest bans to proscribing Palestine Action, political elites are showing a crisis of confidence as they abandon Roy Jenkins’s apologetic approach for Suella Braverman’s aggressive ‘hate march’ rhetoric, writes PAUL DONOVAN
ANSELM ELDERGILL examines the legal case behind this weekend’s Tolpuddle Martyrs’ Festival and the lessons for today
Ben Chacko talks to RMT leader EDDIE DEMPSEY about how the key to fixing broken Britain lies in collective sectoral bargaining, restoring unions’ ability to take solidarity strike action and bringing about the much-vaunted ‘wave of insourcing’
The summer of 1950 saw Labour abandon further nationalisation while escalating Korean War spending from £2.3m to £4.7m, as the government meekly accepted capitalism’s licence and became Washington’s yes-man, writes JOHN ELLISON
THIS year will see two major anniversaries in the history of the working-class struggle in Britain. Both were considered milestones of a sort, lines drawn where the lower classes could either take their allotted punishment and lump it — or organise, agitate and overcome the obstacles thrown up by governments and their paymasters.
The point to note in 2024 is not how far we have come, but how we have been passively hurtling back to the days of Victorian plutocracy. In 2024, the right to strike, protest and even vote is coming under increasing government control.
Britain’s “Freedom” ranking has fallen progressively over recent years, as the Tory government sought to distract from its manifest failures by lashing out at a host of a perceived “enemies within,” including the judiciary, “lefty” lawyers, the medical profession, football commentators, subpostmasters, those who voted to remain in the EU, trade union members, the “undeserving” poor, “crap parents,” the National Trust and the RNLI.
More from this author
The fallout from the Kneecap and Bob Vylan performances at Glastonbury raises questions about the suitability of senior BBC management for their roles, says STEPHEN ARNELL
With the news of massive pay rises for senior management while content spend dives STEPHEN ARNELL wonders when will someone call out the greed of these ‘public service’ executives
As Trump targets universities while Homeland Security chief Kristi Noem redefines habeas corpus as presidential deportation power, STEPHEN ARNELL traces how John Scopes’s optimism about academic freedom’s triumph now seems tragically premature
STEPHEN ARNELL examines whether Starmer is a canny strategist playing a longer game or heading for MacDonald’s Great Betrayal, tracing parallels between today’s rightward drift and the 1931 crisis
