A year in the life of a scrounger
By Beth Tichborne **Trigger warning – neglect** Imagine that you’re put into a minibus one day and moved to a new house, in a new town where you don’t know anyone. Sometimes strange things like this happen to you, so you wait quietly for a while, and hope that it will start to make sense. [...]
How the Irish Greens got into a Coalition mess…
The Irish Greens have finally pulled the plug on the Fianna Fail led Government of the dead that has been staggering from crisis to crisis since the economy collapsed in 2008. The Irish Greens are an object lesson in the dangers of being the minor party of government for Greens around the world. Indeed there [...]
Undercover cops: political or commercial?
The reaction to the news that an undercover police officer, Mark Kennedy, spent seven years infiltrating green campaign groups has been genuinely fascinating. Quite understandably there’s been the strong sense of betrayal from those duped by him. If someone has lived along side you for such a long time and yet nothing was as it [...]
Why I’m voting yes to AV (and you can forget your crystal ball)
As I’ve mentioned here before, the voting system is only a small part of the democratic reform we need. But is is an important one. And this May, we will get to vote to change it. We won’t get a real choice. But there will be some choice. And I’m going to vote yes. I’ll [...]
Scots Greens look to close business property tax loophole
The Green Members of the Scottish Parliament have proposed closing a tax loophole on vacant commercial property, in the run up to Holyrood voting on the 2011-12 Scottish Budget. Empty business premises attract substantial discounts on Universal Business Rates – the equivalent of Council Tax for commercial property. Generally, this means paying no rates at [...]
Sudan: what does the Referendum mean?
By Ian Leggett Last week the citizens of Southern Sudan voted in a historic referendum to determine whether they remain part of a united Sudan or secede. If those who want to secede win the vote – and all the indications are that there has been a landslide vote in favour of separation – the [...]
Protest is not a crime
Three environmental activists are due to stand trial in Edinburgh this month, charged with ‘Breach of the Peace’ after taking part in a protest at a branch of the Royal Bank of Scotland. In an effort to engage customers in conversation about RBS’ role in financing the Canadian Tar Sands – the most destructive fossil [...]
Tunisia’s struggle and ours: battles in the same war
As an anti-cuts campaigner in the UK fighting rises in tuition fees or corporate tax dodging or the closure of a local library or redundancies at a city council or (hopefully) all of the above, it wouldn’t be surprising if you have been so busy over the last few weeks that events in Tunisia have [...]
A year on, a hundred years on; why Haiti still waits for justice and freedom.
By Cornelius Grissiths, this post first appeared at No Sweat Historically crippled by international debts, the middle of the twentieth century saw the IMF force Haiti (then occupied by America) to open its market to imported, highly subsidised U.S rice and sugar. The productive country once known as ‘The Jewel of the Antilles’ was subsequently [...]
Ratcliffe trial: a defendant tells the tale
This piece by Danny Chivers about the Ratcliffe trial was first published over at The New Internationalist. Danny was one of the six defendants whose charges were dropped at Nottingham Crown Court this week. Soaring ambitions Being arrested and charged with a crime you didn’t commit is far less glamorous in real life than in the [...]
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