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
“LA tua compagna e morta” — your comrade is dead — said Fabio in wind-up mode. Fabio’s vinoteca doubles as a coffee shop until noon and is conveniently situated on the route of my morning passeggiata.
“Quale compagno?” I asked. “Barbara Balzerani,” he said knowing it would get a rise from me.
The novelist Barbara Balzerani died last week, March 4. In her younger years, she was head of the Rome column of the Brigate Rosse (Red Brigades) and was in the team that, on March 16 1978, along with her then-partner Mario Morretti, kidnapped the Christian Democrat president Aldo Moro, killing five police and carabinieri bodyguards in the process.
The Moro affair is, to this day, the subject of much speculation as to the motives of the main actors, the shadowy forces behind each of the protagonists and the role of foreign and domestic intelligence services.
CJ ATKINS commemorates one of the most dramatic moments in working-class history
With the recent release of Paul Thomas Anderson’s movie One Battle After Another, STEPHEN ARNELL gives the storied history of the British real-life left-wing urban guerillas
TONY FOX invites readers to come and hear the story of the remarkable Liverpudlian International Brigader Alexander Foote
There is no doubt that Trump’s regime is a right-wing one, but the clash between the state apparatus and the national and local government is a good example of what any future left-wing formation will face here in Britain, writes NICK WRIGHT



