Coronavirus credit crunch: fighting the debt disaster
Through rent arrears, payday loans, mortgages and more, personal debt is a key element of neoliberal policy. How can we fight back and break the spiral?
It didn’t have to be this way
This second lockdown was avoidable. It is critical that we understand the choices made by those in power that led to this, and organise to take management of this crisis out of their hands.
Autonomous space in Berlin: Liebig34, eviction, and gentrification
The violent police eviction of Berlin’s iconic Liebig34 space is the latest event in a never-ending battle between the city’s radical-left counterculture, and the forces of state-aided gentrification.
Covid on campus: rent strike at Bristol university
Universities have brought students back to expensive accommodation and subjected them to inhumane living conditions, with Covid-19 still a risk on campus. rs21 spoke to Connor Nicol, a first-year student involved in organising the Bristol University rent strike.
Video: Fighting back and building power during the Covid crisis
Three separate activists draw lessons from fights to defend working-class lives and livelihoods inside and outside the workplace.
Eviction ban ends: how can renters fight back?
The government is trying to restart evictions just as a second wave of Covid-19 is arriving. We need to escalate our organising against evictions, rent debt and homelessness.
We must act now
As the initially censored Public Health England report makes clear, Covid-19 has exposed the lethal structures of systemic racism in our society. Artwork and text by Katherine Hearst.
Rent strike in the Covid conjuncture?
As the knock-on effects of the Covid-19 pandemic make it impossible for many workers to pay rent while meeting their own basic needs, Allan Struthers examines the prospects for large-scale rent strikes in Britain
Debt in a time of coronavirus
Video: How has coronavirus boosted household debt, the impact on working-class people and on the capitalist economy, and the possibilities for campaigning and resistance?
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.
Labour manifesto – what the grassroots membership demands
Hanna Gál reports on the campaigns of the grassroots Labour Party membership for a progressive election manifesto.
Hong Kong revolt: no end in sight
The formal withdrawal of the extradition bill and half-measures to solve the housing crisis will not be enough to satisfy the pro-democracy movement, writes Colin Sparks.
Review: Urban Warfare
Kate Bradley reviews Urban Warfare by Raquel Rolnik, an important investigation into how capitalism has shaped housing for its own ends
Homelessness: Rachmanism returns
As homelessness figures have risen yet again, Mitch Mitchell looks at the history of housing in the UK the post-war period.
Grenfell: still mourning, still fighting
Friday 14 June 2019 marks the two-year anniversary of the Grenfell tower fire. The community will be marching in silence, as they have on the 14th day of every month since the fire.
Knife crime and the myth of the friendly copper
Mitch Mitchell argues that putting more police on the streets will not solve the problem of knife crime and will lead to more targeting of BAME youth.
What we mean when we talk about benefits cuts
The Secret Housing Barrister describes the consequences of the UK government’s continued enforcement of an illegal benefits cap.
The political economy of urban crisis: housing and the city
At the recent Revenge of Everyday Life conference, Ruth Lorimer talked about the growth of social reproductive services such as cleaning through gig economy platforms in cities, while Katya Nasim talked about the housing crisis and the work of London Renters Union. Listen to the talks and discussion:
Notes From Below: Workers’ Inquiries #HM2018
Ian Allinson reports from Historical Materialism conference on the Notes From Below project
Rock Against Racism: an interview with Ruth Gregory
Ruth Gregory, one of the organisers of the 100,000-strong Rock Against Racism carnival of 1978, talks to rs21 about anti-racist organising from then to now.
Local elections fail to mobilise enough voters hungry for change
The local election results have not been a disaster for Labour. Despite the collapse of the UKIP vote, the Tories lost seats.
Seven reasons to march in Haringey
Join the demo on Wednesday 7 February – we can stop this shocking privatisation.
Five estate agent euphemisms that can go to hell
Welcome to the ever-worsening Housing Crisis! Want to rent a room that’s relatively comfortable with working appliances for a price that you can actually afford? Don’t be ridiculous. Kate Bradley reports from her recent house hunting. The former Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne recently introduced laws to help new home-buyers get their ‘foot on […]
A silent march for Grenfell, in pictures
A silent march to commemorate the Grenfell disaster. Photos by Steve Eason Repeat marches are scheduled to take place on the 14th of each month.
On the march for working people’s housing
The growing campaign against privatising council homes in Haringey shows an alternative to privatisation and gentrification, writes Colin Wilson. Over 350 people joined a lively march through north London on Saturday against the privatisation and demolition of Haringey council homes. As the march headed down Green Lanes, a busy shopping district, marchers’ chants, drums and […]
Join this march – stop social cleansing in London
This Saturday will see an important protest over housing and gentrification in London, writes Colin Wilson. If you can, come and join the march. It won’t be news to people reading this report that council housing is under attack in London. The Heygate estate in Elephant and Castle, in the south of the city, was […]
Manchester housing workers to reballot after three months of strikes
On the last day of three months’ of strike action, culminating in a four-week continuous strike, Unite activist Ian Allinson interviewed Unite UCATT steward Bill Nugent about the dispute at Mears / Manchester Working Limited and comments on the dispute It’s not often that workers take this level of action. After striking three days’ a […]
Housing and women’s protests join forces against May
A protest in central London unites two groups fighting the Tories
Manchester housing maintenance workers strike
Report from the ongoing Manchester strike for pay parity and against housing maintenance on the cheap