In one of Rome’s degraded suburbs, the Tufello neighbourhood, project ‘Puzzle’ was born. In areas like this one, local politicians are unable or unwilling to provide the community with basic services and leave residents to fend for themselves. The failures of institutional politics leave buildings which could provide essential services […]
Western Sahara may be the forgotten country of the Arab Spring but Stefan Simanowitz takes hope from its latest victory in the European Parliament. According to Noam Chomsky, the Arab Spring did not begin in Tunisia with the self-immolation of a market-seller, but instead can be traced back to the massive […]
As headlines roll with stories of ‘deadly clashes between protestors and the military’ on the 26th of February, 9th of March, 9th of April, 28th of June, 1st of August, 9th of September, 9th of October, 19th of November and 16th of December; one wonders if anything is happening in […]
From Athens to Lisbon, Madrid to London, Frankfurt to New York, a much delayed popular response to the 2008 financial crash took shape in 2011. Assurances by politicians of a much promised recovery rang hollow, and a recovery in the stock markets left almost all of society behind, provoking enormous […]
Looming evictions are competing with a desire to stay on and engage more people into kicking the system. There’s a vertiginous sense of standing on the brink of something massive, of making history… and a parallel fear that Occupy could stumble and disappear down a crack leaving only a cyber-echo […]
ON TRIAL IN THE ROYAL COURTS OF JUSTICE, FLEET STREET Through airport-style security into a hallway of imposing arches and mosaic floors, past a glass case containing relics of Guy Fawkes’ trial, I push open heavy doors and enter the gallery above Court 25, where Occupiers are crammed onto narrow […]
The protest movement that began in Tunisia in January, subsequently spreading to Egypt, and then to Spain, has now become global, with the protests engulfing Wall Street and cities across America. Globalization and modern technology now enables social movements to transcend borders as rapidly as ideas can. And social protest […]
I have named the way wealth moves in our society as The Lottery Principle. In this system the poor create the rich: a tiny number of winners, with huge payoffs, are entirely funded by the slight impoverishment of the vast majority. This Lottery Principle is a useful summary of what […]
At Occupy we talk a lot about economic injustice, but less attention is paid to how our legal system legitimises and perpetuates the status quo. For example, consider the legal obligation of company directors to maximise profits for shareholders, above all other considerations. Such obligations, ingrained in the status quo of our […]
Recently had the good fortune to interview Newsnight economics editor Paul Mason at a comedy gig. His message wasn’t funny. He drew analogies with the 1930s – the descent to fascism – and with Europe’s failed revolutions of 1848: “When you get home, Google 1849” he told us “the bourgeoisies turned on […]