Chartist

Ledru-Rollin: Wikimedia Creative Commons Alexandre Ledru-Rollin was a lawyer who wrote legal commentaries and defended republicans in trials following the 1830 revolution. He was elected to the National Assembly as a deputy for Le Mans in 1841. He became notable for his attacks on the government of Louis Philippe and founded the journal Le Reforme. His exchanges with the utopian communist  Etienne Cabet in Le Reforme in 1845, however, demonstrated his distance from any communistic ideas.

Andy Burnham - Credit: Wikimedia Commons license So, it isn’t going to be any sort of race to succeed Sir Keir Starmer as leader of the Labour Party and prime minister, but rather a stately progression towards a coronation on July 19th, with Andy Burnham being crowned King, not just of the North, but all he surveys. What is on offer from the man who expects to be lodged in No.10 by the middle of July?

Coronation Demo: Credit - Labour for a Republic Since its birth, Labour has accepted the monarchy as part of the architecture of the British state. Keir Hardie and many other early socialists were staunch republicans, but they were disciplined in what they were campaigning for – representation for working people was achievable, but overturning the British constitution was not.

Now the real fight starts. It’s time to throw the money-changers out of the temple. Makerfield’s storied and solid victory confirms Andy Burnham as the putative next Prime Minister, leaving Keir Starmer marooned to ramble off the stage of history as Labour’s least effective Prime Minister save, possibly, Ramsay MacDonald. Yet Labour’s right is on manoeuvres.

Meghji is a London-based writer of travel guides. This new book focuses on Chile and Argentina, including chapters on the Falkland Islands (the Malvinas to Argentinians) and Rapa Nui (also known as Easter Island), which is part of Chile, and a brief chapter on Uruguay. Part travelogue, part history, the book focuses on the area’s British connections – the subtitle is  “A journey through lost British history in South America”. Argentina, Chile and Uruguay were never parts of the British Empire.

Anti fascist politics in mid 2026 is dominated by two factors – the electoral success of Farage and Reform UK and the struggle to oppose this. The first factor has been clear since the local elections of 2025, when Reform succeeded in winning seats and Labour collapsed in areas often seen as heartlands. The Party has been ahead in opinion polls and could form a government on a minority vote. The two-party system is in crisis, and Labour’s discontent could lead to a challenge to Keir Starmer.

Ian, who died on 23 December, was a long-term Chartist subscriber and occasional contributor. A socialist historian and activist, he was an expert on the early socialist movement, writing a series of books on the Independent Labour Party and the Social Democratic Federation. Born in Warwickshire in January 1941, he failed the eleven-plus before joining Bishop Vesey’s Grammar School in Sutton Coldfield at the age of 13.

1956 was a crucial year in world history, with the Soviet Union facing the first major internal challenge to its autocracy with the Hungarian uprising. In the same year, European colonial oppression also suffered a serious setback with the Suez Canal crisis, when international public pressure forced Britain and France to withdraw their forces from Egypt. Such international pressure failed to dissuade the Soviet Union from a violent clampdown against the Hungarian uprising or to end its occupation.

It is now over a quarter of a century since the Macpherson Report on the findings of the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry offered a definition of  “institutional racism” as “the collective failure of an organisation to provide an appropriate and professional service to people because of their colour, culture, or ethnic origin.

As I write, the oil crisis looks progressively worse as a result of the pointless war that the USA and Israel launched against Iran. We’ve had oil and gas crises regularly since the 1970s – in 1973, 1979, then 2007-2012, 2022, and now 2026. Yet the call is always the same – make us ever more dependent on fossil fuels through more drilling and chase fantasies about nuclear power which don’t materialise.