When Tahrir Square was occupied as part of the struggle against President Mubarak in Egypt, it became the iconic image of what was dubbed the ‘Arab Spring’. Inspired by events in the Middle East, when US activists set up tents in New York’s financial district it began the global phenomenon […]
There’s a song by Stephen Sondheim, in the only musical about local government I can think of, that goes: “Everybody says don’t, Everybody says don’t walk on the grass, Don’t disturb the peace, Don’t skate on the ice…” This seems to be the kind of Britain we have now, where the […]
Occupiers organised assemblies and discussions, music jams and poetry slams, talks, workshops, films and livestreaming at The Green Gathering, a small festival held near Chepstow in early August. The Green Gathering’s Occupy camp consisted of an Info Tent and archive gallery housed in a bespoke geodesic dome, freshly-painted ‘Occupy’ and […]
Jeffrey Sachs, director of the Earth Institute and professor of sustainable development at Columbia University, said recently that the urgency of climate change and the immaturity of the renewable energy industry, leave us with little option but to expand our nuclear power production. In so doing, he joined a group of vocal […]
Maverick organic farmer and activist Hector Christie was arrested in May for pulling up genetically modified (GM) crops at the Rothampstead Research centre in Harpenden. On 24 August, he was fined a total of over £4000 for the damage caused, though the valuation has never been released to the defence. […]
The UN’s Rio+20 declaration, ‘The Future We Choose’, warns that “the scientific evidence is unequivocal…the time to act is now!” With this document, the UN calls for “a great transformation” emerging from the recognition that business as usual is no longer sufficient. Humankind is now in the “Anthropocene” and must live within […]
It’s happened before, in 1848 and in 1968. The youth of the world took to the streets to protest the injustices of autocratic political regimes and rapacious business interests, and to demand the basic human right to participate as equal citizens in the affairs of society. On October 15th, millions of […]
London’s Free University (LFU) was inaugurated at the Bank of Ideas in November 2011. The aim was to provide free education in free spaces; free in the sense that nobody would have to pay but also free from the restrictions of contemporary institutionalised learning. Many people at that first and subsequent meetings were […]
By August 2011, the average Brit had endured months of headlines detailing shocking deceit and manipulation. With the News of the World phone hacking scandal having taken place under the editorship of then Conservative Party Communications Chief Andy Coulson, and overseen by David Cameron’s long-time Christmas bunting chum Rebekah Brooks, […]
In 2010, the Higher Education sector, like so many other social provisions coveted by the coalition, was caught in the pincers of neoliberal reform. Like New Labour before, coalition ideologues have reasserted the belief that Higher Education will only be ‘sustainable’ when the ‘dead hand’ of the state is removed […]