50 Years Since the Battle of Saltley Gate
50 years ago this week, tens of thousands of workers turned out to picket the Nechells gas works in Birmingham, turning the tide of the 1972 strike and securing victory for the miners.
4295 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.
The Borders Bill Will Rip New Holes in the Social Safety Net
An estimated 1.3 million people in Britain are already at risk of destitution as a result of No Recourse to Public Funds – and Priti Patel’s Nationality and Borders Bill would make the situation even worse.
Remembering Norma Waterson
Norma Waterson, who has passed away aged 82, was an immense musical talent and tireless advocate of the traditional folk music that represented the joys, hopes and struggles of the working class – the class from which she proudly came.
They Could Stop the Energy Price Hike – if They Wanted To
Rishi Sunak’s ‘rebate’ won’t stop the energy price hike driving millions into poverty. But there’s an alternative: keep the current price cap, levy a windfall tax, and bring failing energy companies into public ownership.
It’s a Billionaires’ World, We’re Just Living in it
The obscene wealth of the world’s billionaires doesn’t just afford them a luxury lifestyle – it gives them control over the economy the rest of us rely on to live. That’s the reality of capitalism’s ‘free market.’
You Can’t Understand Poverty in Britain without Structural Racism
The government argues that structural racism doesn’t exist, but more than half of Britain’s black and Bangladeshi children grow up in poverty – a fact you can’t understand without seeing racial inequality.
66. Elite Capture: An interview with Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò
This week, Grace Blakeley speaks to writer Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò about how elites have captured identity politics – and how liberation movements can resist establishment co-optation.
The Landlord Subsidy
Under Margaret Thatcher, the Tories saw housing benefit as a way to prop up private landlords – and today, it does so the tune of billions of pounds per year. It’s time to build public housing instead.
How Media Scaremongering Made a Generation of Anti-Vaxxers
In the early 2000s, right-wing tabloids latched onto the suggestion of a link between the MMR vaccine and autism – and stirred up the fear that fuels the anti-vax movement to this day.
Privatisation Is the Real Rip-off
Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves recently argued that bringing utilities into public ownership wasn’t ‘good value for money’ – but for millions of people, privatisation has led to higher bills and worse services.
Amnesty Is Right: Israel Is an Apartheid State
Today, Amnesty International becomes the third major human rights organisation to describe Israel as an apartheid state – a sign that international sentiment is turning against its oppression of Palestinians.
When the Algorithm Is Your Boss
At workplaces like Amazon, algorithms have become the worst kind of boss – one who watches you constantly, makes impossible demands and then sacks you without explanation.
Bloody Sunday at 50
50 years ago today, British Paratroopers shot dead 14 unarmed civilians during a civil rights march in Derry. The massacre became a worldwide symbol of state brutality – and community resilience.
The ‘Great Resignation’ Is Our Chance to Change Hospitality for Good
The labour shortage in hospitality has bosses panicking – it’s the perfect time to unionise and force one of modern capitalism’s most exploitative sectors to overhaul the way it treats its workers.
The Next Pandemic
We can take action today to stop the next pandemic, from preventing environmental destruction to properly funding health systems across the world – but there is little sign that governments are willing to do it.
Honduras Is Latin America’s Latest Left Turn
Yesterday, Xiomara Castro was inaugurated as the new socialist president of Honduras, a little over a decade after a US-backed coup against Manuel Zelaya – it’s the latest sign that Latin America’s left is on the rise.
Don’t Trust the Met
The Met’s intervention into the Sue Gray report should come as no surprise: cover-ups are in its DNA.
Remembrance and Resistance
In August 1944, Auschwitz prisoners smuggled a camera into the gas chambers and took four shaky photographs of the horrors happening there. Their defiant act of documentation shaped our understanding of history forever.
Cricket’s Class Wars
The establishment often claims cricket has a ‘spirit’ that transcends the class divide. But from the sport’s early hostility to working class radicalism to the sell-off of fields under Thatcher, class is key to understanding its history.
The Tories Don’t Care About Your Freedom
Along with banning protest and engaging in voter suppression, the government’s attempt to dilute the Human Rights Act is the latest proof that the only right Tories care about is their right to screw you over.