Tribune is back and in the nick of time. It was often said, even by those who may not have subscribed to Tribune’s democratic socialist vision of the world, that ‘we need you now more than ever.’ But truly, not since one of this publication’s greatest editors, Michael Foot, was the first to warn that ‘Hitler means war!’ in its pages, has Britain and the Left needed Tribune so much.

At a time of deepening crisis in world politics, we can say that throughout its proud history, Tribune has been internationalist. It campaigned for nuclear disarmament, against apartheid South Africa, and for the rights of the Palestinians and the downtrodden everywhere. In doing so, it provided space for those that the mainstream media did not. Most of the great campaigns for independence from British colonial rule found articulation in the pages of Tribune. Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Hastings Banda, Cheddi Jagan, Jomo Kenyatta, Jawaharlal Nehru, and Walter Sisulu: all of these were published at a time when many sought their imprisonment or refused to acknowledge their calls for freedom.