- For other uses, see Morning Star
Morning star or Morning Star is the name given to the planet Venus when it appears in the East before sunrise. It may also refer to:-Mythology:* Eosphorus, the "dawn-bearer" in Greek mythology...
.
The Morning Star is a
communistThe Communist Party of Britain is a communist party in Great Britain. Although founded in 1988 it traces its origins back to 1920 and the Communist Party of Great Britain, and claims the legacy of that party and its most influential members Harry Pollitt and John Gollan as its own.-History:The...
British daily newspaper in tabloid format. It is dedicated to foreign and domestic news, with a bias to social issues and trade unions, and away from the perceived pro-business stance of other publications. It also has an arts page, a TV page, and sports pages. It eschews the gossip columns and sensational news of heavier tabloid papers and has also far fewer pages than other national dailies (16 pages on weekdays, 20 on Saturdays).
It was founded in 1930 as the
Daily Worker, the organ of the
Communist Party of Great BritainThe Communist Party of Great Britain was the largest communist party in the United Kingdom, though it never became a mass party like the communist parties of France and Italy...
. It was relaunched as the
The Morning Star in 1966. Since September 1945 the paper has been owned and published by a readers' co-operative, the
People's Press Printing SocietyThe People's Press Printing Society is a readers' co-operative to own and publish a left-wing, British, daily newspaper Daily Worker, known as The Morning Star from 1966. It was established in 1945, with shares sold at £1. Shareholders began to flood in, one of the earliest being George Bernard...
, which operates on a one-vote-per-shareholder basis.
The Daily Worker (1930-1966)
The Morning Star was founded in 1930 as the
Daily Worker, the organ of the
Communist Party of Great BritainThe Communist Party of Great Britain was the largest communist party in the United Kingdom, though it never became a mass party like the communist parties of France and Italy...
. The first edition was produced on 1 January 1930 from the offices of the newspaper in Tabernacle Street, London by eight Party members including
Kay BeauchampKay Beauchamp was a leading light in the Communist Party of Great Britain in the 1920s. She helped found the Daily Worker and was a local councillor in Finsbury.-Biography:...
. In January 1934 The
Daily Workers offices moved to Cayton Street off the City Road. On 1 October 1935, the first eight page Daily Worker
was produced.
The paper criticized Walter Citrine, 1st Baron CitrineWalter McLennan Citrine, 1st Baron Citrine, GBE, PC was a British trade unionist and politician....
after a Paris meeting with French Labour Minister Charles Pomaret in December, 1939. Time
said of the events following the meeting, "Minister Pomaret clamped down on French labor with a set of drastic wage-&-hour decrees and Sir Walter Citrine agreed to a proposal by Chancellor of the Exchequer Sir John Simon that pay rises in Britain be stopped"
Citrine sued the Daily Worker
for libel after it accused him and his associates of "plotting with the French Citrines to bring millions of Anglo-French Trade Unionists behind the Anglo-French imperialist war machine"; the publisher pleaded the British press equivalent of 'fair comment'. Citrine alleged, in response to his lawyer's questioning, that the Daily Worker
received £2000 pounds per month from "Moscow", and that Moscow directed the paper to print anti-war stories.
On 3 September 1939, Prime Minister Neville ChamberlainArthur Neville Chamberlain was a British Conservative politician and Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1937 to 1940...
spoke to the nation on the BBCThe British Broadcasting Corporation, usually referred to by its abbreviation as the "BBC", is the longest established and largest broadcaster in the world...
, at which time he announced the formal declaration of war between Britain and Nazi GermanyNazi Germany and the Third Reich are the common English names for Germany between 1933 and 1945, while it was led by Adolf Hitler and the National Socialist German Worker's Party . The name Third Reich refers to the state as the successor to the Holy Roman Empire of the Middle Ages and the German...
. Together with his close political and ideological ally, General Secretary Harry PollittHarry Pollitt was the head of the trade union department of the Communist Party of Great Britain and the General Secretary of the party for more than 20 years.- Early life :Pollitt was born 22 November 1890 in Droylsden, Lancashire...
, Daily Worker editor Johnny Campbell sought to portray the conflict against Hitler as a continuation of the anti-fascist fight. However, backed with the knowledge of the details of the Hitler-Stalin Pact and seeking to preserve the Soviet Union by turning Hitler's attention to Western Europe, the Comintern quickly signaled that the conflict was to be portrayed by the world communist movement as an "Imperialist War" between two more or less equally culpable blocs of capitalist nations.
Harry Pollitt and J.R. "Johnny" Campbell remained opposed to this interpretation of the conflict. On 2 and 3 October the governing Central Committee of the CPGB met and voted 21-3 in favor of the Communist International's "Imperialist War" thesis. Pollitt was removed from his position as General Secretary and Campbell as Daily Worker editor at that time, although the cashiering of the third member of the minority, Willie Gallagher, the CPGB's only
Member of ParliamentA Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a parliament. In many countries the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a unique title, such as senate, and thus also have unique titles for its members, such as senators. Members of...
, was considered unthinkable. Neither Pollitt nor Campbell publicly fought the party over its new Moscow-determined orientation and neither was expelled for their dissent. When the party line on the war changed once again following Hitler's invasion of the USSR in June 1941, both Pollitt and Campbell were restored to the party's good graces.
It responded to the assassination of
Leon TrotskyLeon Trotsky , born Leyba Davidov Bronstein , was a Bolshevik revolutionary and Marxist theorist. He was one of the leaders of the Russian October Revolution, second only to Lenin...
by a Stalinist agent with an article on August 23 1940 entitled "A Counter Revolutionary Gangster Passes," written by former editor Campbell.
Because of its pro-Moscow position during the war, the Daily Worker was suppressed by Labour Home Secretary,
Herbert MorrisonHerbert Stanley Morrison, Baron Morrison of Lambeth, CH, PC was a British Labour Party politician. Morrison held various Cabinet posts, including Home Secretary, Foreign Secretary and Deputy Prime Minister...
, between 21 January 1941 and 7 September 1942, when the ban was lifted following a campaign supported by
Hewlett JohnsonThe Very Reverend Hewlett Johnson , was an English clergyman, Dean of Manchester and later Dean of Canterbury, where he acquired his nickname The Red Dean of Canterbury for his unyielding support for the Soviet Union and its allies.-Life:Born in Manchester, the third son of Charles Johnson, a wire...
, the
Dean of CanterburyThe Dean of Canterbury is the head of the Chapter of the Cathedral of Christ Church, Canterbury, England. The office of dean originated after the English Reformation, and its precursor office was the prior of the cathedral-monastery...
, and Professor
J. B. S. HaldaneJohn Burdon Sanderson Haldane FRS , known as Jack , was a British-born geneticist and evolutionary biologist...
. A "Lift the ban" conference at Central hall, Westminster on 21 March 1942 was attended by over 2,000 delegates. A key part of the campaign was to secure Labour Party support (Herbert Morrison was a fierce opponent of the Daily Worker
). On 26 May 1942, after a heated debate, the Labour Party carried a resolution declaring the Government must lift the ban on the Daily Worker
. During the ban the Daily Worker
offices at Cayton Street were totally destroyed by fire during The BlitzThe Blitz was the sustained bombing of Britain by Nazi Germany between 7 September 1940 and 10 May 1941, in World War II. While the Blitz hit many towns and cities across the country, it began with the bombing of London for 57 consecutive nights...
on 16 April 1941. The paper moved temporarily in 1942 to the former Caledonian Press offices in Swinton Street (from where the old Communist Party Sunday Worker
had been printed until 1929). In 1945 new offices were acquired at a former brush makers warehouse at 75 Farringdon Road, London EC1 for the sum of £48,000. A Scottish edition of the Daily Worker
was produced from its plant in Glasgow starting on 11 November 1940.
Since September 1945 the paper has been owned and published by a readers' co-operative, the People's Press Printing SocietyThe People's Press Printing Society is a readers' co-operative to own and publish a left-wing, British, daily newspaper Daily Worker, known as The Morning Star from 1966. It was established in 1945, with shares sold at £1. Shareholders began to flood in, one of the earliest being George Bernard...
, which operates on a one-vote-per-shareholder basis.
The last edition of the Daily Worker
came out on Saturday 23 April 1966, being re-launched as the Morning Star, the first edition of which appeared the following Monday, 25 April 1966. An editorial in the final issue declared:
"On Monday this newspaper takes its greatest step forward for many years. It will be larger, it will be better and it will have a new name.... During its 36 years of life our paper has stood for all that is best in British working-class and Socialist journalism. It has established a reputation for honesty, courage and integrity. It has defended trade unionists, tenants, pensioners. It has consistently stood for peace. It has always shown the need for Socialism. Let all Britain see the Morning Star, the inheritor of a great tradition and the herald of a greater future".
The Morning Star (1966 to present)
The paper supported the National Union of Mineworkers during the
miners' strike of 1984–1985The UK Miners' Strike was major industrial action affecting the British coal industry. It was a defining moment in British industrial relations, and its defeat significantly weakened the British trades union movement...
, and it still campaigns for the coal industry to be rebuilt. It adopts the phrase "
clean coalClean coal technology is an umbrella term used to describe technologies being developed that aim to reduce the environmental impact of coal energy generation...
" to emphasise that the environmental impact of mining must be taken into account. The 2006 energy review by the
Blair administrationThe Premiership of Tony Blair began on 2 May 1997 and ended on 27 June 2007. While serving as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Blair concurrently served as the First Lord of the Treasury, the Minister for the Civil Service, the Leader of the Labour Party , and a Member of Parliament for the...
was criticised for not giving enough consideration to clean coal energy.
On international issues the paper advocates a
"two-state" solutionThe two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, is the consensus solution that is currently under discussion by the key parties to the conflict, most recently at the Annapolis Conference in November 2007....
to the
Israeli-Palestinian conflictThe Israeli–Palestinian conflict is an ongoing dispute between Israel and the Palestinians. It forms part of the wider Arab–Israeli conflict. The term is also used in reference to the earlier phases of the same conflict, between Zionist halutzim and the Arab population living in Palestine under...
and calls for Israeli withdrawal from the "occupied
Palestinian territoriesThe Palestinian territories are composed of two discontiguous regions, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, whose final status has yet to be determined. The territories, which were originally contained within the British Mandate of Palestine, were captured and occupied by Jordan and by Egypt in the...
". It is critical of the
Republican PartyThe Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the Grand Old Party or the GOP, despite being the younger of the two major parties. In the U.S...
of the United States. It was the only daily paper in Britain to take a stance against the
Kosovo WarThe term Kosovo War or Kosovo Conflict is used to describe two sequential and at times parallel armed conflicts in Kosovo:#Early 1998–1999: War between Yugoslav police forces, Yugoslav paramilitaries, and the Kosovo Albanian insurgents....
, denouncing
North Atlantic Treaty OrganizationThe North Atlantic Treaty Organization ); ), also called "the Atlantic Alliance", is an intergovernmental military alliance based on the North Atlantic Treaty which was signed on April 4, 1949...
military intervention, and the only paper to criticise the way Serbian dictator
Slobodan MiloševićSlobodan Milošević was President of Serbia and of Yugoslavia...
was removed from office. It opposed the
Iraq WarThe Iraq War, also known as the Occupation of Iraq or Operation Iraqi Freedom, is an ongoing military campaign which began on March 20, 2003 with the invasion of Iraq by a multinational force led by troops from the United States and the United Kingdom.Prior to the war, the governments of the United...
.
On
Northern IrelandNorthern Ireland is a part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and it is situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...
the paper takes a pro-
Irish nationalismIrish nationalism comprises political and social movements and sentiment inspired by a love for Irish culture, language and history, and a sense of pride in Ireland and the Irish people...
line. News reports from Northern Ireland are described as "from our foreign newsdesk".
Online version
An
online version of the paper was launched on 1 April 2004. Initially only some parts of the site were free, including
a PDF of the paper's front page, the editorial
"Star Comment" and all the articles from the
culture and
sports pages, while features and the actual news were subscription only. On 1 January 2009 this policy was changed, and now all content is now freely available online.
Editorial policy
Successive annual general meetings of the People's Press Printing Society have agreed that the policy of the paper is founded on
Britain's Road to SocialismBritain's Road to Socialism is the programme of the Communist Party of Britain and is adhered to by the Young Communist League and the editorship of the British daily newspaper The Morning Star...
, the programme of the
Communist Party of BritainThe Communist Party of Britain is a communist party in Great Britain. Although founded in 1988 it traces its origins back to 1920 and the Communist Party of Great Britain, and claims the legacy of that party and its most influential members Harry Pollitt and John Gollan as its own.-History:The...
.
However, despite this relationship with the CPB, features are contributed by writers from a variety of
socialistSocialism refers to various theories of economic organization advocating public or direct worker ownership and administration of the means of production and allocation of resources, and a society characterized by equal access to resources for all individuals with a method of compensation based on...
,
social democraticSocial democracy is a political ideology of the political left and centre-left on the classic political spectrum. Social democracy emerged in the late 19th century from the socialist movement and continues to exert influence worldwide....
,
greenGreen politics is a political ideology which places a high importance on environmental goals, and on achieving these goals through broad-based, grassroots, participatory democracy...
and
religiousA religion is a system of human thought which usually includes a set of narratives, symbols, beliefs and practices that give meaning to the practitioner's experiences of life through reference to a higher power, deity or deities, or ultimate truth...
perspectives.
Generally, the paper supports peace and socialism. It was uncritical of the politics and actions of the Soviet Union. It is
EuroscepticEuroscepticism is a general term used to describe opposition and criticism of the European Union , and the process of European integration...
and is supporting the No2EU platform in the 2009 European elections. It is critical of the upper or ruling classes. It defends peaceful protests and civil disobedience and industrial action by workers to improve working conditions and wages. The Morning Star is concerned with environmental issues and supports environment campaigning groups; it advocates unilateral nuclear disarmament. In elections the paper endorses the Communist Party of Britain; where the CPB is not standing, the paper advocates the Labour Party – although not what it terms the 'New Labour' faction.
Contributors
The paper carries contributions from
John PilgerJohn Richard Pilger is an Australian journalist and documentary maker. He has twice won Britain's Journalist of the Year Award, and his documentaries have received academy awards in Britain and the US...
and
Uri AvneryUri Avnery is an Israeli writer and founder of the Gush Shalom peace movement. A member of the Irgun as a teenager, Avnery sat in the Knesset from 1965-74 and 1979-81...
,
GreenThe Green Party of England and Wales is the principal Green political party in England and Wales which includes among its regional divisions the semi-autonomous Wales Green Party. The party is unrepresented in the House of Commons, but did have a life peer in the House of Lords until his death...
MEPA Member of the European Parliament is the English name for a person who has been elected to the European Parliament, one of the European Union's two legislative bodies. MEPs are the European Union's equivalents of a country's national legislators in either the lower house or unicameral...
Caroline LucasCaroline Patricia Lucas is an English politician. The leader of the Green Party of England and Wales, she is a Member of the European Parliament for the South East England region. She is one of two Green MEPs from the UK , a post she has held since 1999...
,
Derek WallDerek Wall is a British politician and former Principal Speaker of the Green Party of England and Wales as well as an environmental and social activist, academic and writer whose work concentrates on eco-socialism and the relationship between Marxism and the environment...
,
LabourThe Labour Party is a centre-left political party in the United Kingdom. Founded at the start of the 20th century, it has been seen since 1920 as the principal party of the Left in England, Scotland and Wales, but not Northern Ireland, where it has only recently begun to organise again...
MPsA Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a parliament. In many countries the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a unique title, such as senate, and thus also have unique titles for its members, such as senators. Members of...
Jeremy CorbynJeremy Bernard Corbyn is a British Labour Party politician and Member of Parliament for Islington North.He has been in the House of Commons since he won his seat at the 1983 general election. An old boy of Adams' Grammar School in Shropshire, he is a hard left member of the Labour Party and is in...
and
Alan SimpsonAlan John Simpson is a British Labour politician and Member of Parliament for Nottingham South.-Early life:...
, Respect MP
George GallowayGeorge Galloway is a British politician, author and broadcaster, who has been a Member of Parliament since 1987, and is particularly known for his anti-war views...
, former
Mayor of LondonThe Mayor of London is an elected politician who, along with the London Assembly of 25 members, is accountable for the strategic government of Greater London . Since 4 May 2008, Conservative Boris Johnson holds the position...
Ken LivingstoneKenneth Robert Livingstone is an English politician; he has twice held the leading political role in London local government, firstly as Leader of the Greater London Council from 1981 until the council was abolished in 1986 by the government of Margaret Thatcher, and secondly as the first Mayor of...
, Neil Clark and the cartoonist
Martin RowsonMartin George Edmund Rowson is a British cartoonist and novelist. His genre is political satire and his style is scathing and graphic. His work frequently appears in The Guardian and The Independent...
.
According to John Haylett:
- " ... We have articles from people that at one time we would never have given the time of day to - like the Welsh and Scottish Nationalists, the Greens, and regular contributions from church people ... [but] ... things that happened in the Soviet Union 70 years ago are still being used as a stick to beat the Morning Star."
Finances and circulation
The Morning Star carries little commercial advertising, with low advertising rates, and the cover price does not cover print and distribution. Consequently the paper has always been dependent on donations by activists, readers and organisations such as trade unions. The paper relies on its "Star Fund" appeal (monthly target £16,000). In its past, the paper received subsidy from the Soviet Union in the form of bulk orders.
In March 2005, BBC News Magazine
reported the Morning Star
's circulation as between 13,000 and 14,000, quoting John Haylett's comment "perhaps only one in 10 of these readers would label themselves as communists". whilst later in August 2006, The Guardian
reported the print run to be "around 25,000".
In 1981, its circulation had been about 36,000 (down from the Daily Worker's
1947 peak of 122,000).
During the early morning of 28 July 2008, the offices of the newspaper were damaged by fire, and the edition of 29 July took a reduced form.
On June 1 2009, the Morning Star
was re-launched. The re-launch included a 16 page edition during the week; a 24 page weekend edition. There was also an expanded use colour pictures and graphics, plus a re-design and a modern layout of the pages. The Morning Star
also re-designed its website. In addition a number of new and experienced journalists were engaged and the postion of a full time Industrial Correspondent and a Lobby correspondent in the House of Commons were re-introduced.
Staff
On 1 January 2009, Bill Benfield took over as editor of The Morning Star. John Haylett, who had been editor since 1995, took up the post of political editor. Bill Benfield had previously been deputy editor and head of production.
Editors
- 1930: William Rust
William Charles Rust was a British communist activist and newspaper editor.-Political career:Rust began working at Hulton's Press Agency, before moving to the Workers Dreadnought communist newspaper...
- 1932:
- 1939: John Ross Campbell
John Ross "Johnny" Campbell , best known as "J.R. Campbell," was a British communist activist and newspaper editor. Campbell is best remembered as the principal in the so-called Campbell Case...
- 1939: William Rust
William Charles Rust was a British communist activist and newspaper editor.-Political career:Rust began working at Hulton's Press Agency, before moving to the Workers Dreadnought communist newspaper...
- 1949: John Ross Campbell
John Ross "Johnny" Campbell , best known as "J.R. Campbell," was a British communist activist and newspaper editor. Campbell is best remembered as the principal in the so-called Campbell Case...
- 1959: George Matthews
George Matthews was a British communist activist and newspaper editor.Born to a wealthy family in Bedfordshire, Matthews studied agriculture at the University of Reading and joined the Labour Party. In 1938, he secretly joined the Communist Party of Great Britain , while retaining his Labour...
- 1974: Tony Chater
- 1995: John Haylett
- 2009: Bill Benfield
External links