Assistant general secretary of the General Federation of Trade Unions HENRY FOWLER reports on day 1 from the GFTU’s residential Summer School at Quorn Grange Hotel
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What’s wrong with development? The geopolitics of Belt and Road Initiative
The Belt and Road Initiative seeks to bring development to the world. Why is this a problem for the US and some of its Western allies? KEITH LAMB explains
China has become a technological powerhouse and proven that capital overseen by state power produces rapid development that defies the prevailing neoliberal model in the rest of the developing world
Strike Map co-founder HENRY FOWLER discusses the significance of today’s joint union letter to video game giant Rockstar, demanding trade union recognition for its workers. Their conversation highlights how our movement can harness its collective power to rebuild union power across the private sector
The PM leaves office having squandered Labour’s electoral mandate and alienated its grassroots. He will not be missed, writes BRIAN LEISHMAN MP
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
Poland’s anger over Ukraine’s celebration of the Nazi collaborationist UPA reflects more than historical grievance, says KENNY COYLE
Can Andy Burnham’s programme deliver a productive economy – or merely a softer version of capitalism, asks VINCE MILLS
THE Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is a series of land and sea infrastructure projects that will connect the “World Island” that is Africa and Eurasia. Should the West join, then railway tunnels, under both the Gibraltar and Bering Straits, will link up the world.
However, so far, the West has projected its worst history onto the BRI, depicting it as a Chinese neo-imperial plan to dominate the world through “debt-trap diplomacy.”
70 per cent of the Sri Lankan port of Hambantota being leased out for 99 years to a Chinese venture is widely seen as proof of this. Largely unreported is that the Chinese debt still stands because this soft debt is not the problem: Hambantota was leased out to pay back the private capital lenders who comprise the majority of Sri Lanka’s creditors.
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Marking milestones in the histories of China and the United States, this week offers a chance to examine two very different visions of the international order, says CARLOS MARTINEZ
In a speech to the 12th Xiangshan Forum in Beijing, SEVIM DAGDELEN warns of a growing historical revisionism to whitewash Germany and Japan’s role in WWII as part of a return to a cold war strategy from the West — but multipolarity will win out
ROGER McKENZIE argues that the BRI represents a choice between treating humans as commodities or as equals — an essential project when, aside from China’s efforts, hundreds of millions worldwide are trapped in poverty
Morning Star editor BEN CHACKO reports from the start of Kunming’s Belt and Road media forum, where 200 journalists from 71 countries celebrated a new openness and optimism, forged by China’s enormous contribution to global development