https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/heroes-villains-2025
Francesca Albanese, United Nations special rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories (left) and (right) Robert JenrickThe Morning Star sorts the good eggs from the rotten scoundrels of the year just gone
Heroes
The Birmingham Bin Strikers
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Their struggle matters to us all: the largest local authority in the country seeks to tackle its financial problems by attacking the pay and conditions of its workforce, and if it gets away with it other councils will follow suit.
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Francesca Albanese
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Sanctioned by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in revenge for her UN report From an Economy of Occupation to an Economy of Genocide, her bank accounts have been frozen, and this UN special rapporteur is blacklisted and barred from the international banking system like a terrorist, forcing her to manage all transactions in cash.
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The Palestine solidarity movement
So many people deserve special mentions, but the entire movement must be honoured: the heroic hunger strikers putting their lives on the line for justice; the thousands risking 14-year prison terms to expose the absurdity of the government’s ban on Palestine Action by sitting down peacefully in public; the leading peace activists arrested and charged for organising mass demonstrations, including Palestine Solidarity Campaign director Ben Jamal and Stop the War Coalition vice-chair Chris Nineham; the millions who have marched or fundraised or spread the word about a genocide, who forced Trump to tell Netanyahu in October that he cannot “fight the world” and must concede a ceasefire.
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The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament
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Under its new leader Sophie Bolt, CND has stepped up to the challenge across 2025, holding a tour bringing the arguments against rearmament to military bases across Britain and a fortnight’s peace camp in protest at Britain’s return to being Washington’s Air Strip One.
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Villains
“Tommy Robinson”
Stephen Yaxley-Lennon has disfigured the British political scene for years but 2025 has seen ominous new developments, from his sponsorship by the world’s richest man — far-right megalomaniac Elon Musk — to the largest far-right demonstration in British history that brought well over 100,000 onto the streets of London in September.
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Sarah Pochin and Robert Jenrick
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These two deserve public shaming for pushing the boundaries of explicit racism in public life: Pochin by complaining about the number of black people on telly and Jenrick with his no-white-faces-in-Handsworth drivel. Pure poison from two politicians we need to see the back of as soon as possible.
David Lammy
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Lammy, because the so-called Justice Secretary is presiding over horrendous abuses of justice — refusing to meet lawyers for the Palestine Action hunger strikers, who are being held for months and years behind bars without trial, and now planning the withdrawal of the right to jury trials just as the police are getting into gear with mass arrests of obviously innocent people.
Donald Trump
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The White House declares active support for far-right movements across the world (particularly in Europe), expresses open contempt for international law, blows up boats, killing their crews, in a murderous rampage across the Caribbean while seizing Venezuelan tankers in acts of naked piracy. And all while moving closer to war.
In the Middle East, Trump breaks new ground by publicly endorsing the ethnic cleansing of Palestine and has already joined a direct Israeli attack on Iran — just days ago he mooted another.
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See the original article at https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/heroes-villains-2025
