Morning Star editor BEN CHACKO says assessing a Labour leader whose mission was to smash the left must involve addressing the delusions that fuelled his rise
McGurk’s Bar: blaming the victims
The explosion which killed 15 and injured many more was never likely to be the work of the IRA — but that is exactly the lie the British government deliberately tried to spread, writes RICHARD RUDKIN
Rebuilding Labour’s working-class roots and organising power is essential if the party is to recover, says MERCEDES VILLALBA
ANDREW MURRAY looks back at a damaging career marked by dishonesty, incompetence and revolting complicity in war crimes
Britain’s historic vote to leave the EU was a rejection of the political Establishment and the strategic direction pursued by Britain’s ruling class since the second world war, writes ALEX GORDON
Over 1,000 hostile US sanctions remain in place on Venezuela, while Britain continues its colonial theft of gold, writes MATT WILLGRESS
MARY DAVIS says the centrality of the Jewish community and the Communist Party to anti-fascism in the 1930s is too often overlooked on the left
“The British state is literally withholding evidence of mass murder and cover-up from us, evidence that we have found and are forced to fight for.” — McGurk’s Bar Truth and Justice Campaign.
ON DECEMBER 4 1971 a bomb explosion in McGurk’s Bar in north Belfast claimed the lives of 15 innocent people including two children. It was recorded as the country’s worse massacre since the Blitz of WWII.
To the British military, it was just another IRA bomb exploding in the process of being handed over to be planted elsewhere — or as it was called in those days, “an IRA own goal.” That was the narrative pushed out by the British army commanders and the Royal Ulster Constabulary via the media. While that bomb ended many lives, for the survivors and families of the deceased, it was just the beginning.
Similar stories
PATRICK CHURA reflects on the mass murder of civilians in wartime and his own visit, 10 years ago, to My Lai where US soldiers slaughtered over 500 men, women, children and infants
As the government quietly upgrades the role of Britain’s special forces, their growing global footprint and near-total exemption from democratic oversight should alarm us all, says ROGER McKENZIE
The ban on Maccabi Tel Aviv fans was based on evidence of a pattern of violence and hatred targeting Arabs and Muslims, two communities that have a large population in Birmingham — overturning the ban was tacit acceptance of the genocidal ideology the fans espouse, argues CLAUDIA WEBBE
Why not pay a visit to Feile an Phobail, a people’s festival of community arts with roots in the days of internment without trial, and where the spirit of solidarity remains undimmed, says LYNDA WALKER