Venezuela demands release of gold kept by Bank Of England to help fight COVID-19
Venezuela’s Central Bank (BCV) and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) agreed to use part of the country $1.02 billion with of gold deposited in the Bank of England to acquire food and medicine to face the Covid-19 pandemic, BCV President Calixto Ortega declared on Wednesday (27 May 2020).
The Latin American country and United Nations will seek to release the gold held by the Bank of England with Venezuelan authorities appearing at an expedited court hearing in London today (28 May 2020).
Black man, George Floyd, murdered by US police in Minneapolis
Late Monday on night (25 May 2020) footage emerged from Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA, showing the murder of George Floyd, an unarmed 46 yr old black year but US police.
The footage shows Floyd handcuffed and pinned to the ground with one police officer’s knee pressing against his neck, while Floyd protested that he could not breathe. This went on for five minutes, all on camera, until Floyd eventually passed out. He died in hospital a short while later.
Remembering Graham Stevenson, titan of the labour movement
This article originally appeared in the Morning Star. GRAHAM STEVENSON was born in the mining village of Keresley, near Coventry, on October 28 1950, the younger of two children. His mother Nora (“Dink”), who had been a textile worker, died tragically when Graham was 15. His father, Ernest, was an engineer and a lifelong trade […]
Poetry Corner: The Kingdom of Heaven by Christopher Caudwell
Christopher Caudwell was a Communist Party member, poet and influential Marxist thinker.
Born into a relatively well to do Catholic family, Caudwell worked as a journalist before working on Marxist critiques on a variety of subjects from poetry to his book The Crisis in Physics.
Like many of his contemporaries, such as John Cornford, Caudwell volunteered for the International Brigades in Spain. Caudwell was killed in the fighting on the first day of the Battle of Jarama, 12th February 1937
Much of his work was published posthumously including his best known book Illusion and Reality.
Tory austerity, Labour indecision or SNP nationalism? Class politics is the answer
Young people in Britain live in grim and uncertain times. Even before the COVID-19 Pandemic, we were denied the chance of a dignified life and an optimistic future.
The pandemic, as well as inflicting tens of thousands of tragedies and tearing families apart, has exposed the inhumanity of the capitalist system and its inability to protect the lives of working people. But this is no time to despair.
YCL: Cummings must go – and take the government with him
The Young Communist League has issued an updated statement on the ongoing Coronavirus (COVID-19) Pandemic in response to the fiasco at Downing Street.
Vietnam: 39 straight days without COVID-19 transmission
Vietnam had no new COVID-19 cases to report this morning (25 May 2020), meaning the socialist country remained clear of community transmission of the disease for 39 consecutive days, according to Vietnam’s National Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control.
An Interview with the President of the University of Damascus Student Union
Jack Trustam interviews Khaled Bakdash, President of the University of Damascus Student Union. Khaled Bakdash is also Secretary of the International Relations Bureau of the Syrian Communist Youth Union.
Times are changing – and we have to capitalise on the opportunity
The recent outbreak of Coronavirus, and subsequent global Covid-19 pandemic, have exposed the true failings of neoliberalism and late-stage capitalism. There can be no doubt over the extent to which the past ten years of Tory austerity have decimated our public services and resulted in the social murder of our class. But it has also […]
Poetry Corner: Trotsky Visits the Far East by Mao
Mao Tse-Tung is a man who needs little introduction, especially to members of the Young Communist League. However, despite being a remarkable leader and philosopher, his poetry is often overlooked. This is partly because many pass it off as ‘poetic politics’, namely just a fruity disguise of his politics. Others simply ignore it because he was ‘authoritarian’, so they would not demean themselves by pandering to it.
