January 2011
Video appears to show police using CS spray on tax... →
Video footage has emerged that appears to show the moment a policeofficer used CS spray on protesters at Sunday’s UK Uncut protest.
Hundreds of people staged sit-ins at high-street stores around the country as part of a day of action designed to highlight companies it says are avoiding millions of pounds in tax.
In London, protesters successfully forced a branch of Boots (one of the...
The future of Egypt - Part 2
Fear of an Islamist takeover has, supposedly, been the main thing driving Western support for Mubarak. It partly (by no means completely – see below) explains the mealy-mouthed hesitancy of American and British spokespeople about the current uprising. After several days of apparent silence, the Brotherhood announced it was supporting the protests. More recently, it has issued a statement to the...
The future of Egypt - Part 1
Western pundits have speculated for years that there is something in the Muslim or Arab character which predisposes them to dictatorships; the Egyptian people in particular are supposed to be apathetic. The last few weeks have crushed that myth forever as first the Tunisians, then the Egyptians, have taken to the streets in huge numbers, facing down armed police, tanks and curfews, to drive out...
Student protesters target NUS president →
As thousands of people joined student rallies in Manchester and London today to protest against public spending cuts and the rise in tuition fees, the National Union of Students leader Aaron Porter had to be escorted by police away from angry crowds calling for his resignation.
Some of the protestors in Manchester turned on Porter – who had been due to speak at a rally in the city – calling him...
'This is the Arab world's Berlin moment' →
Who's going to resign first, Mubarak or Aaron...
Well, today has been a really good day. Demonstrations both in Manchester and London, are bringing it home that students are no longer going to stand idly by while a bunch of millionaires wreak havoc amongst the poor and working classes.
Not only that but we marched for our brothers and sisters in Egypt, who are fighting for a better way of life, a life of true freedom.
We all need to mobilise...
“The governments are hostile to us, one must respond to them with all the means...”
– Two speeches Marx made at the London Conference; Protocols of the Sessions of September 20, 21, 1871
Something to consider when looking at Egypt.
National demo - No Fees, No Cuts! Defend Education... →
*** THIS IS AN OFFICIAL NCAFC EVENT, ALSO SUPPORTED BY THE EDUCATION ACTIVIST NETWORK *** This demonstration and the is now backed by UCU and has been supported by Len McCluskey from Unite The first parliamentary vote might have gone through, but this is not the end! In the New Year let’s take back the streets of London in defence of education and our public sector! Please start mobilising...
Protests signal the end of Egypt's 'Pharaoh... →
The Egyptian people’s demonstrations have not only broken the barrier of silence but have also driven the first nail into the coffin of the “Pharaoh complex” deeply rooted within the Egyptian psyche.
We Egyptians have always seen our ruler as a faultless deity – or as the late President Anwar al-Sadat described himself, a Pharaoh. We have long thought it was inevitable that...
In Tunisia, Women Play Equal Role In Revolution →
loveandzombies:
“Female voices rang out loud and clear during massive protests that brought down the authoritarian rule of Tunisian President Zine el Abidine Ben Ali.
Women in Tunisia are unique in the Arab world for enjoying near equality with men. And they are anxious to maintain their status.
In Tunis, old ladies, young girls and women in black judges robes marched down the streets...
Elton John's baby involved in US cover-up →
You can just see the rim of Elton John’s black glasses, his bushy eyebrows behind them and a mop of excellently dyed strawberry blond hair. Beside him is the dark receding hairline of his partner David Furnish and behind them the masthead of the magazine US Weekly.
And that’s all you’re allowed to see. The rest is obscured by a slap of grey plastic with the words:...
No sex. No drugs. And no leaders →
“No sex. No drugs. And no leaders”, the New Statesman’s cover story this week, tells the intimate story of the winter student uprisings of 2010, putting human faces to the mob that has so terrified the right-wing press. It is the longest and most high-profile feature I’ve worked on to date, but that’s not the only reason it’s been so difficult to write.
Over...
Take over your student union
The protests against the abolition of EMA on 19 January, when thousands turned out across the country at very short notice, showed that the student movement which began before Christmas is still alive.
On 26 January, there will be more protests, and 29 January will see big student demonstrations against fees and cuts in London and Manchester.
It is important we prepare for more demos to come....
Tory MP: cut taxes for castle owners →
holesintheground:
Tories. In touch with the people.
“In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act”
– George Orwell (via i-am-special)
Ugandan gay rights activist David Kato found... →
One of Uganda’s most prominent gay rights activists has been murdered in his home weeks after winning a court victory over a tabloid that called for homosexuals to be killed.
David Kato, the advocacy officer for Sexual Minorities Uganda, was bludgeoned to death in Mukono, Kampala, yesterday afternoon. Witnesses saw a man fleeing the scene in a car, and police are investigating.
Along...
“Revolutions spread across the middle east, the UK coalition actually shrank the...”
– Socialisimo
How to have the Best Burns Night Ever, eh no? →
Today’s the proud day when the eyes of the world are upon my own wee home country of Scotchland. Och aye and, let us not forget, the noo. All over the globe men, women and transgender folk are gathering round their iPads to celebrate the birth/death/life (Note to research: check that will you? I’ve got cocktails at six, then Brahms at the Usher Hall) of our greatest shagger and...
Protests in Egypt and unrest in Middle East →
Marxism At Work: Women's Liberation
Women’s oppression is not ‘natural’. It emerged as society divided into classes. Today’s capitalist society oppresses women, such as women sweatshop workers. Whether capitalism can be blamed for all aspects of women’s oppression is debatable, but it certainly exploits sexism.
Capitalists find it cheap and convenient to pay rock bottom wages for ‘women’s’ jobs in the cleaning, catering, caring...
“happy one. Circumstances conspired to make me shy and
solitary. My father and...”
– Memoirs of a Fox hunting man - Siegfried Sassoon
Russia: Terror attack at Domodedovo Airport in... →
thinkfortytwo:
MOSCOW (AP) — A spokeswoman for Moscow’s busiest airport says 35 people have been killed by an explosion in its international arrivals hall.
Public Universities Relying More on Tuition Than... →
alexanderpf:
“In the next three or four years, we’re going to have more students who are spilling out the bottom, priced out of the expensive institutions,” Ms. Wellman said. “We’re going to be rationing opportunity. We’re moving in that direction fairly rapidly.”
Given that states still provide some $80 billion for higher education, some education policy experts say it is wrong to think of...
Moscow airport explosion →
Aaron Sorkin: Why I'm not on Facebook →
Aaron Sorkin might have written a ridiculously successful film about Facebook, but he’s no fan of it. At a sold-out Q&A at the BFI Southbank, he told the audience that he wasn’t a member. “I put up a Facebook page while I was writing the movie, simply so I could know what it was.. and then on the last day of photography I took it down.”
Why? Here’s a clue:...
National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts conference... →
fter the student movements of 2010, and as the movements of 2011 begin, we are holding a National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts conference to bring together activists from groups across the country - so we can decide what we need to do next, plan structures to run our campaign democratically, and discuss the politics of beating the Tories. DRAFT AGENDA 11am Opening plenary: THE STUDENT REVOLT AND...
Bread, circuses and tea towels can’t stifle... →
Civil society may be dissolving, governments are in crisis across Europe and significant parts of the inhabited world are either under water or on fire, but it’ll all be fine as long as nobody disrupts the royal wedding. The opposition leader, Ed Miliband, has joined the chorus of hand-wringers pleading with students and the trade unions not to start any funny business while the prince and...
“American democracy has been conclusively conquered by American capitalism....”
– The End of New Deal Liberalism (via ryking)
Tunisia begins three days of mourning for protest... →
Tunisians lowered flags and state television played recitations of the Qur’an today to mourn dozens of people who died in the protests that drove the country’s president from power.
Demonstrators gathered peacefully near the interior ministry chanting “down with the government”. The site, cordoned off by security forces, has been the scene of near-daily protests for...
The student revolt, class struggle, and socialism:... →
Copyable leaflet here http://www.workersliberty.org/studentrevolt The student revolt, and the beginning of a wider fightback by workers, brings to the surface the question of how society is run and in whose interests. So does the response to these struggles by the media, the government - and the police! The Alliance for Workers’ Liberty has played a crucial role in recent student struggles....
