Leyla Guven, a member of Turkey鈥檚 parliament for the left-wing, Kurdish-led People鈥檚 Democratic party (HDP), launched an indefinite hunger strike on November 7 from Amed Prison, where she was held jailed by Turkey鈥檚 regime. Her demand is for an end to the isolation of jailed Kurdistan Workers鈥 Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Ocalan.
Jailed by Turkey since 1999, Ocalan is the recognised leader of the Kurdish liberation movement. Since 2011, his lawyers have been unable to met with him.
Hundreds have mobilised to attend pickets and mass meetings in defence of Venezuela鈥檚 sovereignty and to demand an end to the British and US governments interference during a time of difficulty in Venezuela. Starting with a picket at the Prime Minister鈥檚 Office and continuing with two mass meetings of the progressive left, anti-war, student and labour movement, a week of protests ended with a picket of the BBC headquarters and a further action planned against the Bank of England who have illegally seized US$1.2 billion聽of Venezuela鈥檚 gold.
When Footballers Were Skint: A Journey in Search of the Soul of Football
Jon Henderson
Biteback Publishing, 2018
308 pages
Bill Leivers, who played for Manchester City from 1953-1964, wryly recalls to the British journalist Jon Henderson in When Footballers Were Skint about how the football club owner once rewarded the players on the train home from a successful away game, not with a fistful of sterling for a few drinks all round, but with a packet of Polo Mints.
In a strikingly different stance to leaders of the Australian Labor Party, which has backed the Coalition government鈥檚 support for the illegitimate coup 鈥済overnment鈥 in Venezuela, several leading members of Britain鈥檚 Labour Party have rejected the US attempt at regime change in the oil-rich South American nation.
The 1998 Good Friday peace agreement to end the conflict in Northern Ireland could become unsalvageable, Irish republican party Sinn Fein has said, as Brexit and other unresolved issues continue to shutter the institutions set up under the agreement,
Britain鈥檚 departure from the European Union without a deal would make a united Ireland and the break-up of Britain more likely, British Prime Minister Theresa May told MPs ahead of a January 15 vote on her government鈥檚 Withdrawal Agreement that it has negotiated with the European Union. May dramatically lost the vote by 432-202.
It is the first time May has admitted British rule in Ireland and Scotland could be jeopardised by Brexit.
Edited by John McDonnell
Verso, 2018
This book is a valuable collection of 16 short essays on the crisis facing modern Britain, coming up with progressive solutions which a Jeremy Corbyn-led government could usher in.
It is edited by and has an introduction by Labour鈥檚 shadow chancellor John McDonnell, a long-time socialist and close collaborator of Corbyn鈥檚. He says: 鈥淲e are seeking nothing less than to build a society that is radically fairer, more democratic and more sustainable, in which the wealth of society is shared by all.鈥
Westwood: Punk, Icon, Activist
Directed by Lorna Tucker
In cinemas
In the 1970s, punks astounded Britain with their T-shirts worn inside out and torn clothes with safety pins.
Vivienne Westwood was the person responsible for most of that look.聽Not only did she tear clothing apart, she lived a similar life.
Westwood: Punk, Icon, Activist is a raw, unpredictable and unapologetic documentary about the punk icon and fashion designer.聽
Watching it was a whirlwind. At times I was smiling, others I felt frustration.
Demonstrations on successive weekends in London last month shone a spotlight on major political rifts 鈥 in the major parties and in the political left.
On October 13, an extreme right-wing Democratic Football Lads Alliance (DFLA) march was out-mobilised and disrupted by anti-fascist demonstrators. One week later, about 670,000 people turned out for a 鈥淧eople鈥檚 Vote鈥 demonstration.
From Parliament Square to Trafalgar Square, about 700,000 people filled central London on October 20 protesting聽against the Tory Brexit,聽writes聽Andy Stowe.聽It was the largest demonstration the city had seen since the march聽against聽the Iraq war in 2003.
Campaigners from all over Britain united on October 25 to blockade the government鈥檚 nuclear bomb factory in Berkshire in England鈥檚 south-east, preventing the staff from entering the site.
The Trident Ploughshares activists locked themselves together across the site鈥檚 gates before work began at the Burghfield site. A private road leading to Burghfield was also barricaded at each end by cars with protesters fastened to them.
