coronavirus | Novara Media

Opinion: Big Unions Aren’t Up to the Job Anymore

Lydia Hughes

Unions have a crucial role to play in determining who benefits from changes to the nature of work. But many established unions are already struggling to keep up, writes Lydia Hughes, leaving smaller, newer unions to try to meet the changing needs of modern workers.

Opinion: Students, Here’s How to Organise a Rent Strike

Rosa Porter

Universities conned thousands of students into returning to campuses across the country, only to almost immediately lock them inside their dilapidated and overpriced halls, while all teaching takes place online. For students who feel they have been treated unfairly, now is the time to strike, writes housing activist Rosa Porter - and here's how to do it.

Opinion: Covid-19 Has Shown University Isn’t About Educating Young People – It’s About Exploiting Them

The spectacle of student lockdowns at British universities may seem absurd. But it’s just the logical conclusion of a system in which everything - including higher education - is subordinated to the interests of rentiers, landlords and big business, writes Aaron Bastani.

Residents and their families in an elderly care home.

Analysis: Money Alone Won’t Fix the Care Crisis – We Need a Radical Rethink

Emma Dowling

Perma-austerity and the persistent devaluation of care work have left social care in a deficit of millions. But throwing money at the problem won’t make it go away. What we need is a radical rethink, writes Emma Dowling - one that puts care workers and the communities they serve at the helm.

Novara Live: Where’s the Support, Sunak?

Michael Walker and Aaron Bastani discuss Sunak’s lacklustre Job Support Scheme. Plus COVID chaos on UK campuses, why casual sex is still banned, Whittome sacked for opposing Torture.

Analysis: The Tories’ New Support Scheme Shows They’re Adapting to Our New Reality. The Left Must Do the Same

James Meadway

While the Tories' new Job Support Scheme is in no way sufficient in meeting the challenge of rebuilding the economy, it does, however, signal a tentative acceptance of the need for developing a longer-term strategy in adapting to our new Covid reality. It is therefore vital, writes James Meadway, that the left forms a response of its own.

Novara Live: Starmer’s Address to the Nation

Michael Walker and Dalia Gebrial Respond to Keir Starmer’s Address to the Nation on Covid-19. Plus, top scientists say Johnson’s new restrictions aren’t good enough, China commits to carbon neutrality by 2060 and RLB’s replacement gets Labour in trouble.

Report: ‘It Scares Me to Think Where We’ll End Up’: The Renters Facing Homelessness Now the Eviction Ban Has Lifted

HG

With the eviction ban lifted this week, thousands of renters have found themselves faced with the prospect of being made homeless during a global pandemic. Joining calls from activists and campaign groups, they are demanding that they be protected, reports HG.

Analysis: Our Financialised Care System is Built on a House of Cards – We Urgently Need to Rebuild It

Annie Quick and Alice Martin

Care homes in the UK, like much of the care sector, are highly financialised - but there are signs the model is faltering. If we’re going to improve care quality as well as wages and conditions in the sector, we need to build both worker and user-led power, argue Annie Quick and Alice Martin.

Novara Live: Johnson’s Address to the Nation

Michael Walker and Aaron Bastani react to Johnson’s address to the nation.

Two people sat facing shuttered high street shops.

Analysis: Why the Decline of High Street Retail Could Have Troubling Consequences for Our Freedom

Alan Bradshaw

Coronavirus is killing the high street, further accelerating us into a world of big data and algorithm-mediated shopping. Alan Bradshaw argues the shift could have dangerous political implications, allowing corporations to structure and rationalise our lives in previously unimagined ways.

Novara Live: Second Wave Incoming

Coronavirus cases are doubling every week. Hospital admissions are rising. And – if Britain doesn’t change course – more deaths are on the way. That was the message from the UK’s Chief Medical Officer and Chief Scientific Advisor in a live public broadcast this morning. Is it time to panic?? Plus, Labour’s online conference, the […]

Novara Live: Lockdown Reloaded

10 million people in the UK now live under local restrictions, and a nationwide lockdown looks to be incoming. Will the government come to regret bullying us into our offices, and giving us all discounts in pubs? Plus: why no-one understands government testing figures (including Matt Hancock); Priti Patel’s War on Cocaine; Joe Biden’s Beef […]

Opinion: We Must Not Let the Government Blame Students for a Second Wave

Dana Mills

It isn't safe for students to return to university campuses, and letting them do so gives the government somebody else to blame if Covid cases rise again. Dana Mills argues that lecturers must heed the call of unions and learn from the example of the United States, and insist that teaching happens online.

Report: The Police Are Using Coronavirus to Crack Down on Protest

Rivkah Brown

Police are forcing organisers to cancel demonstrations or face arrest and a £10,000 fine under new Covid laws. Activists say 'unworkable restrictions' and harsh sanctions pose an escalating threat to the right to protest. Rivkah Brown reports.

Novara Live: Born Again Brexiteer

Since becoming Labour leader Keir Starmer has avoided taking concrete positions on matters of policy. However, on one issue he’s been crystal clear: It’s time to get brexit done. It is in direct contrast to the position he took as Brexit secretary under Jeremy Corbyn. How did Starmer go from being Labour’s remainer-in-chief, to a born […]

Tag: coronavirus

Opinion: Big Unions Aren’t Up to the Job Anymore

Lydia Hughes

Opinion: Covid-19 Has Shown University Isn’t About Educating Young People – It’s About Exploiting Them

Aaron Bastani