Over the next three weeks I will be taking an in-depth look at the problems and some of the proposed solutions to what I sincerely believe is one of the most pressing yet under-discussed issues of today: namely, social housing policy. As the title suggests, I do realise that not many people flick through the [...]
The proms don’t normally get much in the way of political coverage. In fact the last time they did was about a year and a half ago when Margaret Hodge decided to make some stupid announcement about them not being inclusive enough, so it was a real joy to have such a politically charged concert [...]
The rabbi of Britain’s oldest synagogue, Bevis Marks in the East End of London, has been suspended over his participation in a protest against banks charging high interest rates.
A spectre is haunting Europe – the spectre of the professional politician.
In yesterday’s London paper the guest columnist, Mike Barnard, publicised the launch of a campaign to reinstate London’s rise festival. The background, for those who don’t know, is this: for about a decade, London – with financial support from trade unions – hosted a massive annual anti-racist music festival. When Boris came in he decided [...]
“He thinks we’re all bloody bourgeois” scoffed Austen Ivereigh, as he puffed on his Montecristo in a trendy bar in King’s Cross, whilst reading aloud David Broder’s response to yesterday’s Strangers Into Citizens demonstration. “This looks like it was written thirty years ago,” he chortled to himself. Ivereigh is a founder of the Strangers into [...]
Twenty people gathered in London’s East End on April 19th for a typically low key but poignant memorial ceremony. The Friends of Yiddish were marking the 66th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising – the vastly unequal battle that began on that day in 1943. Led by the youth, Jewish resistance forces in the ghetto [...]
“…to ‘send back’ every one of ‘these people’ would cost a total £6,250,000,000. That’s a ridiculous amount of money! We could have another war somewhere out of that!”
175 years ago this week there was a march of 100,000 people from Copenhagen Fields in Islington (before it became gentrified, of course) to Kennington Green, in support of the Tolpuddle Martyrs, who were sentenced to transportation to Australia, for setting up a union. There is a week of commemoration of these protests in and [...]
Todays march, entitled “Put People First”, fighting for social justice in the wake of the crisis was fantastic. An extremely diverse crowd of 70,000 people turned out to march in central London. Socialist organisations were out in force, as were environmentalist groups, and lots and lots of trade unionists. It is a rare thing to [...]
