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...
Richard Bell and Emory Douglas mural in Brisbane, Australia (CC 3.0) Another summer of sport is upon us. Well, maybe. We know better by now than to put dates in the diary without a ‘tbc’ alongside – even erstwhile calendar fixtures like the Olympic Games and European...
Credit: Wikimedia CC BY-SA 4.0 Enshrined in Cornish folklore are stories of rebellions against cases of English government encroachment, such as the Battle of Blackheath in 1497 and the Prayer Book Rebellion in 1549. Yet, unlike in other Celtic nations, there emerged...
Pilots have experienced unprecedented upheaval as a result of the pandemic. Credit: BALPA Imagine you’ve had your heart set on a particular career since you were a child. Having done your research on how to train for your dream career, you find out what the relevant...
Outside of a Komîngeh (credit: Ramazan Mendanlioglu) In the villages, cities and regions of Rojava, in the predominantly Kurdish north east of Syria, political upheaval has resulted in the largely decentralised self-administration of many areas, including health,...
Refugee solidarity sticker in Athens (Credit Kandukuru Nagarjun CC BY 2.0) ‘Resistance and aid’ is part three of three from a collection of essays on ‘social solidarity’ that were originally featured in issue #231, ‘People, Power, Place’, published in March 2021. Read...
Langar in Amritsar (Credit Shankar S CC BY 2.0) ‘The cauldron, the sword, victory!’ is part two of three from a collection of essays on ‘social solidarity’ that were originally featured in issue #231,‘People, Power, Place’, published in March 2021. Read part one here....
Hands in solidarity mural, Chicago, by Dan Manrique Arias (Credit Terence Faircloth CC BY-NC-ND 2.0) Covid-19 has illustrated both the potential and the need for communities to self-organise mutual support. Today’s necessities are stimulating us to discover the ways...