There have been penalties for those who looked the other way when Epstein was convicted of child sex offences and decided to maintain relationships with the financier — but not for the British ambassador to Washington, reveals SOLOMON HUGHES
As in World War I, socialists standing for peace today are demonised – but we must raise our voices
JOHN McINALLY points to parallels between the inter-imperialist conflict that erupted 109 years ago today and the current war in Ukraine
A Ukrainian soldier shelters in a trench on the frontline in the Zaporizhzhia region, the site of heavy fighting with Russian troops, August 10 2023
Labour’s new Treasury unit will ‘challenge unnecessary regulation’ by forcing nominally independent bodies like Ofwat to bend to business demands — exactly what Iain Anderson’s corporate clients wanted, writes SOLOMON HUGHES
DR DYLAN MURPHY looks at a Big Brother Watch report which exposes the government as an enabler of DWP secret spying on benefit claimants
The EU faces a critical choice: will it remain in the shadow of an increasingly unreliable US ally, or will it forge its own path in a multilateral world where co-operation with China is essential, asks MARC VANDEPITTE as leaders meet for the EU-China Summit
A lot of discussion about how the left should currently organise – including debate on whether the Green Party is a useful vehicle for advance – runs the risk of refusing to engage with or learn from the reasons the left was defeated previously, argues KEVIN OVENDEN
For Egypt trade trumps the Israeli genocide of the Palestinians, but how long can the country’s ‘misleaders’ – and others in the region – continue their indifference against the popular will of their own people, asks ROGER McKENZIE
NO SERIOUS person, certainly no socialist, would disagree that the first world war was an inter-imperialist conflict between “great powers” in pursuit of markets, resources, and hegemony.
Isn’t hindsight a wonderful thing. At the time, one hundred and nine years ago today, the majority of socialists, trade union leaders and prominent “Marxists” abandoned international class solidarity, capitulated to war fever, embraced national chauvinism, effectively endorsing the industrialised slaughter of millions of workers of all combatant nations.
Socialists who opposed the war and exposed its real cause — imperialist profiteering — were marginalised and victimised. In Britain, John MacLean and other socialists were imprisoned under the Defence of the Realm Act.
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JOHN McINALLY argues trade unions and socialists must demand properly funded healthcare instead of a change that, combined with neoliberal capitalism, will see working-class people pushed towards suicide
JOHN McINALLY warns that Labour’s hasty push for legislation ignores the international evidence of expanding eligibility criteria, potentially normalising the ‘social murder’ of working-class people under the guise of compassion
Labour must fight to ensure any new laws do not become tools for social cleansing of the poor and disabled, argues JOHN McINALLY, as some begin considering NHS savings that could come at the cost of working-class lives
JOHN McINALLY calls for militant trade unionism and overt socialist politics to counter the new government’s pro-capitalist agenda and a looming authoritarian turn that threatens to muzzle working-class resistance
