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
From folk concerts to council campaigns: a communist’s journey in 1960s Britain
In the third of four extracts from his new memoir, the Morning Star’s legendary former industrial reporter ROY JONES recounts standing for election for the CPGB — and booking Ewan MacColl, Peggy Seeger and The Beatles for gigs
The working-class town of Ellesmere Port, its skyline dominated by heavy industry, where Roy Jones and the Communist Party of Great Britain were active through the 1960s.
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
THE formation of the Communist Party of Great Britain’s Ellesmere Port branch in 1963 marked a recovery in CPGB membership after the 1956 Hungarian uprising and Nikita Khrushchev’s denunciation of Stalin. Deep divisions in the party led to a loss of 20 per cent of the membership.
The questions around the USSR’s action in Hungary had led to a widespread debate and steps to more open discussions at meetings and in print (including the Daily Worker), the setting up of the discussion journal Marxism Today on socialism in Britain and abroad.
At the heart of the debate was the party’s adherence to democratic centralism which was scrutinised in a debate and special party congress on “inner-party democracy.”
More from this author
In the last of four extracts from his new memoir, the Star’s former industrial reporter recalls the opening shots — and at least one moment of glory — in what was to be a devastating decade for the union movement
In the second of four extracts from his new memoir, the Morning Star’s legendary former industrial reporter looks back at his life in the Royal Air Force in 1948
In the first of four extracts from his new book, the man who would go on to be the Morning Star’s industrial reporter recounts his journey through postwar Britain’s labour struggles
