From the Pits to the Pigeon Lofts
Pigeon racing was once understood as a pastime of the elite, but in the twentieth century it established firm roots in Britain’s mining communities – and the bird became known as ‘the poor man’s racehorse’.
4348 Articles by:
Rae Hart
Rae Deer is an economist and freelance writer.
Football Belongs to the Fans
The looming Qatari takeover of Manchester United underlines how football clubs are now the playthings of oligarchs and repressive regimes. It’s time to reclaim the game and fight for fan ownership.
Turkey’s Earthquake Disaster Is a Story of Corporate Greed
The earthquake that struck Turkey last month was a natural disaster, but the staggering death toll is the result of political decisions to allow construction firms to dodge building safety regulations in pursuit of profit.
Trade Unions Can Beat the Far-Right
The failure of politicians to address the cost of living crisis has created the conditions for a resurgence of the far-right – and we need a strong trade union movement to defeat them.
Remembering Trinidad and Tobago’s Black Power Revolution
On this day in 1970, activists took to the streets of Trinidad and Tobago to protest the colonial systems and racist hierarchies that had survived independence – a brief moment where Black Power had the potential to topple a government.
Democracy Is Under Attack
We need the Labour Party to stand up against government attacks on our rights to strike, protest and vote — but it can’t defend democracy if it doesn’t respect it within its own movement, writes Jeremy Corbyn.
The Deadly War on Trans People Must End
In the wake of the killing of 16-year-old Brianna Ghey, it’s time our political leaders found a backbone and stood against the attacks being waged on young trans people across the country.
Keir Starmer’s Sticking Plaster Politics
Amid the worst squeeze on living standards in decades, Keir Starmer’s Labour has a historic opportunity to transform this country – but yesterday’s speech shows he’s more concerned with staying in the establishment’s good books.
Radical Domesticity
Despite the machismo that has beset the Left, solidarity and organising, from the Miners’ Strike to the Troubles, has often centred on the home.
It’s Time for the Four-Day Week
The biggest-ever pilot of the four-day week proves that cutting working hours with no loss of pay makes us happier, healthier and more productive. Now it’s time for the trade union movement to fight for a shorter working week for all.
The Global South Debt Disaster
The Global South is enduring its worst debt crisis in decades. Unless there is immediate relief, any progress made on tackling extreme poverty risks being wiped out.
Phoenix Nights: A Tribute to a Vanishing British Institution
Two decades after it first aired, Phoenix Nights’ wry portrayal of a northern working men’s club remains a vital celebration of a vanishing working-class culture too often ignored on screen.
Police Infiltration of Unions: We Need the Truth
For decades, undercover police have given workers’ names to the employers’ blacklist if they demanded decent pay or safe conditions. Bringing this dark history to light is long overdue.
The Only Solution to the Energy Crisis Is Public Ownership
Energy giants are forcing people into poverty while destroying the planet, and they’ll keep doing so as long as it turns them a profit. Windfall taxes aren’t enough – we need to put power in public hands.
Medicalising Poverty Is Not the Answer
Government plans to have doctors prescribe things like heating and fresh food to patients only treat the symptoms of a bigger social ill: poverty.
Poetry on the Shop Floor
With strong union backing, the legendary playwright Arnold Wesker fought to bring the arts into workplaces, canteens, and peoples’ daily lives out of a conviction that the labour movement must fight for both cultural and economic change.
Palestinian Lives Behind Israeli Bars
Palestinian prisoners can be left in grim conditions in Israel’s prisons for years, without charge or trial – just one part of the repression they endure daily.
The Plot Against Women’s Football
After the First World War, women’s football swelled in popularity and rallied behind the rising workers’ movement – until the establishment decided it was too radical, and took the legs from under it.
Exercises in Style
Laurent Mauvignier’s home invasion novel offers a compelling but flawed allegory for France’s far right problem.
The Market Will Never Solve Climate Breakdown
During Covid, fossil fuel companies saw tanking oil prices as a sign to finally invest in renewables. Now they’re making bumper profits, they’re rolling back those initiatives – because for them, cash always comes before the planet.