Legalising Torture
The Overseas Operations Bill effectively decriminalises torture abroad. It’s been labelled a political reaction to a series of legal claims – but its real motivation is thoroughly ideological.
4297 Articles by:
Raven Hart
Raven Hart is co-founder of the Bristol Cooperative Alliance, an organisation that aims to promote a decentralised economy that empowers local communities and facilitates democratic self-determination.
Our Economy Shouldn’t Be Based on Glorified Gambling
The GameStop short squeeze raised questions about Wall Street reform – but the conversation it should have started was whether stock market speculation should direct investment in our economy at all.
Starmer’s War on Grassroots Politics
For Keir Starmer, scrapping the Community Organising Unit and attacking party democracy are part of a single project: to turn Labour back into a party of the establishment.
‘Fire and Rehire’ Hits Manchester’s Buses
In north Manchester, nearly 500 Go North West bus drivers are balloting for strike action over ‘fire and rehire’ proposals which would force them to accept longer hours and pay cuts – or face the sack.
At Home in the Welfare State
Sweden’s welfare state imagined a ‘Folkhemmet,’ or People’s Home, which is now being dismantled – but individual stories help us to remember what social democracy meant to the generation that built it.
Childcare Is a Workers’ Right
In the middle of a pandemic, Royal Mail are threatening to close a nursery that cares mainly for the children of postal workers – making them choose between a £1,000-per-month hike in costs or unemployment.
Scotland’s Red Council
North Ayrshire’s council is undertaking a bold experiment in municipal socialism – pursuing transformative policies on housing, the environment and workers’ rights which point the way towards a different kind of local government.
Thatcher’s Island
Britain is going through both an identity crisis and a process of political disintegration – both of which can trace their roots to the great national project of recent decades: neoliberal reform.
The NHS on Film
The launch of the National Health Service was accompanied by ‘Your Very Good Health’ – a witty, clever and progressive public information film that helped to win support for socialised medicine.
Artificial Intelligence: The Class Struggle’s Next Frontier
Artificial intelligence is being deployed at an increasingly rapid rate by corporate managers. Instead of vague conversations about its ethics, we need to be talking about how workers can use it too.
At-Home Abortions Are a Class Issue
Last year, the government made home-use abortion pills available to all. It’s now considering going back to clinic appointments – despite the time, money, and stress that at-home pills save.
The Anti-Colonial Revolution
Radical post-colonial leaders like Kwame Nkrumah and Julius Nyerere didn’t just want independence — they wanted to break the political and economic order that kept the Global South in subjugation.
The First Metropolis to Disappear
Patrick Keiller’s classic 1994 film ‘London’ combines a left-wing critique of the development of Britain’s capital with an ambitious aesthetic – but more than 25 years later, even its version of the city seems utopian.
Behind Durham’s Enduring Mining Tradition
The Durham Miners’ Gala is an institution of the British labour movement – but behind it, the Redhills building, Pitman’s Parliament and long-lasting Association provide a glimpse into the power of workers’ self-organisation.
Why We Need an NHS New Deal
Covid-19 has exposed the crisis in our NHS and the need for a radical overhaul. It’s time to restore a proper public health system that puts patients and workers before the interests of private profit.
How Big Tech Is Becoming the Government
A handful of Big Tech corporations now wield more power than most national governments. It’s time to subject them to democratic control – before their power erodes democracy.
What a ‘Just Transition’ Would Really Look Like
Any strategy for combatting climate change that doesn’t focus on delivering well-paid, unionised jobs is doomed to fail – we need a vision of a Green New Deal with workers at its heart.
The Marxist Rupert Murdoch
In the 1920s and ’30s, German publisher Willi Münzenberg built a network of magazines, newspapers and film studios that terrified big business interests. It became the largest left-wing media operation in history.
Marseille’s Left-Wing Government on the Rocks
Last June, France’s second city of Marseille voted for a left-wing government after two decades of conservative rule – but maintaining a broad coalition amid Covid-19 financial pressures is proving difficult to manage.
How the Bank of England Is Deepening Covid-19 Inequality
By pumping billions of pounds into quantitative easing programmes, the Bank of England is propping up the asset and stock prices of the rich – in the midst of an unemployment crisis that is hammering workers.