Mark Ruffalo’s Twitter climb-down on Palestine At the grassroots level, support for Palestinian rights appears to have grown louder this year, thanks partly to support from other social movements like Black Lives Matter. Yet, despite Israel’s two-week bombing of Gaza...
What motivates you to run for Unite GS and what distinguishes your bid from the other candidates? Sharon Graham: I led my first walk-out at 17 and I understand the power of trade unions to change lives. I want fundamental change. Positive, progressive change. The...
The Birmingham Rep theatre is located in Centenary Square, Birmingham. Photo: Ell Brown (Creative Commons) There has been a fine history of theatre challenging prejudice but the government’s counter-extremism Prevent strategy is pushing theatre in a different...
Picton Library, Liverpool (Image: Terry Kearney) In her book Steal as Much as You Can (Repeater, 2019), Nathalie Olah observes the disparity between the reality of life for the majority in the UK and the perspectives that populate the presses of the mainstream...
Fans mark Neville Southall’s 60th birthday in September 2018 with a special banner at Everton’s ground, Goodison Park Neville Southall, the league-winning former Wales and Everton goalkeeper, has been described as one of his era’s greatest players. He’s also an...
One of the first of the 2010-11 UK student protests in London, 10 November 2010. Photo: lewishamdreamer (Creative Commons) The student protests of 2010-11 in the UK marked a period of largescale demonstrations and occupations in defence of education as a public good....
Placard held at a Black Lives Matter protest in Surrey. Photo by Martin Pettitt Critical race theory (CRT) is under attack. From the Republican Party and its allies, the political right globally, reactionary academics and defenders of white power on social media....
This is an excellent book to read alongside The Shadow of the Mine* in the fallout from this year’s nationwide elections. While the latter’s historical view and sensitive narrative helps us understand Labour’s disastrous results in most of the North East – Newcastle...
An advertisement for a vacuum cleaner published in Reader’s Digest, 1956. Photo: SenseiAlan (Creative Commons) Life under the pandemic reminds us of many things, but perhaps none more sharply than the importance of what goes on in our homes – not just to our daily...
A member of Glasgow’s No Evictions Network at the Kenmure Street action. Photo: Dale Harvey On the morning of 13 May 2021, an Immigration Compliance and Enforcement (ICE) van was spotted on Kenmure Street in Pollokshield, Glasgow. Local activists from the No Evictions...
Commonwealth Prime Ministers’ Conference at Windsor Castle, 1960 We are usually presented with a set of typical images of the British royal family: the queen as an elderly (great-)grandmother clutching her iconic handbag; Prince William, Kate Middleton and their...
A 2008 graphic depicting trends in global climate change, as shown at the Web 2.0 summit in San Francisco. Photo: Ian Kennedy (Creative Commons) Power can lead to such overweening confidence that its holders believe they can avoid the world as it is if it doesn’t fit...