Socialist correspondent

Although German Democratic Republic (GDR) ended 35 years ago its achievements demonstrate what is possible in a society committed to the welfare of its citizens. It did this against enormous odds. It was economically disadvantaged after the end of the second world war and faced the West's attempts to isolate it from the rest of the world. Significantly it was determined that war would never again...

There is a long history behind the West’s objective of destroying the government in Syria. The long campaign of military action and sanctions which eventually led to Assad’s defeat. His overthrow will have a profound impact on future prospects for Syria and the region, including the Palestinians whose cause has been weakened by these events. The West backs the terrorists who now control the countr...

The threat from China to the US and the West is real but it is not a military one, as the media would have us believe, which is used as the pretext for increased arms spending. In fact, it is the US that has threatened to annex Canada, take over Greenland, take back the Panama Canal (which it has partly succeeded in) take over Ukrainian mineral resources and redevelop Gaza ethnically cleansed of P...

Although Trump is notoriously erratic, beneath the surface of this and his egregious, insulting behaviour there are consistencies. One is that he will continue to support Israel as the bastion of US interests in the Middle East and Palestinians who continue to suffer from Israel’s genocidal actions both in Gaza and the West Bank. One bright spot in a rather grim political landscape in Britian has...

Trump is motivated by a desire to ensure US supremacy in the face of China which is developing rapidly. No other country poses such a threat and he wants to clear the decks for that fight, hence his attempt to end the war in Ukraine on terms favourable to the United States. Other aspects of Trump’s imperial agenda – his designs on Greenland and Panama and also relate to his desire to prevent China...

Although Trump is notoriously erratic, beneath the surface of this and his egregious, insulting behaviour there are consistencies. One is that he will continue to support Israel as the bastion of US interests in the Middle East and Palestinians who continue to suffer from Israel’s genocidal actions both in Gaza and the West Bank. One bright spot in a rather grim political landscape in Britian has...

Russia is routinely accused of interfering in democracy in other countries. While these accusations have been insubstantial, there is a growing body of evidence of Israeli interference in British politics. Both in the United States and in the UK pro-Israel groups have channeled cash into defeating pro-Palestine law-makers and funding a wide range of Members of Parliament. In the UK some of these g...

On a recent visit to Russia this commentator found a society that was functioning well with decent services and a sense of social cohesion. There was a sense of normality despite the war. Although people did not talk a lot about it, he found that people wanted peace, but not at any price.

The Labour government has made reform of the planning system central to its efforts to increase growth. There are problems with the system which has become increasingly fragmented and dominated by the private sector in recent decades. However Labour's response does not address the central problems and some of its proposals are quite negative, like changing the designation of green belt lad so that...

The current homelessness crisis can trace its roots back 40 years to the "right to buy" policy of the conservative Government that took council housing out of public ownership and into private hands. Subsequent governments have done nothing to reverse this trend and additionally a lot of social housing has been hived off to housing associations. Increasingly individuals and families find it hard t...

State intervention and planning are not capitalism’s preferred ways of working, yet the need for state and globally agreed action is essential to tackling global warming. Yet if there is no viable planet then there is no capitalism either. Could this existential threat force capitalism to deal with the climate crisis? Having posed the question and put forward demands for achieving progress, we cer...

The BRICS alliance of Emerging Markets and Developing Countries took a major step forward at its 16th summit held in the Russian city of Kazan on October 22-24. Following decisions taken at last year’s summit in South Africa, a total of nine countries took part as full members for the first time, with Ethiopia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Iran joining Brazil, Russia, India, China and...

Frontex, the EU border agency is armed and is the only EU body to have a uniform. It's task is to guard the EU's borders and to implement the aggressive push back of migrants trying to escape war and poverty to reach Europe. With an increasing budget it also operates unaccountably. But as the EU tries to maintain "Fortress Europe" it's own system designed to maintain free-movement of labour within...

What will the prospects for the world be with Donald Trump back in the White House? It is not entirely certain how Trump will approach the war in Ukraine, but there is an increasing shift in the establishment towards the realistic view that Ukraine cannot win on the battlefield and that there should be negotiations. Other things are clearer. Trump will maintain a firm support for Israel’s genocide...

The tasks of the peace movement in Britain are urgent, as people continue to suffer poverty, cuts to services and crumbling infrastructure yet the government plans to increase arms spending to 2.5%of GDP or £87.1 billion including massive expenditure on replacing the Trident nuclear weapons system. This has nothing to do with self-defence and everything to do with Britain playing its part in fight...

The Danger of direct conflict between the great powers have recently multiplied. The US has refused to accept its declining supremacy, to compromise or negotiate. Ongoing conflicts in the Ukraine and the Middle East are in danger of reaching a point of no return. The growing appetite for change, away from war ,sham democracy, and climate catastrophe indicates that millions of people are disillusio...

One aspect of the build up for war with China is the rearmament and increasingly aggressive military posture of Japan. Imperialists in Japan have long sought to shed the constraints placed on it as a defeated nation after the Second World War and now they have been given the green light to do this by the United States, which wants Japan to be part of the military encirclement of China and of Russi...

Israel is continuously escalating its genocidal war against the Palestinians in Gaza and increasingly in the West Bank too. It has no interest in ceasefires or negotiations as it seeks to turn Palestine into an uninhabitable wasteland which it can permanently occupy. On the contrary it is now seeking to expand its aggression to Lebanon and Iran and to provoke a regional war.

In August the Prime Minister of Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina resigned. On the surface, and as reported in mainstream media outlets, she was forced to step down due to student protests, but there were deeper geopolitical reasons behind her ousting. Not least she had raised US ire by refusing to host a United States military base in Bangladesh and by drawing closer to China and the BRICS countries. The...

Despite the dangers to Europe and the world, the West continues to press on with its disastrous war in Ukraine. Even with the evident failures on Ukraine’s part to make progress in the war, including its incursion into Kursk and despite the suffering on all sides, the West is determined to double down on war. It has peremptorily dismissed peace plans and calls for negotiations. On the contrary, th...

Can the African National Congress renew and recover in the face of declining support from the electorate who are dissatisfied with rising poverty and a failure to address corruption.

The new Labour government opens up new opportunities and also faces massive challenges. We will have to wait and see whether the movement can achieve real progress for working people in Britain.

One of the main accusations leveled by capitalist ideologues against socialism is that it simply does not work. This is rather unconvincing coming from the system which has brought us close to the edge of climate catastrophe, decaying living standards and infrastructure, lower productivity and stagnating growth in western economies. And yet this critique of socialism is routinely accepted without...

Advanced computing systems are now essential to all aspects of our daily lives. They are also increasingly important to capitalism's power and to the West's military domination. Microchips are the fundamental components of key systems and hardware and the US in particular is battling to keep control of this strategic resource. This fight over tech lies at the heart of its confrontation with China...

In Britain we have seen a wave of strikes and massive demonstrations over Gaza. In response the Tory government has been passing multiple pieces of legislation designed to restrict free speech, the right to protest and the right to strike. This repressive agenda will give the government extraordinary tools to suppress opposition and represents a fundamental threat to democracy. And yet in defiance...