The Liberal Myth of London 2012
London’s 2012 Olympics opened a decade ago today. In the time since, the event has become a symbol for centrists of an ideal, progressive Britain that never really existed.
4299 Articles by:
Rae Hart
Rae Deer is an economist and freelance writer.
Letting Down the North Again
Since 2019 the public spending gap between the North and London has doubled – a reminder that government talk of ‘levelling up’ has so far been little more than hot air.
Struggle is Brewing at Budweiser
Despite spiralling living costs, employees at the Budweiser factory in Samlesbury were offered an insulting 3% pay rise – in response, these ‘beer heroes’ went on strike for the first time ever.
Keeping Manchester’s Modernism Alive
The Manchester Modernist Society has spent over a decade popularising and democratising the neglected spaces of post-war modernism – but now they need our support.
Not Just Looking
Ana Kinsella’s ‘Look Here’ is a book about fashion, but also one about the personal politics of moving around the city before and during the pandemic.
Remembering the 1972 Building Workers’ Strike
This summer 50 years ago, British building workers, long considered impossible to organise nationally, went out on strike and won the largest single builders’ pay rise ever – but they were met with state persecution and blacklisting.
BT Workers Are Striking Against Corporate Greed
The first BT and Openreach strike since 1987 pits engineers and call centre workers, many of whom are forced to rely on foodbanks, against a massively profitable corporation – and executives who earn millions of pounds a year.
The Market Can’t Save Us
From the cost of living crisis to climate chaos, our era is defined by enormous social challenges – and the private sector has shown it can’t solve them. It’s time for massive state intervention in the economy.
150 Years of ‘The Housing Question’
Friedrich Engels’ 1872 pamphlet ‘The Housing Question’ highlighted the mutual reliance between the housing crisis and the capitalist system in Victorian England. In the years since, that relationship has only deepened.
The Real Divide Isn’t Generation – It’s Class
The media tries to pit the old against the young in a generation war – but the dividing line that really defines our society is the one between classes.
Workers Need a Maximum Temperature
Working in excessive heat is dangerous, and we can’t trust bosses to do anything to protect us – workers need a maximum temperature and a new trade union campaign is fighting to achieve it.
For a Socialist Labour Students
Labour Students has historically been a by-word for gerrymandering and neoliberal politics – but when ballots open next week, student members have the chance to refound it as a campaigning, socialist wing.
Remembering the Pentonville Five
On this day in 1972, five trade unionists were arrested after refusing to obey an injunction against picketing. We republish a report from Tribune on the campaign which secured their freedom.
The Forde Report’s Villains Now Control the Labour Party
Far from drawing a line under party factionalism, the Starmer leadership has elevated the very Labour Right fixers whose conduct is most criticised in the Forde Report – and given them licence to remake the party in their image.
Inside the Arriva North West Strike
As Britain’s strike wave intensifies, 1,800 Arriva North West bus drivers have called a continuous strike – the latest group of workers to take to the picket lines in the fight for a real pay rise.
The Forde Report Proves Labour’s Racism – And it Hasn’t Gone Away
For many black and Asian members of Labour, the Forde report’s findings of racism in the party are no surprise – but that didn’t stop them being ignored by swathes of the mainstream media.
Teachers Are At Breaking Point
In June, Nadhim Zahawi called possible strikes by teachers ‘unforgiveable’. What’s really unforgiveable is subjecting overstretched education workers to a real-terms pay cut in a cost of living crisis.
87. Inequality Matters w/ Mike Savage
This week, Grace speaks to Mike Savage, author of The Return of Inequality, about the renewed focus on inequality in politics – and how different forms of inequality are inextricably linked.
How the Labour Party Betrayed its Young Members
In response to today’s Forde Report, Keir Starmer said he had ‘rid the party of destructive factionalism.’ My experience as chair of Young Labour shows that’s not true.
The Privatisation of Children’s Social Care Is a National Scandal
The privatisation of children’s social care services is definitive proof that the elite puts profit before its responsibilities – even to society’s most acutely vulnerable.