Green politicians confirm they won’t cross picket lines
The senior elected representatives of the 3 Green Parties in the UK – the Green Party of England and Wales, the Scottish Green Party, and the Green Party of Northern Ireland – have all now confirmed that they won’t be crossing picket lines during today’s strike. With staff at Westminster, the Scottish Parliament, the London [...]
Don’t be fooled – the UK isn’t trying to save the climate
Murray Worthy, policy officer at the World Development Movement writes from the UN climate talks in Durban Cross posted from the World Development Movement’s Durban Watch blog If you have been following the news recently you could be fooled into thinking the politics of the UN negotiations have been turned on their head. It might [...]
Bingo! Osborne’s Autumn statement: fun for all the family
Thought the pre-budget report was going to be enraging? Worried that watching it will set you on a trajectory which will inevitably lead to the need for a new TV, replacing that with a shoe sized hole in it? Never fear! The good folks at nef (the new economics foundation) have cordially invited readers of [...]
5 things about pensions
Wednesday’s strike isn’t just about pensions. Unions like the PCS have been clear from the outset – anti-worker laws mean we can’t go on strike against government policies. So unions couldn’t ballot for action against cuts in general. Instead they chose the one direct issue between employers and workers – one cut – which applies [...]
DUP Minister Under Pressure As Anti-Fracking Campaign Grows
The issue of hydraulic fracturing – fracking – has been catapulted into mainstream attention in Northern Ireland over the last few weeks. For those not yet in the know, fracking involves pumping high-pressure chemicals (many of them extremely dangerous) into the ground in order to extract natural gas. The 2010 film ‘Gasland’ documents the devastation [...]
What’s bigger, “peanuts” or “chicken feed”?
You might think a paper whose £250,000 largesse to Boris Johnson was describes as “chicken feed” would be slow to attack a “peanuts” £245k full-time salary. But that’s just because you haven’t done the sums.
Occupy to Support the Strikes.
On November 23rd students at universities across the country occupied their institutions as part of a day of action called by the National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts. Here we repost an initial statement from the Edinburgh Occupation. We are now occupying Appleton Tower, in support of the UCU strike on Wednesday November 30, against [...]
This is what democracy looks like – learning from Latin America
This piece first appeared in this week’s issue of the Occupied Times Stretched across the tent town by the London Stock Exchange is a banner spelling out the slogan of 2011: “Real Democracy Now”. Go to the camp and many participants will tell you that it is not their demands which are key – it [...]
New attacks on LGBT rights in Russia
By Nigel Warner In recent years state authorities in Russia have repeatedly tried to prevent LGBT people from campaigning publicly for their rights. This has been most evident in relation to demonstrations. Since 2005 almost every attempt to hold a Pride March, or similar, has been banned. Three such cases were the subject of a [...]
Share buy backs and the failure of ‘Schrödinger’s capitalism’
The New York Times reported yesterday the return of corporate share buy-backs in the USA. When I tweeted the link to the story, someone replied with perhaps the best analogy I could come up with: this is like burning the house to keep warm. Which it is. A share buy back essentially means this: the [...]
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