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
PEACE and goodwill to all peoples have never really been part of imperialism’s offer. Indeed, ever since the emergence of monopoly capitalism around 150 years ago, there has probably never been a Christmas where there has not been fighting in one part of the world or another.
Britain will have been involved more often than not, and nearly always for no good reason. But there can have been no years since the end of the second world war as bloody as 2024, with war being waged on as many fronts with further conflicts brazenly threatened.
It is hardly surprising that most people are regarding the dawning of 2025 with a sense of foreboding.
The defence secretary’s resignation reveals not a split over principle but a dispute over pace of military spending, as Britain’s political Establishment unites behind deeper Nato commitments, argues NICK WRIGHT
Western nations’ increasingly aggressive stance is not prompted by any increase in security threats against these countries — rather, it is caused by a desire to bring about regime changes against governments that pose a threat to the hegemony of imperialism, writes PRABHAT PATNAIK
Washington plays innocent bystander while pouring weapons and intelligence into Ukraine, just as it enables the Gaza genocide — but every US escalation leaves Ukraine weaker than the neutrality deal rejected in 2022, argue MEDEA BENJAMIN and NICOLAS JS DAVIES


