Sometimes We Win
After the heartbreaking defeats of several popular anti-cuts campaigns in the last few months, we can sometimes forget that campaigning isn’t always a futile activity. But yesterday, after a six-month-long campaign by local residents, the City of Edinburgh Council voted to reject proposals to privatise two major service areas. The proposals were part of an [...]
Cuts and Privatisation: Still on Edinburgh’s Agenda in 2012
In November 2011, the City of Edinburgh Council took the decision not privatise environmental services (that’s waste and recycling, street cleaning, and parks maintenance), following pressure from a local grassroots campaign. I’ve been involved in the campaign from the early stages and it has been amazing to see how a little bit of public scrutiny [...]
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 [...]
Policing politics?
This is a slightly longer version of an article which appeared yesterday in Edinburgh University’s Student newspaper. It hopefully has some utility for others who are working towards social change in radical or leftist ways and wondering about engagement with the police therein. The independence of policing and politics is a fundamental principle of democracy. [...]
Edinburgh’s Not for Sale – Time to Stop Privatisation Plans
Today City of Edinburgh Councillors are making the most important decision of their political careers. The Liberal Democrat-led administration has proposed a dramatic change in the level and mechanism of service delivery. While there’s been a lot of discussion of the Edinburgh Trams this change, if implemented, promises to turn vast swathes of Council services [...]
Privatisation and the SNP
While Alex Salmond received a hero’s welcome at the SNP conference in Inverness last weekend, controversy has been brewing back in Edinburgh. On Thursday, the City of Edinburgh Council – led by a coalition of the Liberal Democrats and SNP – will be taking the first of a series of votes on whether council services [...]
Anti-austerity protesters occupy St. Andrew’s Square
As part of a “global day of action” inspired by the Occupy Wall Street protests, around 400 anti-austerity protesters in Edinburgh have occupied St. Andrew’s Square, setting up a makeshift tent city. By nightfall, over 100 occupiers from across the political spectrum, outraged by the entire political and economic systems, remained in the square, vowing [...]
Forest Cafe Stunned at Order to Leave Premises
The Forest Cafe is an autonomous social space in Edinburgh. It acts as a venue for art installations and exhibitions throughout the year and runs a popular Forest Fringe during the Edinburgh Festival. You can sign the petition to Save the Forest here. The website for the Save The Forest Campaign is here. This is [...]
Save Our Services: East Edinburgh Edition
Sometimes, something happens that restores your faith in activism, and humanity in general. This week, I had one of those moments at a public meeting for Save Our Services East Edinburgh. I’ve been to a lot of meetings since the Coalition government came to power, and not all of them have been terribly interesting or [...]
More arrests at @UKUncut actions
UK Uncut protesters have been arrested in Edinburgh and Manchester. In Manchester, 9 people were held, according to the BBC, on “suspicion of breach of the peace”. In Edinburgh, 2 people were also arrested on suspicion of breach of the peace outside BHS. According to protesters at the scene, the arresting officer had said that [...]
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