Ros Sitwell

2 weeks ago | morningstaronline.co.uk | Ros Sitwell

LAST month, Red Pepper magazine announced its final print copy. To anyone committed to left-wing journalism, independent media, getting out news from the movements, here and internationally, then this is a blow. There is little enough media on our side — and we can’t afford to lose any of it. So I want to pay tribute to Red Pepper’s founding editor, Hilary Wainwright, and her talented editorial teams, that produced Red Pepper for over 30 years.

2 weeks ago | morningstaronline.co.uk | Ros Sitwell

DEMONSTRATIONS across the United States over the weekend give the lie to claims that all is lost in the struggle for people’s rights and social justice against the conservative right and its far-right allies. Of course, there are always the defeatists — notably the “centre-left” intellectuals — who insist that the working classes on both sides of the Atlantic are too stupid, lazy, selfish and racist to resist injustice. In the words of Private Frazer: “We’re all doomed!” Fascism is inevitable.

2 weeks ago | morningstaronline.co.uk | Ros Sitwell

AT around 1pm on Friday March 28, the biggest earthquake for a generation, measuring 7.7 on the Richter scale, sent shockwaves throughout south-east Asia. Initially, the world’s media focused on Bangkok, where an unfinished tower block collapsed killing dozens, but as news from Myanmar slowly came in, it became clear that the damage there was catastrophic, particularly in the heartland regions of Mandalay and Sagaing as well as the administrative capital Naypyidaw.

3 weeks ago | morningstaronline.co.uk | Ros Sitwell

TODAY marks the centenary of the birth of Tony Benn, one of the most significant figures in the history of British socialist politics. Benn was the spearhead of the movement to establish the Labour Party as a radical anti-capitalist force in the 1970s and early 1980s, posing the only real alternative to emerging Thatcherite neoliberalism as the socio-political post-war “consensus” disintegrated.

3 weeks ago | morningstaronline.co.uk | Ros Sitwell

SPRING is meant to be a time of optimism, but for those with physical and mental health disabilities, any cheerfulness ended abruptly when Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced the cuts and changes in the green paper and the Spring Statement — particularly focused on the disability benefit personal independence payment, known as PIP. Hitting the severely disabled with cuts is highly controversial, especially from a Labour government where the savings are linked to increased defence spending.