Skip to main content
NEU job advert
A year of tragedy, but also hope for the future
RICHARD BURGON surveys 2017, where, amid death and conflict, the spirit of socialism was rejuvenated

SINCE this is my last Morning Star column of 2017, I wanted to take the opportunity to reflect upon the year we’ve just had and upon the year ahead that, as a movement, we must strive to collectively shape.

I write this in the week in which the six-month anniversary of the fire at Grenfell Tower takes place. 

Nothing here in Britain so symbolises the indifference of powerful people and institutions to the lives of ordinary people as the Grenfell fire, the circumstances leading up to it and its aftermath.  

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
Similar stories
Democrat mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani speaks during a rally at the Hotel & Gaming Trades Council headquarters in New York, July 2, 2025
Features / 15 July 2025
15 July 2025

The New York mayoral candidate has electrified the US public with policies of social justice and his refusal to be cowed. We can follow his example here, writes CLAUDIA WEBBE

Matt Wrack, General Secretary of the Fire Brigades Union, sp
Interview / 21 December 2024
21 December 2024
The FBU general secretary, currently running for another term, speaks to Ben Chacko about what's needed to reverse 14 years of cuts – and decades of neoliberal deregulation
RAGE: Locals confront police 
guarding the Holiday Inn 
Expr
Features / 17 December 2024
17 December 2024
While Starmer courts BlackRock and backs genocide, leading to despair and historically low voter turnout, the vultures of the new populist right circle Britain’s crumbling institutions, writes CLAUDIA WEBBE
Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trum
Editorial: / 6 November 2024
6 November 2024