The Tories introduced the 50% strike ballot threshold to make industrial action harder. MATT WRACK argues that a Labour government has no justification for leaving it on the statute book
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Forged in the sonic smithy
Chris Searle on Jazz
In the wake of Ann Widdecombe’s murder, JOHN GREEN wonders whether the government will really get to grips with the root cause of these attacks on our MPs
The new PM’s opening addresses offered hope, council homes and reform — but little detail on how any of it will be delivered, warns CLAUDIA WEBBE
Despite the screeching from the right-wing media, Burnham’s speech chimed with the public mood - and socialists should take advantage, says Morning Star editor BEN CHACKO
Scotland's Labour leader cannot continue to evade responsibility for the party's decline, argues LAUREN HARPER
Nature as well as society works dialectically, asserts the Marx Memorial Library and Workers’ School
Iiro Rantala
My History of Jazz and
My Working Class Hero
WITH hardly a con-ventional route for a jazz pianist, Iiro Rantala was born in Helsinki in 1970, had a powerful musical upbringing as a member of Cantored Minores, a renowned Finnish boys’ choir, an education as a classical pianist and then a course in jazz studies at the Manhattan School of Music.
He performed for 18 years as part of the iconoclastic jazz group the Trio Toykeat (“The Rotten Trio”) while continuing to play classical piano and writing for films, television and theatre.
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As part of the 2025 London Jazz Festival Rich Mix offered intriguing sessions titled 'Persian Jazz,' CHRIS SEARLE was there