Challenge archive: The Beatles talk to Challenge
In December 1963, Challenge & Daily Worker reporter Tom Spence caught up with The Beatles before their show at Odeon in Leeds to discuss their then newly found fame.
Challenge archive: Salute to the fallen
From 1936-1939 the Spanish Civil War waged between the people of Spain and the forces of General Franco. Over 35,000 men and women from over 50 countries left their homes in order to volunteer willingly to help the Spanish people, including 2,500 from Britain & Ireland.
Just under 200 of them were listed as members of the Young Communist League, and Challenge Magazine gave lots of coverage throughout. The following article from January 9th, 1937 is dedicated to three comrades who were killed on Christmas Day in 1936.
Challenge archive: Soviet – here is the truth
In this article from August 26, 1939, the former Central Committee of the Communist Party of Great Britain dispel myths surrounding the ‘Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact’. Often referenced by anti-communists as a means of equating communism with nazism, the Pact has been falsely weaponised since its inception – with such narratives disregarding the Soviet Union’s unparalleled struggle against the Nazis alongside Western collaboration with fascism.
Challenge archive: A bike for Uncle Ho
In this article from March 1968, Jenny Maldon writes on the YCL’s campaign work for the people of Vietnam during the War.
Challenge archive: Keep the Tories out
During the heated 1979 general elections, Margaret Thatcher broke headlines with her profoundly anti-working-class rhetoric. Challenge made the case for why Labour’s right-wing candidate is not the best representative for the anti-Thatcher youth as well as the importance of communists having an independent political campaign due to the swinging ideological pendulum of Labour leaders. Labour leader James Callaghan went on to lose to Thatcher, bringing on 11 years of union-busting and neoliberalisation of the British economy. Never have these words rang more true and more relevant than today.
