SOLOMON HUGHES recommends Sunjeev Sahota’s recent novel set in a trade union election campaign for its fresh approach to what unites and divides workers, but wishes the union backdrop was truer to life
FOR years, German communist weekly Unsere Zeit (UZ) held a biennial festival of left politics, culture and music, the “Pressefest,” in Dortmund’s Revier Park.
It was a big event, attracting thousands every other summer. Debates took place in a relaxed atmosphere: there was even a swimming pool in which comrades could take a dip when they fancied a break.
But the last Dortmund Pressefest took place before Covid, and UZ and the German Communist Party (DKP) held last weekend’s event — dubbed the Peace Days rather than the Pressefest — like 2022’s, on a much smaller scale in Berlin.
NICK WRIGHT returns to Berlin and finds a city in darkness and political turmoil
In part two of May’s Berlin Bulletin, VICTOR GROSSMAN, having assessed the policies of the new government, looks at how the opposition is faring



