Due to a bereavement in my family it has been a while since I have written anything. And much as I have wanted to remain focussed on my family, the community and the world we live in has a terrible habit of promoting mass-panic, which inevitably reaches into every family, friendship and community. Which is why I am back writing. In my opinion, one of the key reasons for this overwhelming feeling of panic and…
I noticed after rereading my last post that there were still things I felt were needed to be said. I’ve mentioned previously that one of the clear benefits of the growing recognition of socialism within the mainstream political discourse is that it forces peoples true intentions out into the open. For instance, there are those who like pretending to care about other people, but when faced with the possibility of a progressive taxation system in…
And so the new year begins. To me, in terms of the UK, it feels like Brexit is monopolising all discussion and debate. It feels like it is consuming all of our collective intellectual oxygen and political energy. And, it is without doubt, a potentially defining moment for the political systems and process in the UK, and across Europe. And of course, it will almost undoubtedly, feed into how the political systems and process across…
I am still struggling along with the very early morning shifts, filling those shelves with all the useful and much needed Christmas stuff people seem to spend their hard earned wages on at this time of year. But somewhat surprisingly, that has not be playing on my mind as much as it has in previous years. Every morning when I leave the house, I see a star in the night sky that is so bright…
I have only just found out that there will be no Anarchist Bookfair in London this year. It is not entirely surprising, but it is entirely unfortunate. One of the problems facing socialist events in the UK, is that in our hurry to ensure that all voices are heard, we inevitably allow those who would undermine us the opportunity to do so. One of the key strategies of the state, in its capacity as proxy…
In the lead up to the 15th anniversary of the 15th February 2003 global anti-war protest it struck me that much of the cross-campaign solidarity, that we had achieved at that time has since seemed to disappear and our movements fragment back to their original single-campaign focuses. There was a moment fifteen years ago, that seemed like we may really be able to start addressing inequality and exploitation at it's source. As all the various…
Between the Panama Papers in 2016 and the Paradise Papers in 2017, and against the fallout of the great 'bankers bailout scam' called austerity, there was a brief period when informed debates around the role of tax and tax avoidance where momentarily occurring in even the mainstream press. After years of justifying cutting public spending in order to bail out the criminally inept bankers, the corporate news media did an about turn and started laying…