community
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On Brighton beach: austerity, alienation and the battle for democracy By Adam Ramsay
The neo-liberal project has purged democracy from almost every corner of our lives. In doing so, it has changed our understanding of the world, and so who we are. A council tax referendum in Brighton would be a signal that England’s democratic soul is still alive. Continue reading
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Police State UK: The National Security State – grilling wouldn’t scare a puppy
As feared, yesterday’s “grilling” consisted of friendly and open-ended questions – resulting in few specific answers and barely anything not already on the public record. These public servants presided over blanket surveillance of the entire population without public, parliamentary or democratic mandate. Yet they faced questioning that wouldn’t have scared a puppy. Continue reading
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Are we being served? By William Bowles
Central to us on the left is the dilemma of a seemingly indifferent working class to the changes that impact directly not only on our material well-being but on the corporatisation of our cultural lives. Some argue that it’s down to the prevailing sense of powerlessness as the gulf between those who govern and the… Continue reading
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Even the World Bank Understands Palestine is being disappeared By Jonathan Cook
Two recent images encapsulate the message behind the dry statistics of last week’s report by the World Bank on the state of the Palestinian economy. Continue reading
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Kerry’s Syria gaffe takes wings By Melkulangara BHADRAKUMAR
Launching a war in slow motion against a faraway country is never a smart thing to do, but it can have its advantages, too, in case the need arises to rein in the war on reflection before it gets under way. That seems to be happening in the case of the United States’ planned strike… Continue reading
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London Underground prepares mass closure of ticket offices By James Hatton and Paul Bond
Recent disclosures have again confirmed London Underground management is planning to close all its 268 ticket offices over the next two years. Around 2,000 jobs are expected to be lost during that period, with job losses across the rail and underground network rising to 6,000 by 2020. The job losses are part of Transport for… Continue reading
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Eviction Brixton: creating housing insecurity in London By Hannah Schling
On Monday 15th July, 75 people were evicted from Rushcroft Road, a long-term community of squats and former short-life housing co-ops in central Brixton. The eviction represents a major step by Lambeth Council towards the further gentrification of the area. Determined to realise the (high) financial value of the Rushcroft Road properties, Lambeth Council has… Continue reading
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CIA Admits It Was Behind Iran’s Coup: The agency finally owns up to its role in the 1953 operation By Malcolm Byrne
Sixty years ago this Monday, on August 19, 1953, modern Iranian history took a critical turn when a U.S.- and British-backed coup overthrew the country’s prime minister, Mohammed Mossadegh. The event’s reverberations have haunted its orchestrators over the years, contributing to the anti-Americanism that accompanied the Shah’s ouster in early 1979, and even influencing the… Continue reading
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Space Alert! Autumn 2013
Our latest edition of our Global Network newsletter, Space Alert, is now finished and is at the printers. There is extensive reporting in this issue about anti-drone campaigning all over the world. Continue reading
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Fracking – Britain’s Next Revolution? By Lesley Docksey
At long last Britain is discussing and objecting to fracking – or we would be if the general public had access to accurate information. As it is, Prime Minister David Cameron is going all out to promote a country-wide embrace of shale gas. Continue reading
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The Gentification of the Left By Mike Wayne, Deidre O’Neill
The post-colonial philosopher Gayatri Spivak once famously asked: ‘Can the subaltern speak?’ Colonialism though is not just about race, it is also about that great unmentionable, class. And class colonization is one of the most central features of British social and political life. Continue reading
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‘Rocking the Foundations’ — the story of Australia’s pioneering red-green trade union
An outstanding historical account of the “Green Bans” first introduced by the communist-led New South Wales Builders Labourers Federation (BLF) in the 1970s in response to community demand to preserve inner-city parkland and historic buildings. One of the first women to be accepted as a builders labourer, filmmaker Pat Fiske in 1985 traced the development… Continue reading
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CCR Says: This is Your Victory: End Stop and Frisk Today
Yesterday we shared with you the breaking news that the federal judge in our case found the NYPD’s stop-and-frisk policy unconstitutional after an almost two-month trial. The judge said that for years the City had “turned a blind eye” to this racially discriminatory practice, and ordered a range of important reforms, including appointing a federal… Continue reading
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Battle of Balcombe: Opposition to Cuadrilla Resources UK Fracking Plans By Pratap Chatterjee
82 percent of the village voted firmly against plans by Cuadrilla Resources, headed by Lord John Browne, the former CEO of British Petroleum, to conduct hydraulic fracturing in their community. Over two dozen protestors have been arrested in the last few days for attempting to block company equipment – including Natalie Hynde and Simon Medhurst,… Continue reading
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The European Union and Greece: the Murder of a Nation By Anna FILIMONOVA
At the end of July, eurozone deputy finance ministers approved another transfer of money to Greece to the tune of EUR 6.8 billion (it had previously been thought that Athens would be allocated EUR 8.1 billion). Several days earlier, meanwhile, the Greek parliament approved the latest in a series of legislative acts, the adoption of… Continue reading
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Paying for private failure in England’s NHS – again By Caroline Molloy
The NHS is paying millions to a failed private Treatment Centre to escape a contract after a series of patient deaths – and the figures don’t quite add up. Continue reading
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Billion-pound NHS contract offered to private health care providers By Joan Smith and Paul Mitchell
The biggest ever contract for the sell-off of public health services in England, worth between £700 million to £1.1 billion, is being offered to private health care providers by the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) as part of its “Older People’s Programme”. From July 2014, six National Health Service (NHS) contracts that include… Continue reading
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A golden moment for Lewisham NHS campaigners in Britain By Ruby Waterworth
Today Health secretary Jeremy Hunt’s plans to cut services and close departments at Lewisham Hospital were defeated in the High Court after a fiercely fought grassroots campaign. Continue reading
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Israeli army recruitment plan aims to incite Christian-Muslim tensions By Jonathan Cook
Critics of a new Israeli army recruitment campaign say it’s designed to fragment the Palestinian community and make it more difficult to obtain their rights. Continue reading
The New Dark Age 