(Credit: cover by Saqi books. Pride flag by Benson Kua) When you stand in front of a painting, you may only see the obvious at first. But when you look deeper and allow the painting to show you its layers, you see the hidden details, the hidden beauty and the love...
Pussy Riot in 2012 (Credit: Igor Mukhin) At a recent organising meeting, the facilitator asked us all: ‘What’s giving you political hope right now?’ The silence it prompted was only broken by sighs. Following a summer of strikes and growing union reach, the powerful...
Anti-gentrification in Brick Lane, London (Credit: Rebecca Neil) When sociologist Ruth Glass coined the term ‘gentrification’ in 1964, she was analysing how previously working-class areas of London were being taken over by middle-class residents. Since then,...
Grant Shapps by Simon Dawson / No 10 Downing Street, via flickr, shared under CC BY 2.0 Although the Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Bill is only seven pages long, its implications are enormous – but will be subject to minimal parliamentary scrutiny. The Bill adds to...
Kibagare in Nairobi (Credit: Ninara via Wikimedia Commons) ‘Maximum governance and control with minimum administration’ has become a mantra of how technology is used by state and private actors in a number of Africa’s cities. In Nairobi, Kenya’s capital and political,...
Edited from an original photo by JJ Harrison How am I meant to write about current affairs under these chaotic conditions? Goodness knows who the prime minister will be when this column is published. If a time traveller from two months into the future knocked on my...
(Credit: Pete Cannel) The 1970s were a decade defined by the power of the working-class movement. We may look back now and say that thetrade unions were radical and strong. However, as Willie Black recounts, that strength came from the rank and file. In reality,...
One of a series of rallies around the UK in response to hate crimes against Muslims, April 2018. Photo by Tim Dennell Tangled in Terror is an unapologetic intervention to the oversimplification of Islamophobia in popular culture, so crucial in a time of hot takes and...
NHS workers protesting in Norwich, 2020 (Credit: Roo Pitt) December saw nurses—overworked and underpaid— launch their biggest strike in British history. Nurses and ambulance workers are already on strike, but junior doctors and midwives are expected to join them this...
A protestor marches with a sign that reads ‘sacrifice our old age, increase their wealth. Photo credit: Phototheque Rouge, Martin Noda, Hans Lucas. On Thursday 19 January, millions of workers marched against French president Emmanuel Macron’s proposed pension reforms....
The figure of the superhero is not typically associated with left politics or protest. As Gil Scott-Heron reminded us, in the context of collective resistance, ‘There ain’t no such thing as superman.’ But the superhero protagonists of this short story anthology are...
Credit: Rahmat Ali Thirty-three million people have been affected by the floods in Pakistan. The disaster has left more than 1,700 dead, displaced millions and put one-third of the country under water. As we go to press, the water has still not receded in many areas....