Critical Mess: Tories approve Hinkley Point C nuclear disaster
Brian Parkin unravels the web of stupidity, dogma, secrecy and privatisation failure that has resulted in Theresa May consenting to the Hinkley Point C nuclear station.
North Sea oil and gas strikes and the industry crisis
As offshore workers on oil rigs operated the Wood Group continue their 48 hour strike, Brian Parkin puts the strike in the context of the wider crisis facing the oil industry.
Unite conference backs Corbyn and mandatory reselection of MPs
Ian Allinson gives a second update on Unite Policy Conference which took major decisions on migration, industrial strategy, backing Jeremy Corbyn and mandatory re-selection of MPs, fracking and climate change.
Climate crisis, jobs crisis, crisis of democracy
Pete Cannell and Brian Parkin discuss how the oil price crisis is leading to tens of thousands of jobs losses in Scotland, and what we could do about it.
No Fracking Way! A report from Carlisle
On Sunday 31 January, groups gathered in over 30 towns and cities across the UK to show their opposition to fracking.
COP21 – climate and capitalism
Joe Sabatini dissects the neoliberal mindset behind the Paris talks in December and what the COP21 Agreement means for saving the planet.
Power play in the global climate movement
What Paris made clear is that now is the time to draw lines as the wider climate movement cannot fulfil its own agenda.
Solidarity with the #Heathrow13: climate defence is not an offence
“Climate change and air pollution from Heathrow are killing people now, and the government’s response is to spend millions making the problem bigger.”
Cuts and climate change bring floods to Rochdale
If you want to know what a warming world and climate chaos looks like then take at look at the videos of Rochdale town centre.
Campaigning for Climate Justice at COP21
For the last fortnight the COP21 climate summit has taken place in Paris. Alongside the official event, campaigners for climate justice took to the streets in a Paris still under a ‘State of Emergency’ following the murders last month. Three rs21 members – Sam O’Brien, John Walker and Colin Barker who were in Paris report on the events. Sam O’Brien […]
Eyewitness: Carlisle floods mean learning what it is like to be on the front line of climate change
Joe Sabatini reports from Carlisle, where floods devastated the town. He discusses what it means to be on the front line of climate change. Climate change has just slapped into Cumbria. For the third time in 10 years the county has suffered from a major flood, leaving thousands devastated – many hit for the second time. […]
Video: Naomi Klein and Jeremy Corbyn call for climate jobs
Last night in Paris Jeremy Corbyn and Naomi Klein spoke to 800 people about trade unions and climate change, writes Jonathan Neale. For me, the best moment was when Jeremy started his speech by saying “I want to hold this document up. It’s called One Million Climate Jobs.” The meeting was sponsored by Trade Unions […]
Don’t mention trade: leaked document reveals EU plans for the COP21
A leak from the EU’s shadowy Trade Policy Committee reveals officials charged with determining EU’s climate policy vowing to keep trade regulations out of the COP21 climate change talks, reports Nick Evans. A recent article on this website argued we need to pay attention to the arcane world of international trade law. Cloaked in bureaucratic […]
Why I’m cycling to Paris
John Walker explains why he’s setting off on his bike to the COP21 in Paris. Along with around 130 other people, I will be cycling to join the demonstrations around COP21, all the way from London to Paris. We will be taking five days, cycling from London to Brighton on Sunday 5 December, taking the ferry from […]
Over 50,000 march in London to demand climate justice ahead of COP21 summit
Nilüfer Erdem, Steve Eason, Amy Gilligan and Kate Bradley report Tens of thousands of people marched through central London this afternoon as part of global protests for climate justice, on the eve of the COP21 summit in Paris. Organisers estimate over 50,000 people took part, making it one of the largest climate demonstrations that has […]
Building a global climate movement: COP21 and beyond
Over twenty years of UN climate talks have failed, writes Tabitha Spence. The global demonstrations today are signs of a building movement that is unprepared to accept further betrayals. But we’re going to need a whole new level of struggle to break the current deadlock. Nearly a quarter of a century has passed since the UN […]
Nuclear nightmare, gas fracking free-for-all and fuel poverty: Tories unveil UK energy policy
As the world COP21 Paris summit on climate change nears, governments internationally are burnishing their environmental credentials for what will evidently be yet another failure in really getting to grips with global warming. Demonstrators around the world, including in London, on 29 November, and during the COP itself, will be holding governments to account for […]
Whose security? Climate protests in France during the state of emergency
The French government has called a ‘State of Emergency’ and banned all demonstrations for 3 months following the tragic events in Paris. Nick Evans explains why, despite the bans, the protests during the Paris climate talks (COP21) must, and will, go ahead. Riot police in the Calais camp earlier this month. Photo: London2Calais The French government has announced […]
The right to water: an interview with Mike Gonzalez
Mike Gonzalez and Marienella Yanes are the authors of The Last Drop: The Politics of Water (Pluto: 2015). Mike talked to Nick Evans about the fight to put the world’s water back under democratic control, and the wider connections between climate change and class struggle. Water Protests in Cochabamba, Bolivia in 2000 How does looking at […]
Climate change: it’s going to take a revolution
Watch rs21’s video on why the obstacles to solving the problem of climate breakdown are intrinsic to our capitalist system.
Migration FAQ: why now?
Nick Evans answers some common questions around the migration crisis Why now? More people around the world were forcibly displaced in 2014 than ever before in recorded history. Of those 59.5 million people, 19.5 million were classed by the UN as refugees. The overwhelming majority of those refugees were hosted in developing regions, but unprecedented numbers have […]
Manchester “Time to Act” conference connects climate and social justice campaigning
Rick Lighten reports Over 200 people came together for a conference on tackling climate change on Saturday 10 October. The conference, titled “It’s Time to Act”, was organised by a coalition of climate groups along with trade union and radical left activists. Groups involved included Campaign Against Climate Change, Friends of the Earth, Stop TTIP, […]
Hands Off Our Forth: 2000 protest against unconventional gas extraction
Mike A and Pete C report on the communities in Scotland organising against the growing threat of fracking. Around 2,000 people joined hands across the Forth Road Bridge on Sunday in a protest against plans for unconventional gas extraction. Organised by grassroots anti-fracking campaigns across Scotland, Hands Over Our Forth was an uplifting event that […]
Migration in the age of Imperialism’s four horsemen: part 3
For over three decades neoliberalism has run rampant at the expense of the working class and poorest of the world. But such a dismal interpretation of the world just will not do. The point is to change it. This requires us honestly to recognise the scale of the crisis while identifying those symptoms of resistance […]
Migration in the age of Imperialism’s four horsemen: part 2
The intensification of capitalist competition has created global markets and in the process has led to an imperialist period of capitalist development that has seen war, the uprooting of whole populations and environmental degradation push the fabric of societies and our planets intricate network of ecosystems to the point of crisis. This is the second […]
Migration in the age of Imperialism’s four horsemen: Part 1
For the past year a growing refugee crisis on Europe’s borders has allowed the political right to capitalise on xenophobic and paranoid fears spread by racist politicians and media. Even those who have rejected the more outrageous expressions have often accepted the classification of those seeking resettlement along the lines of the ‘deserving’ refugees and […]
As Middle East goes nuclear, climate change goes critical. Part 3: Imperialism and climate
In the final part of Brian Parkin’s article, he shows that imperialist wars, arrested development and impending climate catastrophe are all linked through industrial capitalism’s continuing dependence on oil. He argues we need to replace capitalism before it causes any more irreparable damage to our societies and our world. (See parts 1 and 2. See […]
As Middle East goes nuclear, climate change goes critical. Part 2: Saudi Arabia
Here we publish the second part of Brian Parkin’s article, where he looks at Saudi Arabia’s own nuclear ambitions, and an emerging reconfiguration of imperial alliances in the Middle East. (See part one here.) The regional nuclear domino effect: Saudi Arabia and ‘friends’. To a large extent eclipsed by Iran’s more controversial bid for nuclear […]
As Middle East goes nuclear, global warming goes critical. Part 1: Iran
Over the next three days we will be publishing a major new article by Brian Parkin exploring the inextricable links between climate catastrophe, capitalist crisis and imperial competition. The three parts taken together form a single argument with serious ramifications for our approach to the international climate talks this autumn, and to the continuing bloody […]
Victory in Lancashire campaign against fracking
Ewa Barker reports What wonderful news yesterday! Lancashire Councillors, who have been besieged by demonstrations against fracking every day last week, have, against expectations, refused to grant Cuadrilla permits to explore for shale gas at two sites in Lancashire. Everyone said their decision would set a precedent for the many applications still to come. And […]