An appeal from the Marikana Support Campaign

On the 16 August, South African Police fired live ammunition at striking miners at Lonmin’s Marikana mine, killing 34 and injuring 78. Many were shot at close range while trying to surrender. The Marikana miners were demanding a tripling of their salary to R12,500 (£950 or €1100) per month. In the following days, 270 of...

Benefit for the Brigade

The International Brigade Memorial Trust are holding a benefit night at Chorlton Irish Club in Chorlton-cum-Hardy on Friday 18 May. The acts include Les Jones and Friends of the Beech, The Madonnnas, and the Bourbon Street Preachers....

Stop Kony, stop thinking?

In the past week, the ‘Stop Kony’ campaign, aimed at the arrest of African ‘warlord’ Joseph Kony, leader of the Ugandan Lord’s Resistance Army, has become an unlikely internet phenomenon. There is an undoubted justice to the campaign to the extent that, as the LRA leader, Kony is responsible for crimes against humanity stretching...

Recognising the Anfal genocide

A campaign is launched this week to urge the UK government to recognise the genocide against the people of Iraqi Kurdistan. The aim is to collect 100,000 signatures on an e-petition to trigger a parliamentary debate. GARY KENT reports....

The ILP: Past & Present (1993)

4. War & After The ILP in the 30s Despite its numerical decline, the ILP remained a significant political force throughout the thirties. In addition, it retained a small but vocal parliamentary presence until Jimmy Maxton’s death in 1946. But, if disaffiliation appeared to resolved the ILP’s dilemma about its role as a left...

Remembering Spain’s volunteers

On Saturday 16 July, the 75th anniversary of the first involvement of anti-fascist volunteers from north west England in the Spanish Civil War was commemorated at Manchester Town Hall. CHRIS HALL was there. Over 100 people, including many young Spaniards, were present to hear about the contribution of the north west in the fight...

The North West’s Spain Volunteers

The 75th anniversary of the Spanish Civil war will be commemorated at Manchester Town Hall on Saturday 16 July with a celebration of the contribution made by volunteers from the north west of England. Organised by the International Brigade Memorial Trust, the event will mark the role of the north west volunteers in the...

Roma’s last stand

Roma Marquez Santo, the POUM veteran who unveiled a plaque to the ILP’s Spanish Civil War volunteers in Salford in May 2009, died in Barcelona on Wednesday 29 December 2010. CHRIS HALL recalls his life and the events that shaped it. Roma Marquez Santo born in Barcelona on 6 November 1916 into a political family...

A tribute to Roma

Roma Marquez Santo, the POUM veteran who unveiled a plaque to the ILP’s Spanish Civil War volunteers in Salford in May 2009, died in Barcelona on Wednesday 29 December. HARRY OWEN pays tribute to the man who fought fascism in Spain in the 1930s yet could still hold audiences charmed and spellbound with tales of...