Articles

Opinion: I Work in a Restaurant. I Didn’t Choose to Go Back on ‘Super Saturday’ – I Had To

Many hospitality workers have survived lockdown on as little as 55% of their usual take-home pay. Bar and restaurant staff didn't go back to work at the weekend because they felt safe, writes hospitality worker Billie Walker, they went back because of the immense financial pressure to do so.

Opinion: Coronavirus Will Accelerate Automation. So Why the Calls for ‘Jobs Jobs Jobs’?

For more than a decade, a different kind of economy has been emerging all around us. Calls for ‘jobs jobs jobs’ fail to recognise that far from just creating temporary problems for businesses, coronavirus is accelerating changes which were already coming, argues Aaron Bastani.

Analysis: Of Course Israel Exports Arms and Policing Practices – It Has Spent Decades ‘Battle-Testing’ Them on Palestinians

Israel has made a lucrative business out of exporting arms and policing techniques. To deny this is to deny the lived experience of Palestinians - as well as countless books, research papers and human rights reports, write Riya Al'sanah and Rafeef Ziadah.

Opinion: Now is the Time to Fight Racism in the NHS

With health professionals fleetingly elevated to the status of heroes during this pandemic, we must capitalise on this moment to ensure that meaningful steps are taken to build on the Black Lives Matter movement and dismantle racism in our healthcare system, argue junior doctors Jo Dobbin and Rahma Abdi.

Long Read: Turbulence in Macron’s France: A Recent History

Between his hated pension reforms, handling of the pandemic, open disdain for the democratic process and frequent recourse to police repression, Emmanuel Macron's teflon sheen has well and truly worn off. Nicolas Jara-Joly and Theirry Labica survey 'La Macronie' so far and look ahead to 2022's presidential election.

Report: London Councils Paid Private Landlords £15.8m in a Year to Get Them to Rent to Homeless Families

Exclusive: Data obtained by Novara Media shows that London councils are paying landlords costly incentives to house tenants who are homeless or at risk of homelessness in private rented properties - many of them in poor condition. Nye Jones reports.

Opinion: Liberals Are the Ones Hijacking BLM. Racial Justice Is Always Political

In identifying with the Black Lives Matter ‘moment’ in its most woolly and apolitical form, white people like Keir Starmer have claimed ownership of an anti-racist movement that began with Black people demanding justice. The movement is inherently political, and we must not let it be delegitimised or hollowed out, writes Wail Qasim.

Opinion: We Have Let Israel Dispossess, Displace and Ethnically Cleanse Palestinians for Decades

As Israel intensifies its campaign against Palestine by preparing to annex the West Bank, we must remember that its actions have not come out of nowhere, writes Malia Bouattia. Instead, they are the outcome of decades of inaction and complicity by foreign governments and companies.

Opinion: Britain’s Covid-19 Death Toll Goes Far Beyond Its Borders

Since the outbreak of Covid-19, criticism of the British government has focused on negligence within the UK’s own borders. But from Yemen to Iraq, Britain’s responsibility for the global death toll goes far further than is being reported, argues David Wearing.

Opinion: The Policing We Have Seen and Experienced at the Black Lives Matter Protests Is Racist

Metropolitan Police commissioner Cressida Dick recently claimed that it is no longer 'helpful or accurate' to describe the police as institutionally racist. As legal observers with lived experience of racism, we disagree, write Zehrah Hasan and Brenda Efurhievwe from Black Protest Legal Support.

Opinion: What Does Keir Starmer Actually Want?

Successful politicians need convictions, especially in moments of crisis. But whether it's on the economy, climate change, public services or racist policing, it’s unclear whether Keir Starmer actually has any, argues Aaron Bastani.

Opinion: Long-Bailey’s Sacking Shows How Antisemitism Has Been Dangerously Redefined

On Thursday afternoon Labour leader Keir Starmer sacked the lone leftwinger in his shadow cabinet, accusing her of antisemitism. Barnaby Raine traces a recent history of how antisemitism has been redefined by liberals and the right.

Opinion: To Build the Movement in a Post-Corbyn Era, We Need to Build Democracy

Momentum’s National Coordinating Group election has attracted huge attention in recent weeks. Keir Milburn argues it's been vital for the recomposition of the UK left - and, most importantly, has highlighted the need for a new attitude towards democracy and elections.

Black Britannia: There Is a Long, Racist History of State Surveillance of Black Communities

At the height of the Black Power movement, fears over the activities of Black radical activists led the British state to undertake an extensive and covert surveillance mission, aimed at suppressing any challenges to its authority. In the second instalment of our series Black Britannia, Bryan Knight explores this period of heightened police surveillance and how it relates to our current political moment.

Opinion: Yes, Zoomers Might Just Save the World

However bad a deal millennials might have had, it’s much worse for ‘generation Z’ or ‘zoomers’. But with climate breakdown and Black Lives Matter politicising this new generation, it increasingly feels like we’re on the brink of mass political upheaval, argues Aaron Bastani.

Report: As the Airline Industry Faces Coronavirus Collapse, It Is Outsourcing the Crisis on to Workers

With Covid-19 decimating the airline industry, British Airways has proposed mass lay-offs, wage cuts and less predictable shift patterns as their means of staying competitive. But staff, who say the airline has consistently failed to consult them, are fighting back. Laith Saad reports.

Opinion: Rave Culture Is Culture: Instead of Starting a Moral Panic, the Government Should Make Them Safe

As lockdown lifts, experiments have shown that raves can be run safely. Despite this, the government will inevitably allow them to happen last, due to raving posing a challenge to the Tories’ staunchly neoliberal economic and moral agendas, argues academic Marie-Avril Berthet.

Analysis: Beyond Bernie: Is Jamaal Bowman the Next AOC?

Two years ago this week, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez shocked the political world by successfully unseating one of the most established Democrats in Washington DC. Can progressive newcomer Jamaal Bowman do the same, forcing the Democratic party further left in the process? Freddie Stuart takes a closer look in the third instalment of our series on the US 2020 elections.