‘Happy Thatcher’s Dead Day’: Twitter Remembers the Iron Lady
Novara Reporters
Today marks the second anniversary of the death of Margaret Thatcher. Twitter has been reflecting on the moment we learned "the lady's not returning."
Articles
The struggle for decent homes cuts to the heart of post-crisis Britain
Lewis Bassett
We're told that growth is back, yet all around working class people are being smothered with escalating rents - many being forcibly moved or made homeless. What is the 'housing crisis', what makes it so bad and what is the answer?
11 Quick Reflections on the Leaders’ Debate
Adam Ramsay
Last night's seven-way leaders' debate brought in a third of TV viewers, and was the only time ahead of the general election that David Cameron and Ed Miliband will be in a studio together. The SNP's Nicola Sturgeon seems to have pulled out in front, with Farage also polling highly.
4 Reasons Why Technological Unemployment Might Really Be Different This Time
Nick Srnicek
What does automation mean for the future of employment? Some fear it will cast us to the scrapheap while the automated economy grinds on; others argue technological developments have always created new jobs. But could it ever mean something different entirely?
3 Reasons the UAL Occupation Matters to FE, HE and the Free Education Movement
Tom Scrivener
Like other recent direct actions such as at LSE, the University of the Arts London occupation is rooted in the free education movement. But the task of articulating longer term goals alongside combating immediate course cuts presents fresh challenges for students in the face of an ongoing restructuring of education.
8 Reasons the Curriculum is White
the 'Why is my Curriculum White?' collective, UCL
Following a recent survey by the NUS Black Students' campaign which demonstrated a commonly felt Eurocentric bias, a collective of students have been taking a sustained look at the omnipresent phenomenon of the 'white curriculum'.
4 Things We Learned from the Blockupy Mobilisation in Frankfurt
Hamid Mohseni
On 18 March demonstrators from across Europe converged on Frankfurt with the aim of crashing the opening party of the new European Central Bank building. As it turned out, they shut the city down and left the German - and global - media in a frenzy.
3 Things You Need to Know About the Israeli Elections and the Palestinians
Alia Al Ghussain
Netanyahu's Likud party has won the Knesset elections, confirming the Israeli PM for a fourth term. While Israel's allies laud the latest elections in 'only democracy in the Middle East', the media narrative belies the systematic disenfranchisement of Palestinians who will be negatively impacted by the results.
Access, Intersectionality, Autonomy: What the NUS’s Misuse of Language Means for the Left
Tom Scrivener
NUS conference is around the corner, and student activists and bureaucrats of varying stripes will undoubtedly wage war against one another once again. In recent years some key concepts from the radical left have gained traction with the NUS mainstream, but what does that mean for the left?
4 Things I Learnt from Arguing with University Management
John Murray
Provoked by the outcry over a police attack on a student sit-in last December, the Centre for Human Rights in Practice at the University of Warwick held a 'protest summit'. Free education activists and university bosses were invited onto the panel, making for a revealing - and sometimes heated - exchange of views.
#ReclaimIWD: 7 Reflections from Inside the University of London’s Feminist Occupation
Helena Dunnett-Orridge
8 March is International Women’s Day, and to mark the occasion free education activists from across the country have spent the weekend in an occupation of Senate House at the University of London.
‘Monsters and white knights’: Ukip’s crusade against sexual violence is white supremacy by another name
Eleanor Penny
Rotherham is still reeling from the council's exposed abuse cover-ups. Ukip continue to capitalise on the situation by tying sexual abuse to 'failed multiculturalism' - reiterating racist tropes and bolstering white supremacist leanings along the way.
4 Ways Generation Y is Being Taken for a Ride (and 3 Ways it’s Pushing Back)
AltGen
Youth unemployment is sky-rocketing and Cameron is seeking to take away benefits from young people. Against this trend of declining living standards, students in the US are organising debt strikes and in the UK youth-led workers' co-operatives are multiplying.
5 Reasons the Graduate Tax isn’t a Patch on Free Education
Callum Cant
In the face of a burgeoning free education movement, Labour is making noises about reducing the fee cap and moving to a graduate tax model. But can this really match up to what the free education movement is demanding? (Spoiler: no.)
Radical Lives: Omar Aziz
Budour Hassan
From IT consultant to Syrian revolutionary, Omar Aziz might have looked an unlikely rebel on paper. However, his push for local councils in and around Damascus enabled new levels of coordination between militants and aided the functioning of cities under siege.
The Global Law Summit: Height of Hypocrisy
Grace Loncraine
Next week Justice Secretary, Lord Chancellor and legal aid axe-wielder is planning to mark the 800th anniversary of the Magna Carta with a networking fair for the elite under the guise of a 'Global Law Summit'. Luckily justice campaigners are preparing to show him up for the hypocrite he is.
Greek Negotiations: 5 Key Things We Need to Get to Grips With
Christina Laskaridis
While we waited with baited breath for a resolution, Greece's Eurogroup negotiations on Monday broke down again. Rumours of a drafted - and crucially scrapped - agreement linger, but it's difficult to draw conclusions yet. Here are five key things the negotiations are forcing us to grapple with.
I’m about to be a new Dad and my child will live in poverty.
Trevor Bastard
Rents are rising and wages falling. Even for those with median incomes, private rent costs are pushing people further into poverty.