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
Latest editorial
Labour’s Maginot Line Moment
The debate on Heathrow expansion showed a staggering ignorance of the real battle facing our society
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
Alba party leader KENNY MacASKILL makes some suggestions on how to save our pubs and reduce irresponsible drinking
The catastrophe unfolding in Gaza – where Palestinians are freezing to death in tents – is not a natural disaster but a calculated outcome of Israel’s ongoing blockade, aid restrictions and continued violence, argues CLAUDIA WEBBE
Opinion polls point to electoral collapse, parliamentary rebellion and a looming leadership challenge as Starmer’s Labour haemorrhages working-class support and the far right exploits the vacuum left by a hollowed-out party, says NICK WRIGHT
The long-term effects of chemical weapons such as Agent Orange mean that the impact of war lasts well beyond a ceasefire
IT WAS one of the biggest infrastructure projects in human history.
For much of the 1930s, and at a cost of 3.3 billion francs, France built itself a 900-mile network of tunnels, underground bunkers and concrete gun batteries along much of the Franco-German border. The intention was to protect France from any repeated World War I-style German invasion.
This was the Maginot Line, a colossal (but ultimately futile) piece of engineering the Germans simply bypassed in the war that followed.
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