80 Years Later
An estimated 35 million Chinese soldiers and civilians died as part of their country’s sacrifice as a key Allied power, yet 80 years later China finds itself not only a forgotten ally but also recast as an adversary. When President Xi Jinping takes to the rostrum overlooking Tiananmen Square for next week’s military parade marking the 80th anniversary of victory in the Sino-Japanese war and World War II’s global defeat of fascism, China’s sacrifices will be remembered Xi recalled that “80 years ago, the forces of justice worldwide, including China and the Soviet Union, fought heroically side by side, united in their resolve, and defeated the seemingly invincible fascist powers. Today, 80 years later, unilateralism, hegemony, and domineering bullying are causing profound harm. Humanity once again stands at a crossroads: unity or division, dialogue or confrontation, win-win cooperation or zero-sum rivalry”
A Reader

Costs of War Project
Israel would not have been able to sustain its wars across the Middle East, including the genocide in Gaza, without Washington’s financial support, which has exceeded $21 billion since October 2023, according to new reports.

The reports, released by the Costs of War Project at Brown University on October 7, found that without constant US weapons and money, Israel wouldn’t have been able to sustain its genocidal war on Gaza, start a war with Iran, or repeatedly bomb Yemen.

“Given the scale of current and future spending, it is clear the [Israeli army] could not have done the damage they have done in Gaza or escalated their military activities throughout the region without US financing, weapons, and political support,” read the report, US Military Aid and Arms Transfers to Israel, October 2023–September 2025, by William D Hartung, a senior research fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft.

They show how US support for Israel has helped it continue to wage war on multiple fronts for two years, and analysts backed up the reports’ conclusions.

The US has long been Israel’s most fervent backer. When it comes to US foreign aid, Israel is the largest annual recipient (at around $3.3bn yearly) and the largest cumulative one (more than $150bn until 2022).
Quds News Network

Decline of Union Power
Over the past four decades, neoliberal economics and globalisation have systematically dismantled the security once afforded to the working class through its own efforts. Through the privatisation of public services, the off-shoring of manufacturing, and the outsourcing of what remained, wealth has been funnelled upwards, leaving behind hollowed-out communities reliant on failing public infrastructure and insecure, low-paid work.

An unholy trinity has arisen from this economic experiment: skyrocketing corporate profits, the lowest investment levels among G7 nations, and a profound collapse in living standards. Since 1988, 44 percent of all wealth growth in the UK has been captured by the wealthiest 1 percent, while the country’s public infrastructure now faces a £200 billion investment shortfall. One-third of public spending is outsourced to private firms and half of the welfare budget goes to in-work benefits–a direct subsidy to employers who pay wages too low to live on.

This economic transformation was not accidental; it was accompanied by the systematic dismantling of working-class power and institutions. As industries closed and jobs disappeared, so too did the trade unions that were based in those communities. Collective bargaining coverage has collapsed from 80 percent to just 25 percent, while union membership has fallen from 38 percent in 1979 to just over 10 percent today. Over 3.6 million UK workers are trapped in insecure employment (of these, a disproportionate number are women in care and service roles who earn below-average wages).

The labour movement must reconnect with its class roots and reassert the politics of solidarity.

If workers fail to revive the labour movement, they risk watching it drift into total irrelevance, making it no longer a force in working-class life but a memory of what once was. The time for renewal is now.
Eddie Dempsey, London

Zubeen was for All
Amid soaring Hindu-Muslim tensions in the BJP-ruled north-eastern state of Assam, ZubeenGarg’s music served as a rare unifier. In Garg’s music, the idea of an Assam for Hindus and Muslims, Assamese speakers and Bengali speakers alike, was not an illusion.

Zubeen’s songs didn’t merely entertain, they also addressed the depths of what it means to be human, to love, to suffer and to find meaning in an often-absurd world.

Garg’s song, PakhiPakhiEi Mon (My heart is like a feather) explored themes of freedom and captivity.
Dilip Simeon

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Frontier
Vol 58, No. 19, Nov 2 - 8, 2025