Once the bustling heart of Christian pilgrimage, Bethlehem now faces shuttered hotels, empty streets and a shrinking Christian community, while Israel’s assault on Gaza and the tightening grip of occupation destroy hopes of peace at the birthplace of Christ, writes Father GEOFF BOTTOMS
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We have to set the agenda – and this means putting forward a broader positive vision for the future
The CWU is setting out its four-point plan for a New Deal for Workers. DAVE WARD explains
CWU leader Dave Ward
After years hidden away, Oldham’s memorial to six local volunteers who died fighting fascism in the Spanish civil war has been restored to public view, marking both a victory for campaigners and a renewed tribute to the town’s proud International Brigade heritage, says ROB HARGREAVES
The June 2025 attacks on Iran have heightened the risk of a wider war, exposed the fiction of a rules-based international order and left ordinary Iranians trapped between external aggression and internal repression, says the Committee for Defence of Iranian People’s Rights
While pretending to seek peace, Europe is heading toward a collision course with Russia – using security guarantees, troop deployments, expropriation and censorship as tools, writes SEVIM DAGDELEN
A WWI hero, renowned ornithologist, medical doctor, trade union organiser and founder member of the Communist Party of Great Britain all rolled in one. MAT COWARD tells the story of a life so improbable it was once dismissed as fiction
The long-term effects of chemical weapons such as Agent Orange mean that the impact of war lasts well beyond a ceasefire
IN THE run-up to the conference season, every year I think to myself that the labour movement is coming together at a crucial moment. Perhaps this is a sign of the times.
We’re a decade on from the financial crash and living with the legacy of 40 years of neoliberalism. Insecure employment and in-work poverty are foundations of the economy, union membership and coverage are close to a record low and increasingly your life chances are determined not by how hard you work, but what you start off with.
But these things are not just a sign of the times — they’re a sign of how much we have to do and what our priorities need to be at TUC Congress and then Labour Conference in the coming weeks.
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CWU leader DAVE WARD tells Ben Chacko a strategy to unite workers on class lines is needed – and sectoral collective bargaining must be at its heart
Labour must not allow unelected members of the upper house to erode a single provision of the Employment Rights Bill, argues ANDY MCDONALD MP
Ben Chacko talks to RMT leader EDDIE DEMPSEY about how the key to fixing broken Britain lies in collective sectoral bargaining, restoring unions’ ability to take solidarity strike action and bringing about the much-vaunted ‘wave of insourcing’
The regional conference of the TUC North East, Yorkshire and the Humber will be looking to set the agenda for a growing, diverse trade union movement, says JAY McKENNA