The closing days of the recent parliamentary session saw home secretary John Reid roll out a new law and order agenda that could have been drafted by the Sun.
The "war on terror" is deeply unpopular across the world - including in Britain and the US. People in many different countries are questioning and criticising their governments for participating in George Bush’s imperialist project.
Western politicians and the media portray Hizbollah as a terrorist group. Here Socialist Worker contributors reveal a very different picture of the Lebanese organisation
For London’s Lebanese community, the past few weeks have been a traumatic time. Many of those now living in the capital arrived here following the start of Lebanon’s civil war in 1976, or were forced to flee during the Israeli invasion of 1982.
The present dismal reality unfolding in the Middle East has clear historical roots and a journey into the past may help to illuminate what lies behind the destructive policies of Israel in both Palestine and Lebanon.
Zionism claims that Jews have the right to return to the land where their religion, Judaism, took root, in order to create an exclusive Jewish state.The land of Palestine is a vital centre for all of the three great monotheistic religions with roots in the Middle East - Judaism, Christianity and Islam. None of them can have an exclusive claim of ownership of the land.Zionism claims that the Jews were exiled when the Roman Empire overthrew the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem in AD70. In fact most Jews were already living outside the land of Palestine at the time of the Roman Empire.
Looking back on my own experience in Palestine I can see how today’s horror grew from small beginnings. Zionism, Jewish separateness and the belief in a Jewish homeland, have developed into state violence. My parents were pioneering Zionists, leaving Russia for Palestine in 1902 to join a total Zionist population of a few thousand.
Nobel laureate and political activist Harold Pinter has always defended the self?sufficiency of art, claiming that "what I write has no obligation other than to itself".
On 18 July 1936, part of the Spanish army, backed by the upper classes and the Catholic church, rose up with the intention of ending the country’s experiment in democracy and social reform (the Second Republic 1931-6).
Our commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the Spanish Revolution starts with Fighting the fascists, creating a new world by Andy Durgan, historical advisor on Ken Loach's Land and Freedom, examining the politics of the cilvil war.
Sam Lesser was among the first group of British volunteers that joined the International Brigade, the world force against the fascist leader Franco. "We did what we had to do," he said. At the age of 91 his voice sounds steady and his memories remain intact.
"I didn’t get the sack, I gave them the sack," Penny emphasised proudly. Single and unemployed, she was approached by a "left wing colleague" who explained the situation in Spain.
