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
Europe’s left parties discuss need for ‘rupture’ with neoliberal EU
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
ARE attitudes to the EU changing among Europe’s parties of the left? On the basis of last week’s meeting in Lisbon the answer is a qualified Yes.
There is now a much fuller rejection of the EU as a neoliberal, pro-competition and anti-working class institution — not by all on the left but certainly marking significant change.
Organised by the Portuguese Communist Party under the auspices of the European United Left/Nordic Green Left parliamentary grouping, delegates attended from Portugal, Spain, Cyprus, Belgium, Britain and Sinn Fein from Ireland.
The position of most delegates was that project to reform the European Union, to create a “social Europe,” had definitively failed.
This assessment was embedded in the meeting’s title, “No to a European Union of transnational companies and big powers — Yes to a Europe of co-operation, social progress and peace.”
More from this author
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
JOHN FOSTER examines how the late SNP leader shifted the party leftwards and upwards, bringing Scottish independence to the forefront while fundamentally failing to address deeper issues of class and corporate capture
Ahead of a TUC special Congress next weekend to fight Conservative anti-strike laws, JOHN FOSTER looks back to 1969 and 1972 when similar proposals were defeated through class solidarity and painstaking organising work
JOHN FOSTER recommends the down-to-earth realism of a political memoir that navigates the surreality of Scottish politics
