In the wake of his recent humanitarian visit to Cuba, RICHARD BURGON points to the now urgent need to defend the island’s political sovereignty and its right to self-determination
Latest editorial
Women who know the poor challenge the politicians who don’t
BOB HOLMAN recommends a new report confronting some of the stereotypes about poverty by talking to those who are on the front line
Thousands of jobs are at risk across higher education, yet government funding appears only when universities can be linked to military objectives, says JO GRADY, in the run-up to the Stop the War International Conference this Saturday
The Wye, Usk, Arrow and Lugg were once treasured for their clean waters – today, pollution and corporate excess are fuelling demands for a return to public ownership, says MARK SEDDON
The new Employment Rights Act is a step forward, but restoring collective bargaining and union power remains essential to tackling insecurity, outsourcing and low pay, says PAUL WHITEHOUSE
Rising support for Farage’s party reflects Labour’s failure to defend working-class living standards or offer a credible alternative to neoliberal decline, says JOSEPH MILLS
Trade unionists are mobilising to support Cuban workers and public services, amid escalating US pressure on the socialist island. RONAN OGILVY explains
In 1943, in the midst of war, eight women published a book about poverty called Our Towns: A Close-Up which became a best-seller. The war-time study stemmed from the evacuation of over a million mainly working-class people in 1939.
I was one of them. The evacuees drew many complaints in the mainly country places. They were dirty, flea-ridden, inadequately clothed and badly behaved. The evacuees were often poor, for which their lazy, incompetent parents were blamed.
The Women’s Group on Public Welfare set up a committee of eight professional women to investigate the evacuation. Significantly, they all knew about poverty at first hand and deduced that it was poverty which led to the evacuees apparent deficiencies. They then went to the poor neighbourhoods and argued that society imposed poverty on the residents.
Similar stories
Comments from Matt Goodwin and Danny Kruger expose a reactionary vision in which falling birth rates are blamed on women, says JUDITH CAZORLA
The legacy of socialist feminists such as Alexandra Kollontai challenges us today to confront an uncomfortable truth: framing prostitution as empowerment lets the abusers of the Epstein class off the hook, warns HELEN O’CONNOR
Our housing crisis isn’t an accident – it’s class war, trapping millions in poverty while landlords and billionaires profit. To solve it, we need comprehensive transformation, not mere tokenistic reform, writes BECK ROBERTSON