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
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Where do communism and Christianity overlap?
ROLAND BOER talks to Mike Quille about the season for giving and sharing
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Andy Burnham’s message of hope will defeat Reform if Labour delivers the New Deal for Working People in full, says JOANNE THOMAS
General Federation of Trade Unions president and bakers’ union general secretary, SARAH WOOLLEY, guides us through the GFTU’s Summer School happening this week at Quorn Grange Hotel
The government’s latest asylum proposals abandon labour movement values and fuel division by aping Reform UK, writes DIANE ABBOTT MP
Can Andy Burnham’s programme deliver a productive economy – or merely a softer version of capitalism, asks VINCE MILLS
IAN LAVERY MP warns that decades of neoliberal policies have left former industrial communities behind — but a renewed Labour commitment to working people could change the political landscape
What are the Biblical roots of Christian communism?
Let us begin with the socio-economic situation, because Christianity, like most religions, is a response to economic injustice and oppression in this world.
In the eastern Mediterranean, Rome’s imperialism was reshaping peasant agriculture, and the burdens of taxation and debt were growing, deeply affecting local economies, village communities, cultures and health — malaria, for example, was rife.
In this context, many Gospel parables and stories are revolutionary. They focus on feeding everyone, on healing from multiple diseases, on the devastation of chronic poverty.
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In Part 4 of her look at the Chinese revolution JENNY CLEGG addresses the relationship between the Peasant Movement and the National Movement
BEN CHACKO welcomes a masterful analysis that puts class struggle back at the heart of our understanding of China’s revolution
NICK MATTHEWS recalls how the ideals of socialism and the holding of goods in common have an older provenance than you might think
GUILLERMO THOMAS is persuaded by a scathing critique of the Church of England and its embeddedness in imperialism