Seventeen years after losing her council job due to needing endometriosis surgery, Michelle Dewar’s campaign for paid menstrual leave gained 50,000 signatures in a week, reports ELIZABETH SHORT
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Remembering Hugo Chavez
Rewriting history when it comes to Hugo Chavez’s role in Venezuela and Latin America’s past is part of the current US offensive for ‘regime change,’ says KEN LIVINGSTONE
INSPIRATIONAL: Hugo Chavez among children
[Mision Verdad/Truth Mission] 
From 35,000 troops in Talisman Sabre war games to HMS Spey provocations in the Taiwan Strait, Labour continues Tory militarisation — all while claiming to uphold ‘one China’ diplomatic agreements from 1972, reports KENNY COYLE
White racist rioting has many an infamous precedent in Britain, writes DAVID HORSLEY
The SNP might dissemble over the meaning of ‘nationalism,’ but it can’t disguise the fact that it is no left-wing party, says ELAINE SMITH
Castro became one of the first leaders to denounce Israeli genocide against Palestinians at the UN, comparing zionist persecution to Nazi crimes while Cuba trained PLO cadres and awarded Arafat state honours, writes PABLO MERIGUET
The summer saw the co-founders of modern communism travelling from Ramsgate to Neuenahr to Scotland in search of good weather, good health and good newspapers in the reading rooms, writes KEITH FLETT
YOU won’t read about it much in those parts of the media currently arguing for war on Venezuela, but when Hugo Chavez first became president in 1999, Venezuela had endured a wave of economic and social catastrophes in the preceding two decades.
Up to seven in 10 people had been left in poverty. Income per head had collapsed to the levels of the 1950s. Millions were left to live in barrios dangerously clinging to the mountainsides, often without clean water or sanitation. Many had no proper access to healthcare and education
After Chavez’s election in 1998 with a 57 per cent vote, he set about his mission to transform the country.
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It is mayors living close to the people who understand what is needed to tackle climate change better than national politicians in their private jets and chauffeur-driven cars, writes KEN LIVINGSTONE
With the 25th anniversary of his first election approaching this year, KEN LIVINGSTONE writes on the achievements and legacy of an important figure in Latin America’s history
KEN LIVINGSTONE writes on the importance of devolution – and using devolved powers for progressive ends
Wide-ranging attacks on ‘enemies within’ are reminiscent of Thatcher’s assault on the miners, GLC, and black and Irish communities in the '80s, writes KEN LIVINGSTONE
