rs21 magazine Spring 2015 launches tomorrow
The Spring 2015 issue of the rs21 magazine will be launching at our event for International Women’s day 50 Shades of Struggle: Women and the New Social Movements taking place at LSE tomorrow (Wednesday 11 March, 7pm, East Building, Room E304) – get your copy at the meeting, from your local rs21 group, by subscribing or […]
Over 20,000 march for action on climate change
Bettina Trabant reports from the Time to Act on Climate Change demonstration on Saturday. Over 20 000 climate activist gathered in London on Saturday to tell the government it was time to act on climate change. On a sunny March day people from all walks of life marched from Lincoln’s Inn Fields to Millbank singing and […]
Putin’s enemies within
Last Sunday, Nestor Bakunin joined a demonstration in Moscow in memory of the murdered opposition politician Boris Nemtsov. Here he discusses the politics of the demonstration – one of the largest in recent years – and what it reveals about the current state of opposition to Putin’s regime in Russia. At least 50,000 people marched […]
Dancing the Dabke to beat Israeli Apartheid
London Palestine Action organised an all singing, all dancing, bubble blowing Dabke flash-mob to ‘cleanse’ Covent Garden cosmetic shops selling Israeli goods or using stolen Palestinian ingredients.
An alternative to austerity is growing in Merseyside
Clara Saraiva shares the experiences of an anti-austerity conference bringing together grassroots activists across Merseyside. 100 people took part in the “No Austerity Conference” February 14 in Liverpool, with participation from representatives from trade unions, community organisations, leftist parties. The conference was conceived in November 2014, following the victory against the attempt at closure of 11 libraries by […]
Pictures and reflections from FBU strike
Steve Eason reports from the strike rally organised by the FBU earlier this week. It was clear from local reports most striking firefighters were making their way to the National rally in London. My train carriage was full of uniformed firefighters on their way to Westminster. Outside the hall groups of strikers from all over […]
Thanet activists prepare for protest against UKIP conference
Dan Swain spoke to members of Thanet Stand Up to UKIP about their campaign and the demonstration this weekend against UKIP’s spring conference. On Saturday activists in Nigel Farage’s target seat of South Thanet will be joined by others from across the country in protesting against the UKIP Spring Conference, which they have chosen to […]
Protest against expanding Campsfield Detention Centre
John Walker reports from a protest against Campsfield Detention Centre yesterday. Around 35 people attended a picket of Cherwell District Planning Committee called by Oxfordshire Trades Council yesterday. They were demanding that the planning committee turn down a government request for permission to dramatically expand the size of Campsfield Detention Centre. Campsfield Detention Centre is […]
The toxic hate behind the Chapel Hill murders
Nicole Colson looks at the background of bigotry behind the killing of three Muslims. This article was originally posted on the US website socialistworker.org. On the evening of 10 February, Craig Stephen Hicks murdered three of his neighbours in Chapel Hill, North Carolina: Deah Shaddy Barakat, his wife Yusor Mohammad Abu-Salha, and Yusor’s sister, Razan Mohammad […]
Autonomy! Autonomy! Autonomy! – Students occupy in the Republic of Macedonia
Over a thousand students have occupied university faculties in the Republic of Macedonia in protest against planned education reforms, reports Nick Evans Students took over SS Cyril and Methodius University in Skopje yesterday (11 February), declaring it an ‘autonomous zone’ under ‘student control’. This is the latest phase in a growing student movement: there have […]
Reject the deal – restart the strikes
Mark Boothroyd, a nurse at St Thomas’ Hospital, on why health workers should restart the strikes for the sake of the NHS. This was originally posted on Mark’s blog. See also the Health Worker leaflet: Reject this rotten offer. Last week UNISON and UNITE’s leaderships voted to call off NHS strike action in response to an offer from the government. The […]
Protest against redundancies at Dulwich Picture Gallery
Arjun Mahadevan reports on the protest opposing redundancies at the Dulwich Picture Gallery. On a cold and windy afternoon at the front gates of Dulwich Picture Gallery in south London, around 50 protestors gathered to oppose redundancies that would see over half of the gallery’s visitor services team out of a job. Members of the […]
March and rally against privatisation at the National Gallery
Bettina Trabant joined gallery staff and supporters braving the wind and cold for a demonstration against privatisation at the National Gallery. A group of around 200 angry gallery staff, trade unionists and regular gallery visitors marched from Trafalgar Square to the Department for Culture Media and Sport in Whitehall to hand in a petition containing […]
Standing up to media and management: London bus strike reports
27,000 bus drivers across London took another day of strike action today in their campaign for a single pay rate across the 18 different companies that operate London’s buses. There were reports of widespread disruption, and traffic analysis from TomTom Traffic said there were 1,511 miles of tailbacks across Greater London this morning, compared to […]
‘The rocky road ahead…’ The movement against Irish Water
Five activists from rs21 spent a weekend in Dublin and took part in a city-wide demonstration against the Irish Government’s recent Water Charges bill, and spoke to several activists on the Irish left.
Homes for people — not for profit
Adam DC reports on the March for Homes Up to 4,000 people marched in the cold and wet from east and south London on Saturday (31 January) to demand decent homes for people living in the capital. Around 2,000 marched from Shoreditch, an area where rents have been rents ramped up massively over recent years. […]
Cambridge students boycott essays in campaign for reading week
Dan Swain reports on a new campaign by students at Cambridge University. Students at Cambridge University are campaigning for the introduction of a reading week, and committing to refuse to submit work during the fifth week of term in order to make it happen. The campaign reflects a growing awareness of the effect of stress […]
The struggle for housing
rs21 members and supporters will be joining the London March for Homes tomorrow. The march is assembling in Shoreditch and Elephant and Castle, and converging on City Hall. Below is the text of the leaflet we have produced in support of the demonstration, including a handy infographic, and an excerpt from an article by Ruth […]
Greek elections: web round up #2
All signs point to a Syriza victory today, with the very real possibility of an overall majority, depending on the vote for smaller parties. Since our last round up, even more has been written about Greece, and what it means. Dan Swain continues the coverage. As the reality of a Syriza victory gets closer, the […]
Peace scarf “wraps up” MoD at anti-nuke protest
Amy Gilligan reports Thousands of people encircled the Ministry of Defence in London yesterday with a giant, pink knitted peace scarf. The “Wrap up Trident” protest was called by the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) to send a message that Trident, Britain’s nuclear weapons system, must be scrapped, not replaced. MPs are set to vote on […]
Greek elections: live coverage from Athens
Kevin Ovenden will be providing live coverage of the Greek election from Athens. Kevin is a longstanding progressive journalist, writer and activist who has followed Greece’s politics and social movements for 25 years. A National Officer of the Stop the War Coalition and a leading activist in solidarity with the Palestinian struggle, he led five successful aid convoys […]
Report: rs21 national meeting
On the weekend of 10th-11th January, rs21 held its 4th national meeting, one year after its founding in January 2014. It was attended by over 100 members, and had around 20 observers from other organisations and campaigns. We discussed the political situation in both international and national terms, debated what was possible for the left, and […]
Greek elections: report from Greece Solidarity meeting
Roderick C reports from a meeting organised by the Greece Solidarity Campaign. The election briefing event organised by the Greece Solidarity Campaign covered two main themes: Firstly, an urgent appeal, hammered home by various speakers, for a massive campaign of international solidarity in support of a SYRIZA government. Second, a quite complex discussion about the challenges […]
8 things you need to know about the oil crash
Kate Deer, Amy Gilligan and Brian Parkin answer some of the key questions surrounding the recent crash in oil prices. Why has my petrol got much cheaper? Anyone who drives, or has passed a filling station won’t have failed to notice that petrol prices have plummeted recently. The average price in the UK for a […]
Driving the strike forwards: bus strike picket line round-up
Lois JC writes: 27,000 bus drivers in London are on a 24 hour strike today over pay differences across 18 companies. Operating under the slogan “One fare for passengers, one rate for drivers!”. The last strike by drivers showed their power when in 2012 they won a bonus for driving during the Olympics, but this time there is a […]
Stop the buses to win!
Tomorrow 27,000 bus workers in London will be on strike to try and sort out the mess that is their pay scales. Show your solidarity with the striking workers by visiting one of the picket lines at bus garages around London – find the nearest one to you on this handy google map. rs21 has […]
“All you people are watching them kill me”
Jimmy Mubenga was killed as he was forcibly deported from the UK in 2010. The guards who were found guilty of unlawful killing at the inquest have now been cleared of manslaughter at the Old Bailey.
Jim Murphy’s election: a view from inside the Labour Party
The pro-independence left have written off the Scottish Labour Party, writes Jim Monaghan – but polling figures for left of Labour parties are tiny, and we need unity to fight austerity and war. The election of Jim Murphy as Scottish Labour leader will have a profound effect on Scotland’s current fluid political landscape. From optimistic […]
Jim Murphy’s election: a death sentence for Scottish Labour?
Jim Murphy is the new leader of the Scottish Labour Party. That he was even a candidate for the job, writes Pete Cannell, shows how little the Labour Party understood what was happening in Scotland during the referendum campaign. The final months of the referendum campaign were a festival of democratic participation. The objective was […]
Challenging the neoliberal university: Inside the Warwick occupation
A building at the University of Warwick has been occupied since last week, after Police violence broke up a peaceful protest. Martin Platais reports from within the occupation. On Wednesday 3 December, the management of Warwick University sent in police armed with Tasers, dogs, and CS-spray who proceeded to break up a peaceful sit-in being […]