The Morning Star

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[[File:Morning star logo 2018.svg|right|thumb|165px|In case you haven't guessed, this is their logo.]]
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'''''The Morning Star''''' is a [[left-wing]] [[British]] daily [[tabloid]] with a focus on social and [[trade union]] issues.<ref name="news.bbc.co.uk">Sean Coughlan {{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/4361137.stm|work=[[BBC]] News|title=Pressing on|date=21 March 2005|accessdate=13 May 2010}}</ref> Articles and comment columns are contributed by writers from [[socialist]] and [[social democratic]] as well as from "[[Plaid Cymru|Welsh]] and [[Scottish National Party|Scottish]] [[Nationalism|Nationalists]], [[Green Party|the Greens]] and regular contributions from [[Religion|church people]]."<ref name="news.bbc.co.uk"/> However, the paper currently chooses to underline its editorial stance via {{wpl|Britain's Road to Socialism|''Britain's Road to Socialism'',}} the programme of the Communist Party of Britain,<ref>"(The ''Morning Star'' is) in line with Britain's Road to Socialism, the Communist Party of Britain programme that underlies our paper's editorial stance." People's Press Printing Society Annual Report 2009.</ref> not to be confused with the Communist Party of Great Britain or [[Communist Party of Great Britain (Marxist-Leninist)]], and certainly not with the [https://youtu.be/gb_qHP7VaZE Judean People's Front].

==Salad days==
In its salad days as ''The Daily Worker'', the paper functioned as the mainstream political organ (so to speak) of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Great Britain.<ref>[http://archiveshub.ac.uk/features/03122303.html "The Papers of the Communist Party of Great Britain"], The Archive hub, University of Manchester</ref> Part of its illustrious history includes celebrating the assassination of [[Leon Trotsky]] by [[Josef Stalin]], describing Trotsky as a "Counter-Revolutionary Gangster" for not being far-left enough for their liking<ref>{{cite web|title=The death of Trotsky|url=http://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/etheory/1933-93/pdf/40Trotsky.pdf|website=worldsocialism.org|accessdate=19 September 2015|archiveurl=http://web.archive.org/web/20110607103508/http://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/etheory/1933-93/pdf/40Trotsky.pdf|archivedate=7 June 2011|deadurl=yes}}</ref> in that he wanted the people to have greater say in the political process and was against [[Russian]] isolationism. In 1930 there was a fierce debate over whether the paper should carry sports news, with leading ideologue {{wpl|Rajani Palme Dutt}} writing:<blockquote>Capitalist sport is subordinate to bourgeois politics, run under bourgeois patronage and breathing the spirit of patriotism and class unity; and often of militarism, fascism and strike breaking. Sport is a hotbed of propaganda and recruiting for the enemy. Spectator sports (horse racing and football) are profit run professional spectacles thick with corruption. They are dope; to distract the workers from the bad conditions of their lives, to stop thinking, to make passive wage slaves. You cannot reconcile revolutionary politics with capitalist sport!<ref>[https://spartacus-educational.com/Pcommunist.htm The Communist Party of Great Britain], Spartacus Educational, accessed 15 September 2021</ref></blockquote>

On 3 September 1939, Prime Minister [[Neville Chamberlain]] spoke to the nation on the [[BBC]], at which time he announced the formal declaration of war between Britain and [[Nazi Germany]]. ''Daily Worker'' editor John Ross Campbell, backed by his political ally, Party General Secretary Harry Pollitt, sought to portray the conflict against [[Hitler]] as a continuation of the anti-fascist fight.<ref>James Eaton and David Renton ''The Communist Party of Great Britain since 1920'', Basingstoke: Pallgrave, 2002, pp.69–70</ref> This contradicted the position of the Comintern in the aftermath of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact (which became CPGB policy on 3 October), that the war was a struggle between rival imperialist powers, and Campbell was removed as editor as a result, being replaced by William Rust.<ref name="jones">Bill Jones ''The Russia complex: the British Labour Party and the Soviet Union''. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1977, p.38  ISBN 0719006961.</ref> The paper accused the British government's polices as being "not to rescue Europe from fascism, but to impose British imperialist peace on Germany" before attacking the [[Soviet Union|true Motherland]].<ref name="jones"/>

==Post-war==
Still going by the name, ''The Daily Worker'', it supported the show trials in [[Hungary]], [[Czechoslovakia]] and [[Poland]] in the late 1940s as well as the split between Stalin's [[Soviet Union]] and [[Josip Broz Tito]]'s [[Yugoslavia]] in 1948.<ref>Keith Laybourn [http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=X4_q46RCeJQC&pg=PA43 ''Marxism in Britain: Dissent, Decline and Re-emergence 1945-c.2000''], Abingdon: Routledge, 2006, p.43</ref> To put the whole, ahem, supporting the Nazis thing behind them, in 1966 they changed their name to ''The Morning Star''; the last edition of the ''Daily Worker'' was published on Saturday 23 April 1966.<ref name=liquisearch.com>{{cite web|title=Morning Star (UK Newspaper) - The Daily Worker (1930–1966)|url=http://www.liquisearch.com/morning_star_uk_newspaper/the_daily_worker_1930%E2%80%931966|website=liquisearch.com|accessdate=19 September 2015}}; via [[Wikipedia]]</ref>

Proving that old habits die hard, they supported the suppression of the Polish Solidarity trade union movement and the Polish government's declaration of martial law, denouncing the Executive Committee of the British Communist Party for denouncing the government's actions and fogetting their "class destiny".<ref name=Lay>Laybourn [http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=X4_q46RCeJQC&pg=PA116 ''Marxism in Britain''], p.116</ref> This was the beginning of ''The Morning Star'''s schism with the British Communist Party.{{cn}} This was exacerbated by the CPGB's support of Eurocommunism, a movement to create greater independence from the Soviet Union for communist states in Europe.<ref name=Lay /> The Morning Star also supported the [[Kim|Kim dynasty]] in [[North Korea]] and has defended [[Kim Jong-un]]'s political purges against repudiation by the CPGB.{{cn}}

==Editorial stances==
The paper claims to support a "Two-State Solution" to the [[Israeli]]-[[Palestinian]] conflict and they support the Nationalist movement in [[Ireland]]. They showed support for Slobadan Milosevic, opposed [[NATO]]'s military intervention in Yugoslavia and also opposed the [[Iraq War]].{{cn}} They are [[Eurosceptic]] and have called for "a federal Britain, outside the [[European Union|EU]] and NATO, in which we can fight for parliaments and governments free to enact progressive domestic and foreign policies".<ref>[http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/a-3bf9-Left-reasons-to-ditch-EU#.Vf3Oft9Viko Left Reasons To Ditch EU], ''Morning Star'' (June 2015)</ref>

==Notable contributors==
* Uri Avnery
* John Pilger
* Derek Wall
* [[Jeremy Corbyn]] (''Former Leader of the Labour Party'')
* John McDonnell (''Former Shadow Chancellor'' for crying out loud)
* Caroline Lucas
* [[George Galloway]] (surprise, surprise)
* Alan Simpson
* Martin Rowson
* Michael Rosen, pro-Corbyn children's poet and YouTube poop God.

==See also==
* [[Pravda.ru]]
* [[The Huffington Post]]
* [[Propaganda]]
* [[Lucifer]] &mdash; The fallen angel who prior to becoming the Devil was also known as the Morning Star, coincidentally.

==References==
{{Reflist|2}}

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[[Category:British media]]
[[Category:Media]]

Categories: British media, Media