Video: Not safe to return to school or work
The government is trying to force people back to unsafe schools and workplaces. Parents, school students and workers are resisting.
Why schools can’t ‘reopen’ until safe
Rob Owen explains why teachers, not ministers, must be central to judging how and when it’s safe to return.
Patients deserve more than a DNR form
The use of DNR forms during the COVID-19 pandemic has revealed underlying problems with the way patients and the healthcare workers who care for them are treated by an underfunded system.
Older people will not be abandoned
Three urgent demands we can be making to the government and four pieces of advice that we can share with older people we know right now.
Our key workers keep us strong
A May Day tribute to the key workers who are keeping us going in the face of the coronavirus crisis, and to remember those who have died.
Coronavirus and its impact on Black communities
In the rising coronavirus death toll, black and brown people in the UK are represented in disproportionate numbers, due to not only discrimination and poverty, but because they make up a sizeable amount of the frontline workforce working without adequate PPE, argues Zita Holbourne.
Act now or this will happen again
Covid-19 is teaching us lessons that we need to learn fast to save lives now, and to prevent catastrophic climate change.
Report: ‘They were human, not heroes’ – International Workers’ Memorial Day 2020
28 April is International Workers’ Memorial Day. In 2020, people across the country and the world mourned those who died of coronavirus due to the lack of PPE in their workplaces.
Naming of parts 2020
Poem by Brian Parkin, based on an original by Harry Reed. Illustration by Mark Winter.
revolutionary reflections | Marxism and childhood
Estelle Cooch traces the contradictory history of childhood under capitalism. How do we defend childhood and fight for a world where play and creativity are not limited to children?
Remember the dead – fight like hell for the living!
Turn International Workers’ Memorial Day on Tuesday 28 April into a powerful cry of grief and rage. The government hasn’t called a day of national mourning – we must make our own.
National unity kills under coronavirus
The UK government and the media are actively promoting a narrative of national unity against an external enemy, making parallels with wartime. Ian Allinson argues that when measures to protect the public have been too little, too late.
Returning to the ‘new normal’ after COVID-19
In the face of the unsavoury ‘recoveries’ currently on offer, we need an alternative to confront climate catastrophe and the economic system that has made the consequences of this pandemic so devastating.
Women, Work and ‘Directly Confronting Capitalist Power’
Sue Ferguson discusses socialist-feminism, capitalist childhoods and social struggles today. While conducted weeks previously, this interview goes online amidst a pandemic, exposing and aggravating a crisis of social reproduction.
DNR: everyone deserves dignity
Everyone is entitled to dignity at the end of their life, and to die as they would wish. The way the UK government is managing the coronavirus pandemic is failing to respect that.
Covid-19: The ‘China’ narratives and Chinese workers
The workers who built China’s emergency hospitals are missing from the dominant narratives about China and the Covid-19 pandemic, writes Hsiao-Hung Pai.
The police won’t keep us safe – our neighbours will
In a scramble to appear to have a strong handle on the coronavirus crisis, the government introduced sweeping new police powers to enforce the lockdown. Hanna Gál writes on why these measures will not keep us safe.
Social reproduction in crisis
The coronavirus crisis brings into sharp light capital’s reliance on social reproductive labour, Kate Bradley argues.
Interview: Dealing with the mess
Junior Doctor Stacey Williams speaks about the prospects for organising to defend lives and the NHS through the coronavirus crisis.
Education in Palestine
Education is a key battlefield in the Palestinian struggle in the wake of Trump’s ‘Deal of the Century’. #ExistResistReturn
Other people are not the problem
Whilst the government continues to condemn millions by asset stripping the healthcare service and backing landlords and bosses, we must remember that we are all united by their contempt for us.
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.
The Scottish government needs to defy Johnson’s Tories and act independently to save lives
A Scottish rs21 member argues that the Scottish government must break with Westminster in order to tackle the Covid-19 crisis appropriately.
Safer sex – lessons from the AIDS crisis
Colin Wilson remembers the community responses to the AIDS crisis in the 1980s.
Strikes in the time of coronavirus
How can workers respond to the unfolding coronavirus crisis, without forfeiting our collective power? A UCU member reflects. Originally published on Notes from Below.
The cradle will rock
The social crisis produced by the coronavirus has had a major impact on children and the way their care is organised. Here, a nursery worker reflects on a fortnight of uncertainty and change.
Organising in response to COVID-19
As criticism of the UK government’s response to the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic mounts, rs21 members highlight the flourishing grassroots responses that aim to provide support and to demand more effective action from government and employers
Acting on COVID-19
With cases of the pandemic rising rapidly, we cannot rely on government or business to put health before profits. rs21 members have produced a set of actions and demands to campaign around and a summary of the safety legislation can allow workers to take action or leave work.
Statement: Students stage occupations at 11 UK universities in support of UCU staff
Students occupy buildings at eleven UK universities in support of striking staff.