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
The Internet Archive: our online commons are under attack
What was being celebrated as a modern-day Library of Alexandria giving free access to billions of resources, along with the brilliant Wayback machine, is now under attack by corporate publishers, reports JOHN HAWKINS
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
IT HAS been said that one of the great losses of the ancient world was the destruction of the Library of Alexandria. It housed some of the literate world’s great documents, estimated to have been around 400,000 scrolls at its height. Then Julius Caesar lit Alexandria on fire in 48 BC and the library burned to the ground.
One of the great treasures of the contemporary world is an online library called the Internet Archive (IA). Established in 1996 by Brewster Kahle, a US digital librarian, computer engineer from MIT, and advocate of universal access to all knowledge.
This makes him a champion of the commons. And the public online library he has built is a wonder of the modern world. As of September 5 2024, the Internet Archive held over 866 billion web pages, more than 42.5 million print materials, 13 million videos, 3 million TV news, 1.2 million software programmes, 14 million audio files, 5 million images, and 272,660 concerts in its Wayback Machine.
More from this author
JOHN HAWKINS recommends that you watch on Channel 4 the film that the BBC refused to broadcast
JOHN HAWKINS welcomes the passion, grief, precision and elegance of an eloquent witness of genocide
JOHN HAWKINS recommends an important new film - that can be shared for free - to the Palestine Solidarity Movement and the NUJ
JOHN HAWKINS welcomes the straight-talking condemnation of genocide by a queer Jewish environmental journalist
