There have been penalties for those who looked the other way when Epstein was convicted of child sex offences and decided to maintain relationships with the financier — but not for the British ambassador to Washington, reveals SOLOMON HUGHES
The war and the Daily Worker
During World War II, the Morning Star’s predecessor the Daily Worker was banned for its criticisms of the government. Here PHIL KATZ looks at the story of its ban – and how it was resisted and overturned
Labour’s new Treasury unit will ‘challenge unnecessary regulation’ by forcing nominally independent bodies like Ofwat to bend to business demands — exactly what Iain Anderson’s corporate clients wanted, writes SOLOMON HUGHES
DR DYLAN MURPHY looks at a Big Brother Watch report which exposes the government as an enabler of DWP secret spying on benefit claimants
The EU faces a critical choice: will it remain in the shadow of an increasingly unreliable US ally, or will it forge its own path in a multilateral world where co-operation with China is essential, asks MARC VANDEPITTE as leaders meet for the EU-China Summit
A lot of discussion about how the left should currently organise – including debate on whether the Green Party is a useful vehicle for advance – runs the risk of refusing to engage with or learn from the reasons the left was defeated previously, argues KEVIN OVENDEN
For Egypt trade trumps the Israeli genocide of the Palestinians, but how long can the country’s ‘misleaders’ – and others in the region – continue their indifference against the popular will of their own people, asks ROGER McKENZIE
Daily Worker banned
The TUC met in Southport in 1940, but denied the Daily Worker press credentials. This encouraged the government to act against the only voice in the press that was critical of is role. Party member John Mason was interned without charge as a warning to all. Police raids on homes were stepped up. Requests were made by police to employers to sack known activists.
The party leadership encouraged a revolutionary perspective on the question of legality. It was to be enjoyed and used for as long as it lasted. On January 21 1941, just nine days after the People's Convention, the Daily Worker was suppressed by long-time adversary Labour Home Secretary Herbert Morrison, using defence regulation 2D, which made it illegal “systematically to publish matter calculated to foment opposition to the prosecution of the war.” The party challenged the ban in the High Court. Ironically the High Court lifted the suppression on the movement of its machinery, but the decision came five days after the presses were destroyed in a bombing inferno.
At the defence factory Napiers in north west London, workers clocked in an hour late in protest at suppression of their paper. In its place Daily Worker Leagues appeared, which published a regular Industrial and General Information Bulletin, staffed by former employees of the Daily Worker. The Fighting Fund was kept going. Communists could not be outlawed so easily.
More from this author
PHIL KATZ looks at how the Daily Worker, the Morning Star's forerunner, covered the breathless last days of World War II 80 years ago
PHIL KATZ describes the unity of the home front and the war front in a People’s War
From anti-apartheid work to uniting migrant workers, Sutton showed us how to build worker power, keeping socialism’s flame burning bright, and leaving London’s mighty May Day parade as his legacy, writes Phil Katz
