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
A vast contribution to left politics
SAM BROWSE looks at Ken Livingstone’s record and why it’s so important
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
AS a kid, the first I came across Ken Livingstone was on television in my living room in Portsmouth.
My dad said something like “good old Red Ken, he can really stick it to the Tories.” The second time, I was rooting through old Hansard speeches in the university library for an essay I was writing on Section 28.
His speech was courageous. At a time when the majority of people thought there was something morally outrageous about gay people — when Neil Kinnock was calling Peter Tatchell a “fairy” and Patricia Hewitt was writing memos bemoaning that “the gay and lesbian issue is costing us dear amongst the pensioners” — Livingstone was raining down oratorical fury on state-sanctioned homophobia.
More from this author
In advance of the Socialism or Barbarism day school on March 29, Arise Festival’s SAM BROWSE writes on why we must oppose the cuts to welfare and the drive to war
SAM BROWSE examines how Lenin’s analysis remains relevant for confronting modern challenges of inequality, climate change and rising fascism ahead of an important discussion with the acclaimed historian and activist Paul le Blanc
After a summer of working-class fightback, the left itself must step up a gear — our conference aims to bring the various strands of resistance together, writes SAM BROWSE
SAM BROWSE, of Labour Friends of Progressive Latin America, explains why it’s vital that the left in Britain expresses solidarity with a renewed ‘pink tide’
