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
Not one step back: an interview with Dennis Skinner
In an exclusive interview, DANIEL POWELL speaks to the veteran left-wing MP about Brexit, Sports Direct, triggering Michael Heseltine, throwing shade at the Queen - and never, ever, making friends with a Tory
Dennis Skinner addresses Labour Party conference in 2017
A 1936 confrontation with Mosley’s BUF became part of a wider international struggle, with local activists later joining the fight against fascism in the Spanish civil war. TONY FOX tells the story ahead of a 90th anniversary commemoration event
GEORGE WHITE explains why Unite’s Lancashire area activists committee believes co-ordinated recruitment in an area defined by particular kinds of employment and linked by a major transport artery could provide a model for organising the unorganised
Voters have delivered a stay of execution for Labour and exposed limits to Reform’s advance. But will Burnham offer a political alternative rather than just a different face at the top, asks ANDREW MURRAY
Calls for a Universal Basic Income are a red herring, argues the Full Marx editorial team — socialists should fight for Universal Basic Services
SEVIM DAGDELEN warns that Germany’s military resurgence and revival of old hostilities towards Russia have dangerous implications for Europe and beyond
AT Westminster’s grandiose central lobby, Labour’s longest continuously serving MP Dennis Skinner seeks a quiet place for our conversation.
Passing through a corridor, he indicates a doorway that was once a trade union room. The “Palace of Varieties,” as he calls his place of work, has changed since he first became MP for Bolsover in 1970. Settling for the cafeteria, he begins to recall his early days.
“I was the president of the Derbyshire miners, and I had been going down a few times to the headquarters of the NUM on Euston Road, so if it finished early I used to come in Parliament and see what was happening.
“One day they were having a debate on pay policy, so I came in for that, and John Mendelson, who represented Penistone in South Yorkshire, used to give me a ticket. I was under the gallery in those special seats, like it’s almost on the floor.
“I was eating a sandwich and one of the whips came to me and said: ‘You can’t eat in here.’ I said: ‘Oh, can’t you, I’ll have to do it quietly then, secretly’.”
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