After years hidden away, Oldham’s memorial to six local volunteers who died fighting fascism in the Spanish civil war has been restored to public view, marking both a victory for campaigners and a renewed tribute to the town’s proud International Brigade heritage, says ROB HARGREAVES
Lehman Brothers and histories of the present
We must make sure we counter the narrative that the 2008 crash was ‘an aberration’ writes KEITH FLETT
IT IS 10 years since the demise of Lehman Brothers caused a worldwide financial crisis, the impact of which is still being felt today.
The anniversary is being widely marked but only within a very narrow framework of analysis.
The late historian Eric Hobsbawm argued at a meeting of the Communist Party Historians Group in the 1950s that they “must become historians of the present too.”
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From bemoaning London’s ‘cockneys’ invading seaside towns to negotiating holiday rents, the founders of scientific socialism maintained a wry detachment from Victorian Easter customs while using the break for health and politics, writes KEITH FLETT
Britain’s first woman Chancellor delivers the same old fudge, as Labour’s commitment to economic orthodoxy, seen throughout its history, always betrays working people, writes KEITH FLETT



