Louie Gibson writes on the neoliberal sterility of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, contrasting it with the former Edinburgh People’s Festival and the city’s working class history
Ballad of Aun, King of Sweden by Hugh MacDiarmid
Dr Christopher Murray Grieve, who wrote under the pen-name of Hugh Macdiarmid, was the greatest Scottish poet of the twentieth century. Best-known for what he called “Lallans”, a literary form of the Lowland Scots language that he developed, he also made use of English.
At different stages of his life he was a supporter of Scottish nationalism and communism. Famously, he stood for the Communist Party against Tory Prime Minister, Sir Alec Douglas-Home, in the Kinross & West Perthshire constituency in the 1964 general election, as part of an unsuccessful bid to get television time for the Party. His A Sprig of White Heather in the Future’s Lapel, written for former Communist MP Willie Gallacher on the occasion of the latter’s 80th birthday, is particularly famous among Britain’s Communists.
Here we feature Ballad of Aun, King of Sweden, one of McDiarmid’s strongly political poems.
The depictions of women in the public life in the USSR and America reveal much about the progress of emancipation and liberation
The biography on Ursula Kuczynski (aka Agent Sonya) by Ben McIntyre is an exciting account of a woman who took many risks as a spy for the Soviet Union whilst being a mother of three children.
Thursday nights Rangers V Slavia Prague match ended 1-3 on aggregate with the Czech side going through to the Quarter finals of the Europa League, drawing the Ibrox sides European campaign to a close. However, it isn’t the score line that is being discussed in the aftermath of the game.
The developments in the medical field and the educational sector have guaranteed the success of Cuba’s biggest medical project yet: the fight against cancer.
Against the backdrop of the second leg of the Champions League Round of 16, Manchester City had Premier League duties to attend to with the side looking to bounce back from their shock derby defeat.
Nuclear weapons are unpopular across the political spectrum, especially in the party Starmer now leads. So why, asks Nick Wright, are these vote-seeking ‘pragmatists’ so hell-bent on keeping them?
Inside a base in the Catatumbo mountains, Oliver Dodd speaks to Comandante Villa Vazquez in the first ever face-to-face interview with a senior figure in the recently re-established guerilla army
Action by Frances Moore
A Sheffield teacher and activist in the National Union of Teachers, Frances Moore (1906 – 1994) was married to Bill Moore, who was a fulltime worker for the Communist Party. Although Frances’ busy life left with little time to write in her younger days, later on she produced a substantial body of poetry, some of which was published. The poem featured here is a tribute to the strength of collective action and duty of trade union struggle – and the example of the famous UCS Work In.
The Marvel formula has been successful, if unchanging from Iron Man to Endgame. CGI fights, lasers in the sky, witty humour from super-powered individuals. Wandavision has all of these, as well as a harrowing exploration into the trauma and grief felt by Wanda Maximoff, now known to the MCU as Scarlett Witch.
The Premier League title could be virtually wrapped up by the end of this weekend’s fixtures as first played second in a crucial six pointer for the league leaders
Over half of the Premier League played across the midweek ahead of a full weekend programme.
My Last Will by Joe Hill, 1915
“The labour troubadour Joe Hill was executed by the state of Utah on November 19, 1915, accused of murdering two shopkeepers. Five years earlier, while working on the docks in California, Hill met members of the IWW and became an active Wobbly. Soon his humorous and biting political songs, like “The Preacher and the Slave,”1 were being sung on picket lines across the country. From his jail cell in Utah, Hill wrote to “Big Bill” Haywood in a telegram, “Don’t waste time mourning. Organize!”—a line that became a slogan of the U.S. labour movement. On the eve of his execution, Hill penned these words.” – From Voices of a People’s History
Theories of unequal exchange argue that trade between poor and rich countries involve the transfer of value from the former to the latter, as more labour is traded for less labour.
The sun shone down this week on another run of weekend Premier League action. With some teams set to play make-up games in the midweek and others having played in European cup competitions the midweek just gone, squad rotation may very well be the watch word of the day. Nonetheless, there’s plenty to talk about so let’s dive in.
The year was 1946, and following the second world war London lay in ruins. Houses and entire communities had been destroyed by relentless bombing from the Luftwaffe (German Air Force), a solution was needed, with the Labour government under Clement Atlee deciding to put forward an act known as the New Towns Act (1946).
Nick Wright reports that for the Atlanticist lobby and its enthusiasts, the Cold War never really ended.
Day of the Pawns by Bob Dixon
Born into a working-class family in Spennymoor, County durham, Bob Dixon eventually became a school teacher, and then a lecturer in English at Stockwell College of Education, Bromley. He was involved with the left-wing cultural journal Artery in the 1970s, and he wrote three collections of poems, three books on the ways in which children’s attitudes have been shaped by the publishing and manufacturing industries, plus an autobiography, The Wrong. Bob was a life long member of the Communist Party and well-known figure on the left-wing poetry scene, reading at CND rallies and other events.
Nick Wright argues the people of the Irish Republic and their government have had a rude lesson in the politics of inter-imperialist rivalry.
