Deliveroo riders demonstration in Shoreditch, London (Flickr, CC BY-NC 2.0) Back at the beginning of March, the chancellor Rishi Sunak was breathless in his praise for the forthcoming stock market debut of Deliveroo. Despite long-standing complaints from riders about...
Surinder Bassi and other strikers on a march through Smethwick, 1992. Photo: Inqilab magazine The workers involved in the 1992-3 Burnsall strike, which took place at a small car part factory in Birmingham, gained national support in their fight for union recognition,...
A parade at the 2019 Durham Miners Gala, held annually on the second Saturday of July Imagine the mixture of pride and elation at getting a letter from the Durham Miners’ Association, asking you to speak at the annual Durham Miners’ Gala – the ‘Big Meeting’ I have...
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...