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
“FASCIST” and “Fascism” are frequently used words today that are both popular and slippery. The prevalence of the words in common parlance is indisputable, but regrettable for three reasons:
- There is no common, shared, ordinary meaning of “fascism”
- “Fascist” has often become merely an epithet, a term of abuse
- The use of the expressions has disengaged from their specific history and context
Today, commentators, both left and right, excoriate their targets with fascist-themed concatenations: “feminazis,” “islamofascists,” “neo-fascists,” “PC fascists,” etc.
And, of course, the dinner-table discussion of the liberal intelligentsia inevitably arrives at the burning question: “Is Trump a fascist?” If you Googled “Trump, fascism, fascist” on August 25, you would have gotten 9,150,000 results.
In 2024, 19 households grew richer by $1 trillion while 66 million households shared 3 per cent of wealth in the US, validating Marx’s prediction that capitalism ‘establishes an accumulation of misery corresponding with accumulation of capital,’ writes ZOLTAN ZIGEDY
TONY CONWAY assesses the lessons of the 1930s and looks at what is similar, and what is different, about the rise of the far right today
The left must avoid shouting ‘racist’ and explain that the socialist alternative would benefit all



