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Red hot
As negotiations fell apart inside the Copenhagen climate conference, protesters from around the world came together outside. But was the counter-mobilisation a success? Ben Lear reports
Banks for the people
A call to rethink the financial system from a socialist perspective could have real popular resonance, argues Costas Lapavitsas
Tales of the riverbank
The transition to a sustainable economy requires that we lock horns with the beasts that stalk the corporate jungle, if only to replace their world of testosterone and risk with one of stability and mutuality, argues green economist Molly Scott Cato. So what can we propose as our vision for the banking system?
Royal Bank of Sustainability
At the end of 2008, UK taxpayers became majority owners of the Royal Bank of Scotland, one of Britain’s largest banks. So, since we’ve paid for it, shouldn’t we have some say in how it is run?
Rocking the system
A campaign is mounting over Northern Rock. Hilary Wainwright reports on the effort to create a community-owned bank serving wider social needs, not private profits
New futures
We must protect trusted news sources and liberate them from the free market, says Natalie Fenton
What would Rupert Murdoch say?
Saving local newspapers is not a matter of money but of political will, argues Jeremy Dear
Broken bones and bruises aside, what actually came out of Copenhagen? Oscar Reyes suggests much of the process was flawed from the beginning
The abolition of the monarchy is only a minor part of modern republicanism. Stuart White, of Jesus College, Oxford, outlines the key values of republican democracy and argues that its commitment to an active, participatory citizenship has much in common with red and green politics. Is a fusion of these three strands in the radical tradition the way forward for a new, transnational progressive philosophy?
The state of Israel and its supporters have attempted to brand the use of international law in aid of the Palestinians as ‘legal terrorism’. Daniel Machover explains the need to resist their efforts
The left must overcome its fragmentation if it is to halt future advances by the Chilean right
Rats flee a sinking rat
The Chilcot inquiry into the government’s conduct around the Iraq war is speaking volumes about our inability to hold state authority to account, argues Alex Nunns
New rules on the admission of overseas students have provoked anger among university and college staff and students. Frances Webber reports
James O’Nions says the tragedy of Haiti doesn’t just lie with the recent earthquake
Profiting from Haiti’s crisis
Benjamin Dangl on disaster capitalism in Washington’s backyard
Pablo Navarrete introduces the importance of community councils in Venezuela’s barrios, while Steve Ellner assesses their prospects for deepening the ‘Bolivarian revolution’
Leigh Phillips spoke to Stefan Zgliczynski and Jane Hardy about the left’s prospects
Time is running out for our public services - trade unions, service users, community organisations and the left must act now
With public sector spending cuts the new orthodoxy, the trade union movement needs to mobilise a stronger counter-attack, argues Heather Wakefield of public sector union Unison
Rolling back the new ‘common sense’ of spending cuts may seem like a difficult job, but it’s not impossible, says Mike Marqusee
With the Tories still setting the political agenda in the run up to the election, Alex Nunns examines what a Cameron government might actually have in store for us
Chris Baugh explains how UK trade unions are beginning to respond to the urgency of climate change with an agenda of ‘just transition’
David Beetham, Stuart Weir and Stuart Wilks-Heeg write down our unwritten and undemocratic constitution
Breaking rank
Tim Hunt speaks to Clare Glenton, wife of Joe Glenton, the British soldier facing court martial for refusing to return to Afghanistan
Reinventing democracy
Marianne Maeckelbergh argues that one of the global justice movement’s key innovations has been its approach to democratic decision-making
Transitional demands
As a global deal on climate change recedes into the future, perhaps the local level is our only hope of preventing climate catastrophe. Sarah Irving investigates the Transition movement, which aims to move us ‘from oil dependency to local resilience,’ using the power of community
Liz Davies reviews Memoirs of a Radical Lawyer by Michael Mansfield QC
An ability to persuade
From the Birmingham Six to the family of Jean Charles de Menezes, radical barrister Michael Mansfield has represented them all. Jon Robins interviews him as he takes a break from his high-profile legal career
While it is commonplace for the left to argue that greater equality is desirable, it is less common to see a huge evidence base used to make the case. Matt Sellwood spoke to Richard Wilkinson, who has done just that in his book The Spirit Level
The UN climate summit in Copenhagen in December is a major event in the battle to strike a deal on cutting carbon emissions. Oscar Reyes picks his way through the plethora of campaigns and networks that are making demands and calling protests and actions
Ten years ago, the global justice movement burst from the streets of Seattle onto the world’s television screens. John Hilary examines the victories and challenges of the last decade
The ‘Taxpayers’ Alliance’ has become a ubiquitous commentator on tax and government spending. Clifford Singer finds out who they really are
Bilal El-Amine considers the experience of Hizbullah in Lebanon
On 3 December 1984, the world’s worst industrial disaster took place at Bhopal in India. Twenty-five years on, Rajwinder Sahota visits the city to find out what happened to the victims
Andrea D’Cruz talks to a group organising collective action among people on the margins of the welfare system
Frances Webber investigates the Home Office’s policy of imposing poverty on those seeking asylum in Britain
The great global land grab
The global food crisis has prompted various rich countries to start buying up land in the poorer world to secure their food supplies. As well as affecting domestic food supplies in the countries affected, Sue Branford says it could be a time bomb for the world’s ability to cope with climate change
Feeding the city
Matt Sellwood profiles a Hackney organisation that is trying to change the way the London borough gets and eats its food
Hungry for change
Britain’s food policies could set us on the road to a healthy, ethical and sustainable food system. Yet government action so far has been inadequate and contradictory, says Kath Dalmeny
Confronting the City
Mat Little profiles Maurice Glasman, dubbed the father of ‘Blue Labour’ and learns more about Glasman’s plans to clean up the City of London
Tim Hunt fails to find any redeeming features in agro-giant Monsanto
Mike Marqusee argues that the ‘war on cancer’ is a misplaced metaphor for what is as much a political as a medical issue
Nick Dearden assesses the chances for real change in the global economy as a result of a UN summit on the economic crisis held in June 2009
The community justice centre in Liverpool has been called a more enlightened approach to dealing with crime. Jon Robins investigates
The arrest and detention of Palestinian children by the Israeli army inflicts long-term trauma on Palestinian society. Andrea D’Cruz travelled to Abu Dis to find out more
Red Shi’ism, Iran and the Islamist revolution
From the Iranian revolution to the Palestinian struggle, it has often been Islamic ideas that have inspired resistance to imperialism. Here, Alastair Crooke argues that the left needs a more complex understanding of the thinking, critical forms of political Islam.
Saeed Rahnema responds saying that Alistair Crooke’s understanding of the Iranian revolution and recent events is deeply flawed and Azar Majedi argues Alastair Crooke’s glorification of the Islamist movement is based on distortions and falsification
21 September 2007
Portfolio
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