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
IN 1902, Britain, Germany and Italy imposed a naval blockade on Venezuela after president Cipriano Castro refused to honour debts and pay damages incurred by European companies and citizens during the civil wars that followed the Republic’s independence from Spain.
Violent intervention is still employed by Western governments nowadays when they consider it necessary — but more often as not their commercial interests are protected by international trade treaties and investment agreements.
Of these, more than 2,750 bilateral investment treaties, multilateral investment treaties and free trade agreements contain what are known as Investor State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) mechanisms whereby foreign investors can sue host countries for discriminatory practices that affect their future profitability.
The biggest strike in global history is a template for our future. The silence tells you all you need to know, writes CLAUDIA WEBBE
We must remember Morocco’s land grab of the Sahrawi people’s territory continues with French and British support, writes BERT SCHOUWENBURG, looking into the origins of the annexation



