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
Why did the Soviet Union collapse and counter-revolution triumph?
Gorbachev’s resignation as leader of the CPSU 30 years ago marked the beginning of the downfall of the USSR. While the Western nations rejoiced, the peoples of the former union saw the restoration of capitalism of a particularly violent and ruthless kind, writes ROBERT GRIFFITHS
Boris Yeltsin (main pic) and tanks assembled in Red Square in Moscow, 1991
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
THIRTY years ago today, Mikhail Gorbachev resigned as general secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) and Ukraine’s parliament ended that country’s status as a member of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.
It was the beginning of the end of the Soviet Union.
Five days earlier, a faction in the CPSU leadership had revolted against president Gorbachev’s plans to sign a new union treaty to replace the federal but politically centralised Soviet Union.
More from this author
In the run-up to the Communist Party congress in November ROB GRIFFITHS outlines a few ideas regarding its participation in the elections of May 2026
From McCarthy’s prison cells to London’s carnival, Jones fought for peace and unity while exposing the lies of US imperialism, says ROBERT GRIFFITHS, in a graveside oration at Highgate Cemetery given last Sunday
In the second of two articles on Labour’s weak Budget, ROBERT GRIFFITHS argues that Britain’s massive private wealth and offshore tax havens show clear potential for radical redistribution through progressive taxation
In the first of two articles, ROBERT GRIFFITHS argues that despite a parliamentary majority, Labour’s timid Budget fails to seize a historic opportunity and lacks the ambition needed to address Britain’s deep social and economic crises
