Communist Party of Britain and Morning Star

Find out why trade unions should stop backing the Morning Star. Read our pamphlet Why trade unions should not support the Morning Star

Israel and Ukraine: both no right to exist?

People who want to see Putin prevail in Ukraine were overjoyed by the recent UCU congress vote against Ukraine having the arms it needs to defend itself. Andrew Murray wrote in the Morning Star that “The University and College Union (UCU) vote to oppose the continuing war in Ukraine, including arms sales, and to support the campaigning of the Stop the War Coalition against British government policy over the war is a beacon to the rest of the movement”. Just days earlier, the PCS conference had passed a resolution supporting Ukrainians’ right to defend themselves and liberate their country. The...

America the “most authoritarian”?

Anti-Americanism has a long history on the left. Of course the American history of genocide of the native population, slavery and then segregation at home, and imperialist aggression overseas, is repugnant to anyone calling themselves a socialist. Recent events surrounding the rise of the fascist Donald Trump and the fact that in November 2020, 74 million Americans voted fascist, only goes to confirm a dim view of the so-called “land of the free.” But can America seriously be described as “the most authoritarian country in the world”? That description comes from Roger McKenzie, former Unison...

UCU turns its back on Ukrainians

Little over a decade ago the UCU trade union (which represents staff in Further and Higher Education) was hit by a wave of resignations by Jewish members. They no longer found the union to be habitable for Jews. Their resignations followed decisions by successive UCU congresses to: boycott Israeli academics and HE institutions; sever ties with the Israeli trade union federation Histadrut; disassociate the union from the EUMC definition of antisemitism (a forerunner of the IHRA definition); reject a motion condemning UCU’s decision to invite an international speaker known for antisemitism; and...

Hungary’s houses of terror

Jim Denham's column ( Solidarity 673 ) justifiably attacked a travelogue-style article by John Pateman from the Morning Star which painted the dreadful police dictatorship in Hungary after 1945 as some kind of socialist nirvana. Pateman failed to explain that if life was so good in “socialist” Hungary why then did the vast multitude of the population rise in revolt against it in 1956, their target principally being the AVO — hated secret police of the Stalinist regime? If he was really interested in finding this out during his time in Budapest he could have gone to the House of Terror Museum...

Stalinists still lying about Hungary 1956

In recent years it has become widely accepted, even by Communist Party members, that Hungary 1956 was no counter-revolution, and that the Russian invasion was wrong. So it came as a genuine shock to read a piece in the Morning Star of 15 May, headed: “Despite its best efforts, you can still see socialism in Budapest” with a sub-heading that includes the words “Infamous for the misunderstood events of 1956”. By “misunderstood” it’s clear that the author (one John Pateman) does not mean the Stalinist lies about a “counter-revolution” — quite the contrary. The piece is a sort of travel guide to...

The drivel of comrade Blimp

Doug Nicholls is Britain’s longest-serving union bureaucrat, but his name will mean nothing to most rank and file union activists

The Morning Star changes tune on monarchy

Credit where it’s due: the Morning Star ’s coverage of the coronation has been pretty good and the 6-7 May edition carried an editorial (“The monarchy isn’t neutral and the coronation is not a harmless spectacle”) that in most respects wouldn’t be out of place in Solidarity . The same edition’s front page headline was “Not Our King”. That may seem uncontroversial for a publication controlled by the Communist Party of Britain. But some of us can remember what the paper had to say about virtually the same slogan back in September 2022: “while the motives — and, given arrests, the courage — of...

Morning Star mentions Nicaragua again

For several years until last Saturday (22 April) the Morning Star had little to say about Nicaragua. The last significant coverage was in November 2019, when it published a fawning interview with “the much loved” President Daniel Ortega, by its (then) international editor Steve Sweeney. The overall tone of the interview can be gauged by the contribution of Ortega’s wife and Vice-President Rosario Murillo, praising her husband as “a strong leader because of his [Catholic] faith” and stating “Daniel has wisdom and humility, he is very humble.” This was just over a year after more than three...

STUC backs Ukraine solidarity

The 17-19 April Scottish TUC congress overwhelmingly rejected a composite motion on Ukraine backing the line taken by the Morning Star and the Stop the War Coalition: blame NATO for the war; accuse NATO of escalation; and make vacuous calls for negotiations. Instead, congress backed a statement issued by the General Council which “rejected any suggestion of equivalence between the invader and the invaded” and expressed solidarity with Ukrainian trade unions, including their participation in the military resistance to the invasion. Arms The statement did not explicitly advocate (increased) arms...

The “Global South”, “multipolarity”: what about class?

The Morning Star used to hedge articles on the Ukraine war with a formal condemnation of the Russian invasion. Sometimes, too, there’d be a reminder to readers about the reactionary nature of Putin’s regime. No longer. A recent (3 April) editorial contains no hint of criticism of the invasion or of Putin. In fact, it gloats over the fact that “a resolution before the United Nations calling for Russia to withdraw from Ukrainian territory failed to attract votes from all but a tiny handful of states outside the North Atlantic alliance.” The obvious satisfaction taken in this vote (described as a...

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