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
NO-ONE has a crystal ball, so all projections into the future tend to be extrapolations from the recent past. Unfortunately, that would mean 2025 threatens even more war, too little action on climate change, growing poverty and widespread political turmoil.
The main new factor in the world is the election of Donald Trump as US president. His inauguration is in just a few days’ time. But we should remember that the terrors of 2024 did not begin under Trump — he had almost nothing to do with them.
It was the Democrat President Joe Biden who gave the green light to Israeli genocide and who provided both the money and arms for it, along with the wider attack on the region, including the West Bank, Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Iran and Yemen.
Trump’s vision of ‘might is right’ signals the collapse of the postwar order — and a warning of who may be next, warns BOB ORAM
Europe is acquiescing in Trump’s manoeuvrings — where Europe takes over the US forever war in Ukraine while Washington gets ready for a future fight with China. And it’s working people who will be left paying the price, says DIANE ABBOTT MP
Cuba Solidarity Campaign secretary BERNARD REGAN says the inhuman blockade of Cuba not only continues, but the Donald Trump administration is ratcheting up aggression against both Havana and Latin America more widely
Washington’s tariff policies become explicable in light of the US economy’s relative decline and the astonishing rise of China, argues MICHAEL BURKE



