Cyprus: 50 years of partition
Andrew Stone looks back on the military coup that divided Cyprus in 1974 and reflects on developments over the subsequent fifty years
Cricket in crisis: racism, sexism and elitism in the sport
Sport can be a site of struggle, a chance for us to organise collectively in the face of racism, sexism and elitism.
London in revolt – revisiting the English Civil War
Andrew Stone looks at a new history of the origins of the English Civil Wars, finding an engaging account of the class character of the process which ultimately saw Charles I executed. London may not have the same revolutionary reputation of Paris or St Petersburg, but in this new account of the outbreak of the […]
Review | The world turned upside down
In Leo Zeilig’s recent novel, the global elite are targeted for murder amid a growing social upheaval that sweeps the central character around the world. Andrew Stone reviews this focused and ‘righteously angry’ book.
Revolutionary reflections | The Anti-Poll Tax Federation: ‘Mob rules’
Debates about the use of confrontational collective action in the Anti-Poll Tax Movement remain relevant for struggles today.
Revolutionary reflections | The moral economy of the anti-poll tax movement
The anti-poll tax movement took on and defeated a Tory government at the height of its powers. Andrew Stone explores the ways that protestors developed political justifications for resistance.
Failing system
When it comes to delivering an education system without exams the government has flunked the test.
Review: Can’t Pay Won’t Pay
The 30th anniversary of the Trafalgar Square riot is a good time to reflect on Simon Hannah’s engaging account of the movement that scuppered Thatcher’s poll tax, writes Andrew Stone
revolutionary reflections | The Anti-Poll Tax Federation: Organisation and spontaneity
The anti-poll tax movement was arguably the most successful social movement in Great Britain since the 1970s. In advance of the 30th anniversary of the poll tax riot (31 March 1990), Andrew Stone explores how political organisations and grassroots initiative interacted.
Tough lessons to learn
The struggle against worsening conditions and cuts in education continues. Andrew Stone, 6th form college teacher and District Secretary of Wandsworth NEU, writes in a personal capacity about an upcoming strike and a ballot in Tower Hamlets.
Raising the rate of resistance
Educators in the sixth form sector prepare for 3 days of strike action over funding and pay beginning Thursday 17 October.
Review: We Need To Talk About Putin
Mark Galeotti’s alternate perspective on Putin, as presented in his recent book We Need to Talk About Putin, provides an interesting read.
Happy NEU year?
The newly formed National Education Union is currently balloting for action. What are the prospects for the new union and the left within it?
Reflections on the Education Spring
An interview with Lois Weiner about the flowering of militancy in the US education system
Experimenting on our kids: academisation and its discontents
Staff are taking strike action against the academisation of their school in Greenwich. Their next strike days are on Wednesday 11 and Thursday 12 July, when GMB staff will be joining their striking NEU colleagues. Below is a video of a speech given by Howard Stevenson at a previous strike rally. Introduced by Andy Stone, Joint Secretary, Wandsworth […]
Half a millennium away: Martin Luther’s 95 theses 500 years on
On the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther’s 95 Theses, Andrew Stone looks at the context in which Protestantism arose and the global impact it had. On 31 October 1517 an Augustinian monk nailed a list of complaints – known to posterity as the 95 Theses – to a church door in Wittenberg. This austere professor of theology […]
NEU radicals?
Andrew Stone, Joint Secretary of the Wandsworth branch of the newly formed National Education Union, writes in a personal capacity on prospects for trade unionists in education after the merger of the National Union of Teachers and the Association of Teachers and Lecturers. Numeracy: On 1st September the UK’s fourth biggest trade union was born […]
Review: Naomi Klein, No is Not Enough
Naomi Klein draws on her past analysis of capitalism in arguing how to defeat the “new shock politics” of Trump, writes Andrew Stone. Donald Trump’s threat of ‘fire and fury’ against North Korea might just have easily described his domestic agenda – an incendiary politics that, while emerging out of the US establishment, still expresses […]
Review – Edward Upward: Art and Life
Andrew Stone reviews a recent biography of the left-wing writer Edward Upward, Edward Upward: Art and Life by Peter Stansky Edward Upward was one of the less-feted members of the ‘Auden Circle’, a generation of politically engaged writers of the left during the 1930s. Of its leading members, Auden was to move decisively to the […]
With Corbyn, but beyond Parliament
Andrew Stone argues that movement around Corbyn has created great potential for socialists to organise and debate about how fundamental change can be realised. The co-ordinated post-Referendum resignations from the Shadow Cabinet to unseat Jeremy Corbyn will have come as a surprise to few. Indeed, they closely follow the plan leaked to the Daily Telegraph […]
Government tries to overturn teachers’ 86% strike vote
Andrew Stone reports Nicky Morgan has followed through on her threat to mount a legal challenge against Tuesday’s planned strike by NUT 6th form members, on the nonsensical grounds that we can’t oppose funding cuts because they don’t affect our terms and conditions. We won’t know the result of the challenge until Monday afternoon – […]
The rise of the GERM: how is education messing with our minds?
With the neoliberal assault on education seemingly unending, Andrew Stone, a teacher and NUT rep in south London, considers the role of education today and how we can fight back “Anorexia is increasing among primary-age children. Self-harm was reported as a direct response to the pressure of SATs [national tests taken at ages 6-7 and 10-11] […]
NUT conference 2015 report: why are teachers always complaining?
The current coalition government has seen major public sector strikes including all three teaching unions. As we edge ever closer to the general election Andy Stone, president of Wandsworth NUT, reports in a personal capacity from this years recent NUT conference in Harrogate Education is a battleground for two intersecting conflicts over austerity and neoliberal ideology. While the effects […]
School staff could lose jobs because of crimes committed by others
Misjudged government attempts to protect children from sexual abuse will have disastrous implications for teachers and other workers, writes Andrew Stone. Imagine a state where it is legal for you to lose your job and career due to a crime committed by someone else. It might be a partner, a relative or a housemate, and you might […]