Opinion: Flat SUV Tyres and Soupy Van Goghs: 2022 Was a Vintage Year for Climate Protest
by Clare Hymer
The government's insatiable protest crackdown has forced climate activists to get creative this year, writes Clare Hymer.
Tag: activism
Report: This Protester Committed No Crime But Is Going to Prison Anyway
by Denise Laura Baker & Josie Argyle
On 23 September, climate activist Elliott Cuciurean was sentenced to 268 days in prison. He hadn't committed any crime, but instead had breached HS2's injunction. Denise Laura Baker and Josie Argyle report on the privatisation of protest policing.
Report: How We Won: The Activists Who Put a Stop to TUI’s Deportation Flights
by Sophie K Rosa
After just over a year of organising, a group of activists successfully ended airline TUI’s involvement in Home Office deportation flights. Sophie K Rosa reports.
Opinion: Anti-Vax Canadian Truckers Deserve Our Solidarity
by Shanice McBean
Justin Trudeau is freezing the bank accounts of Canadian truckers protesting vaccine mandates. The left should be up in arms, argues Shanice McBean, whatever we think of the protesters’ politics.
Feature: The ‘Colston 4’ Won by Invoking History – And Using It to Build a Strong Legal Defence
by Priyanka Raval
Since the Colston 4 were found not guilty last week, the right has sought to claim their win was ideological - an assault on the rule of law. This is simply not the case, writes Priyanka Raval: the group’s legal defence was robust.
Downstream: Were Trans People “Born This Way”?
In debates around the rights of transgender people, a charge often levelled at those fighting for trans inclusion is that their arguments rest on a denial of biological facts. Michael Walker speaks to biologist Julia Serano about what so-called ‘gender critical’ thinkers get wrong about sex and gender, and whether trans activists should embrace the argument that they were “born this way”.
Report: How We Won: The Local Activists That Took on Big Oil on the Isle of Wight
by Florence Wildblood
Ending a six-year battle, a group of local activists successfully fought off an oil company’s plans to drill on the Isle of Wight. Florence Wildblood reports.
Downstream: The Capitalist War Being Waged on Disabled People
Ellen Clifford speaks to Michael Walker about her book “The War on Disabled People: Capitalism, Welfare and the Making of Human Catastrophe”, including an explanation of the Social Model of Disability, the history of the Disabled People’s Movement, and the disastrous consequences of austerity policies.
Long Read: How We Won: The Activist Deceived By a Spycop Who Took on the Met
by Alex D King
An activist, with the help of other women who had been tricked into relationships with spycops, has achieved a landmark ruling that said the Met’s use of undercover police officers is a violation of human rights.
Analysis: David Graeber Was Right: A Debt Free World Is Possible
by Andrew Ross
David Graeber played a vital role in the debt cancellation movement, showing everyone, from activists to policymakers, that mass debt cancellation is not only possible now, it's been happening for centuries. This is the first article in our series exploring the life and ideas of David Graeber on the first anniversary of his death.
Report: OnlyFans’ Ban – and Its Suspension – Shows That Banks Have a Chokehold on Sex Work
by Marin Scarlett
A muddled legal landscape provides the perfect cover for financial institutions to discriminate with impunity, writes Marin Scarlett.
Report: A Deportation Flight Just Left for Vietnam. Why Was It So Hard to Stop?
by Rivkah Brown
Despite the valiant efforts of activists, the Home Office flight went ahead as planned on Wednesday afternoon. Rivkah Brown looks at why it couldn’t be stopped.
Report: A Group of Renters Just Won £19,000 From Their Billionaire Landlord – And They’re Just Getting Started
by Rivkah Brown
In a historic victory for renters everywhere, Somerford Grove Renters successfully sued their lawyered-up landlord and are now preparing dozens more suits. If successful, they stand to win half a million pounds. Rivkah Brown reports.
Opinion: England’s Footballers Are Changing the Conversation. It’s Time the Left Caught Up
by Chardine Taylor-Stone
The left can't let its anxieties about nationalism stop it from joining, and shaping, the conversation around football, writes Chardine Taylor-Stone.
Opinion: Rich States Would Rather Let Poor People Die Than Waive Coronavirus Vaccine Patents
by Charlie Young
Only 0.8% of people in low-income countries have been vaccinated against Covid-19, versus 42.2% in high-income countries. Charlie Young on how our governments have created vaccine apartheid in the ruthless pursuit of Big Pharma profits.
Report: We Are Occupying an Israeli-Owned Arms Factory to Protest Zionist Settler Colonialism
by An activist occupying an arms factory in Leicester
An activist occupying an Israeli-owned arms factory in Leicester speaks to Sophie K Rosa about the importance of direct action in opposing Zionist settler colonialism.
Analysis: The Tories’ Anti-Protest Clampdown Will Hit Black and Brown People Hardest
by Zehrah Hasan, James Aiken and Callum Lynch
The government is introducing a raft of legislation to enhance police powers and quash dissent. As always, racialised protesters will be at the sharp end of this authoritarianism, write Zehrah Hasan, James Aiken and Callum Lynch.
Downstream: The Influencer Industrial Complex. Interview With Moya Lothian-McLean
The last few years have heralded the rise of the influencer: social media users who have, in essence, found a way to get paid for being themselves on the internet. But has this commodification of the self poisoned the public sphere? Or are we witnessing the end of gatekeeping – and the beginnings of a […]