Features

Breakaway ‘Super League’ announced with JP Morgan backing

12 football clubs announced late on Sunday night (18 April 2021) that they plan to start a breakaway “Super League” starting in August 2021. 6 English clubs including Manchester United, Liverpool and Arsenal, and 3 from Italy and Spain have signed up to the league, which FIFA UEFA and national football associations have since condemned.

We don’t need the Silvertown toll tunnel

Stewart McGill argues that the estimated £2bn cost of the project which will inevitably increase road traffic should be spent on improving London’s public transport system instead.

The upcoming war in Ukraine

Evan Richards, writes about the rising hostilities within Ukraine – fulled by both Nato imperialism and far-right nationalism.

What must a young communist be by Che Guevara

In this excerpt from a speech delivered in 1962, Ernesto Che Guevara discusses the essential qualities of young communists not just in Cuba, but the world over. This oration was first delivered during a commemoration of the integration of Cuba’s revolutionary youth organisations.

Althusser’s epistemological break and modern China

‘Socialism with Chinese characteristics’ is not just a justification for market economics, but the recognition of the economic, social and cultural relativity that obviously exists in the world, but more importantly, between socialist nations.

Communist Party of Cuba prepares for Eighth Congress

The 8th Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba, to be held 16 – 19 April 2021, will focus on core issues of the political, economic and social life of the country, as well as the role of the Party and steps taken to improve its work.

How the YCL fought apartheid

Luke Tuchscherer meets Steve Marsling, one of the ‘London recruits’ who faced torture and prison on clandestine missions to fight the racist dictatorship in South Africa.

Poetry Corner: Ballad of Aun, King of Sweden by Hugh MacDiarmid

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.

Review: Agent Sonya by Ben Macintyre

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.

Rangers bow out amid Slavia racism row

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. 

Manchester City V. Southampton

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.

Labour’s strange relationship with the bomb

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?