Since most Russian middle-class emigres are to the right of Smotrich and Ben-Gvir when it comes to Israel-Palestine and Israel's ongoing genocide in Gaza, exiled Russian journalist Elena Kostyuchenko's review of the documentary film "NAZA" and her experience of seeing it in New York is a rare act of insight and civic courage in that reactionary milieu.

By Simon Pirani. Republished with thanks from Labour Hub The disastrous failure of the government’s ECO4 scheme – which was supposed to retrofit homes with insulation, heat pumps and solar panels –…

16 September 2026. Today is Andrei Trofimov’s sixtieth birthday. Last week his lawyer was able to visit him, for the first time since he arrived at the IK-9 prison. His support group was able to sh…

Experiments with free public transport, introduced in some of the world’s biggest cities to tackle the fuel price crisis, are proving successful. In Ho Chi Minh city, Vietnam and Tehran, Iran – whi…

Replying to Alex Callinicos, Simon Pirani looks at what the Ukraine war tells us about imperialism today and the need to incorporate class struggle and other forms of social change into our analysis.

By Simon Pirani Experiments with free public transport, introduced in some of the world’s biggest cities to tackle the fuel price crisis, are proving successful. In Ho Chi Minh city, Vietnam and Tehran, Iran – which both have around 10 million people, more than London – people are shifting, in numbers, from private vehicles to buses and the metro. In Australia, pilot zero-fares schemes have been extended, due to their popularity. In India, eight states now provide free public transport for tens of millions of women. Jakarta, Indonesia, the world’s most populous city, has introduced a partial but generous free transport scheme.

By Simon Pirani Experiments with free public transport, introduced in some of the world’s biggest cities to tackle the fuel price crisis, are proving successful. In Ho Chi Minh city, Vietnam and Te…

By Simon Pirani What, really, have socialists learned from the Russian war on Ukraine? Has it changed our understanding of the way that imperialism works? Tell us we were right all along? Reflectin…

DOWNLOAD THE BULLETIN HERE AS A PDF In this week’s bulletin: Appeal to international trade unions/ New evidence of Russian torture, & more here and here/ Parallels between Bosnia and Ukraine/ V…

By Simon Pirani. Republished from the Ecologist, with thanks Skyrocketing charges for heating and hot water from council heat networks in Lambeth, south London, are to be challenged at a judicial r…

Ho Chi Minh City Metro Line 1 Company Limited has announced a plan to operate trains and offer free tickets on Metro Line 1 to celebrate the 81st anniversary of National Day on September 2nd.

Heat networks should reduce costs and climate impacts. But private interests and lack of regulation has resulted in exorbitant bills and poor service.

A guest post by JOHN DAVIES The Serbian general and war criminal Ratko Mladić, the butcher of Srebrenica and too many other places to mention, died last week. It’s an opportunity for reflection, an…

DOWNLOAD THE BULLETIN AS A PDF HERE In this week’s bulletin: US solidarity call/ Build the Convoy to Ukraine/ Andrei Trofimov court appearance./ Russian attempts to brainwash children/ Russia healt…

The Russian political prisoner Andrei Trofimov has appeared on a video link to a court hearing on Thursday, after four months’ loss of contact. His supporters, who fear he was being mistreated in t…

By Simon Pirani A Ukrainian court this month found Bohdan Syrotiuk, a Trotskyist, guilty of high treason and jailed him for 15 years – solely for words he wrote about the war. This assault on free …

DOWNLOAD THE BULLETIN AS A PDF HERE In this week’s bulletin: How Russia targets Ukrainian workers/ Surviving war in Crimea/ Occupied territories: Ukrainians lose homes / Report: Russian attempts to…

A jury has acquitted Tony Greenstein of inviting support for a proscribed terrorist organisation

This summer’s heat waves have hammered home the reality of climate change, and highlighted, again, the gulf between the government’s timid efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions and what scientist…

Reposted from the Fare Free London web site The government could make all bus journeys in the UK free, at a cost of about £5.6 billion per year, a report by the New Economics Foundation (NEF) shows…

Judge Victoria Malyamova of the Pskov City Court in western Russia has sentenced Lev Shlosberg, a prominent opposition figure and a deputy chairman of the liberal Yabloko party, to...

Free buses open doors for Scotland’s under-22s –  privatisation undermines the scheme. Free bus travel is making a world of difference to under-22s in Scotland, opening access to jobs, education and s...

DOWNLOAD THE BULLETIN AS A PDF HERE A Digest of News from Ukrainian sources – also attached as a PDF In this week’s bulletin: Killings of Ukrainian POWs/ Crimea economy collapsing/ Ukraine protests…

A living directory of ways communities resist AI harms—and build alternatives worth fighting for.

A special investigation reveals the strategic and structural failings in the British Government's attempts to decarbonise our homes.

A special investigation reveals the strategic and structural failings in the British Government's attempts to decarbonise our homes.

By Simon Pirani. Republished with thanks from the Ecologist The UK government’s plan to shift to electrified, low-carbon heating of homes could be heading for ruinous failure without public sector …

There has been no contact with political prisoner Andrei Trofimov since April. He has not responded to letters and has not been brought out to meet with a lawyer.

The Russia-Ukraine war and the Left . . With Russia's all-out war against Ukraine now in its fifth year, Simon Pirani and Volodymyr Artiukh discuss the complex character of the war, the main stances t

This statement by HK Anti-War Mobilisation was published on facebook on the fourth anniversary of Russia’s all-out invasion of Ukraine, in February. It deserves to be shared widely – please copy an…

At a Green Left zoom discussion on 23 June about “the Green party and NATO”, I argued that we can support resistance to Russian imperialism while opposing NATO. I was on a panel along with Paul Ing…

DOWNLOAD THE BULLETIN AS A PDF HERE In this week’s bulletin: Freedom of speech and the Ukrainian Civil Code; the budget crisis in Russia; internal migration within Ukraine;  Russian killing of…