In the rising wave of international protests happening under the Occupy banner, Cairo’s Tahrir Square has gained iconic status, frequently invoked by activists from New York and Oakland to Barcelona and London. The substantial differences between what is happening now in Zuccotti Park, or outside St Paul’s Cathedral, and events […]
A front-page story in the Washington Post on July 31 of this year might have considered other reasons why growth has not led to more employment, besides simply claiming that growth has been “too slow”. First, the jobs that workers would have gone back to have largely been off-shored as […]
A while ago, I interviewed Herman Daly, whose article on labor policy is on the opposite page. Towards the end of our discussion, we had shifted focus from economics and politics when Mr. Daly invoked his teaching experience to drive home a crucial point. He would always ask his students […]
As human beings we have to be optimistic. There is nothing natural or inevitable about the current state of affairs. We all need to steer the social system. People these days are well aware of corporate bribery and corruption. You can hardly turn a newspaper page without reading about phone […]
Yesterday somebody called me a “wonderful person”. Over the past week I’ve also been told I’m “naïve”, “a breath of fresh air”, “self-indulgent” and “exactly the sort of person this country needs”. I’m on the verge of an identity crisis. This barrage of adjectives was delivered by passers-by at the […]
One of the biggest internal issues facing OccupyLSX at the moment is organisation and co-ordination. The progress in setting up the camp over the last month has been phenomenal. The camp now has a well established kitchen, on-site security, a media team, cleaners and groups working on welfare, policy, the […]
Welcome sisters, brothers. Today I want to speak to you of good and evil! What is usury? It is a charge made for the use of money. More or less, it means lending of money at interest, and medieval economic systems were dead set against it. Why? Because it threatened […]
The Occupy Movement isn’t just about bankers, or cuts. It’s much deeper, broader and more complex than that… and it’s got a lot to do with loving this earth we live on. Environment and economics are inextricably linked. One doesn’t have to understand fractional reserve banking to understand this. The […]
“All day, all week, we sleep on London’s freezing streets.” – Occupy LSX placard Let me start with a confession: I have not spent a single night sleeping at any of the occupations. If that appalls you, I can only apologise. However, I was one of two protesters that successfully […]
In 2011, a group of 16/17 year olds got access to the corridors of power and talked to top people in business, finance, politics and the media, and asked them who ran the place? Lots of people are asking the question ‘Who runs this place?’ Is it the bankers, the […]