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IDEALISM: A map showing plans for a Chartist land settlement in Hertfordshire, named O’Connorville after the Chartist leader Feargus O’Connor
by Nana Backland, Merseyside Morning Star Readers & Supporters Group
The Tories introduced the 50% strike ballot threshold to make industrial action harder. MATT WRACK argues that a Labour government has no justification for leaving it on the statute book
In the wake of Ann Widdecombe’s murder, JOHN GREEN wonders whether the government will really get to grips with the root cause of these attacks on our MPs
The new PM’s opening addresses offered hope, council homes and reform — but little detail on how any of it will be delivered, warns CLAUDIA WEBBE
Nature as well as society works dialectically, asserts the Marx Memorial Library and Workers’ School
MAY DAY is, worldwide, a labour and socialist festival. It has been marked in Britain since the first London May Day demonstrations in the 1890s.
As Eric Hobsbawm and Terence Ranger wrote, traditions are invented. In Britain at the moment there is an official May Day public holiday held on the first Monday after the actual date, which often sees marches and rallies.
We have Michael Foot and the 1974-79 Labour government to thank for that, although Margaret Thatcher recorded in her papers that she also enjoyed a day off, despite disapproving of its stated purpose.
KEITH FLETT looks at geographical roots of working-class activism in Britain
![Durham Miners' Gala 2026 [Pic: Neil Terry]](https://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/sites/default/files/styles/desktop/public/2026-07/SSS_20260711_DURHAM_MINERS_GALA_0-21.jpg.webp?itok=NUVjowji)
Durham Miners’ Association chair STEPHEN GUY speaks to Ben Chacko about the Reform threat, what’s needed from Labour and why the Big Meeting will never lose its politics
It’s not just the Starmer regime: the workers of Britain have always faced legal affronts on their right to assemble and dissent, and the Labour Party especially has meddled with our freedoms from its earliest days, writes KEITH FLETT
Who you ask and how you ask matter, as does why you are asking — the history of opinion polls shows they are as much about creating opinions as they are about recording them, writes socialist historian KEITH FLETT