The Metropolitan Police has evicted two buildings recently squatted as part of actions against the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill (PCSCB). And a personal account from one of the squatters shows once again how […]
Somalia
Somalia’s location has led to it becoming a battleground in the fight for regional influence. Somalia has suffered decades of horrific conflict. Dictator Siad Barre’s fall from power in 1991 was a major turning point, […]
Protests sparked after police neck-kneeling kills refugee in Mexico
Trigger Warning: this article discusses police brutality and gender-based violence. Neck-kneeling is a dangerous and controversial technique that police officers use around the world. In May 2020, George Floyd died in the US after […]
Bristol’s Kill The Bill protest movement has its own ‘Matapacos’ riot dog
On 27 March, a protester at Bristol’s Kill the Bill demo was seemingly defended by a police dog. The canny hound turned on a police officer and bit him; this appeared to set the man free. […]
Hostages on their own land. Chile is waging war on the indigenous community
The Mapuche people – whose territory spans across the southern regions of Chile and Argentina – have a long history of colonial resistance. They make up Chile’s largest indigenous ethnic group and were never fully […]
Why the new policing bill is also chillingly racist
The new policing bill essentially threatens to criminalise one of the UK’s most discriminated minority communities and destroy the fabric of their lives. It’s also racist. A rising number of people know that the Police, […]
Six years on: the global scandal of Yemen’s ongoing devastation
Western ally Saudi Arabia led a war coalition into Yemen in 2015. The conflict arising from this aggression has reportedly killed around 233,000 people so far. And the UN has consistently called this “the world’s […]
Israel and the occupation of Palestine
Israel and its founding ideology – political Zionism – are unique in today’s world for several reasons. Israeli historian Ilan Pappé argued in 2016 that “Zionism is the last remaining active settler-colonialist movement or project”. […]
Land justice
Nearly all land and water in the UK is privately owned and inaccessible to the public. The effects of this are far-reaching. Not only does it confine people’s leisure time, but it impacts everything from […]
Iran
Iran’s recent history is full of imperialist meddling and the national backlash against it. And since the biggest revolt against outside interference in 1979, its government’s refusal to submit totally to US interests has made […]
A lesson from Chile: mass mobilisations can shift policy
The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts bill, proposing a range of changes to enforcement and sentencing in England and Wales, passed its second reading in the House of Commons by 359 votes to 263 on […]
‘One of the most brutal things I’ve ever seen.’ Eyewitness accounts of police violence in Bristol.
On 23 March, people peacefully gathered on College Green in Bristol in the latest #KillTheBill protest. This ended in what protesters called “brutal” violence when riot police using police dogs and horses moved in on […]
Zero-hours contracts
What are zero-hours contracts? And what are the realities facing workers on ZHCs in the UK? The Charted Institute for Personnel and Development (CIPD) says a zero-hours contract (ZHC) is “unlike a traditional contract of […]
Venezuela
Right-wingers often hold Venezuela up as proof that socialism can’t work. But what’s the truth? What led to this point? And what are the real factors affecting this oil-dependent nation? The 1998 election of Hugo […]
Establishment and press reaction to the events in Bristol are a brief lesson in counterinsurgency
Photos and videos of Bristol’s ‘Kill the Bill’ demo caused immediate waves in both news and social media. The city erupted into street confrontations between police and the public, with spectacular images of a burning […]