Activism
With increasing overheads and the well-known challenges of print media, it's not easy for a radical volunteer-led publication in this big bad capitalist world!
Israel-Palestine talks will continue to fail until they are based on international law, human rights and equality for all, writes Phyllis Bennis
Win £100 and your writing published in Red Pepper
Adam Payne of the newly-formed Landworkers’ Alliance in the UK reports from La Via Campesina's global conference
Red Pepper’s guide to the camps, the demos, the schools, the festivals and the protests that will be making our summer
You sent us your pictures of anti-G8 action this month in London
A G8 summit coming to Britain traditionally heralds the launch of a large campaigning coalition of international NGOs. Kai Grachy takes a critical look at the 2013 version: the If campaign
We can’t decipher the present without examining its foundations in the battles of the past, writes Mike Marqusee
Catastrophism, by Sasha Lilley, David McNally, Eddie Yuen and James Davis, reviewed by Nic Beuret
Reclaiming Public Ownership, by Andrew Cumbers, reviewed by Clifford Singer
Hilary Wainwright opens the new year ambitiously! She discusses how to transform the state and why radical politicians find it so difficult to maintain their radical momentum once in parliament or the council chamber. How could this change?
Lorna Stephenson and Emma Hughes report on cleaners’ success organising against poverty pay
While academies have drawn the headlines, the government’s new ‘studio schools’ are making children work for corporate sponsors. Alex Diaz reports
Adam Quarshie talks with supporters of the TUC demonstration outside the Imperial War Museum last month
Oscar Reyes reports on the successes and setbacks of neighbourhood assemblies in Spain
As the anniversary of the Dale Farm eviction approaches, Elly Robson explores the deliberate criminalisation of the travelling way of life by the coalition government
In November, European social movements will meet in Florence to plan continent-wide responses to austerity and the European crisis of democracy. Tommaso Fattori calls for us to make ‘Firenze 10+10’ a priority
US labour activist Steve Early evaluates the significance of Miliband’s recent appearance at the Miners' Gala, the first from the Labour leadership in 23 years
Brian Precious talks to Councillor George Barratt about his fight against the cuts in Barking and Dagenham
Mike Marqusee asks: are the emerging forms of resistance up to the challenge?
Hilary Wainwright examines the possibility of forging a new kind of political economy by learning from the best of both today's radical movements and those of the 60s and 70s
Michael Pooler reports on the struggle of cleaners in the heart of London's financial district
Naomi Klein in discussion with Occupy Wall Street activist Yotam Marom
Camilla Berens describes her most empowering experience of direct action
Siobhan McGuirk visits the Occupy camp in Washington DC
Occupy LSX activist Kelly Bornshlegel talks about the dynamic democracy of
the camps
Z-Net's Michael Albert asks what message is emerging from the global wave of occupations
Human psychology, political values and action. By Tim Holmes
Hilary Wainwright maps structures of feeling and resistance
Frank Barat poses questions from artists, activists and journalists, on Egypt, corporate power, Palestine and more.
On the occasion of War on Want’s 60th anniversary, Sue Branford looks at the turbulent history of this uniquely left-wing charity
Protests are increasingly appearing on the internet in real time in a myriad of ways. Adam Waldron takes a look at the smartphone applications that every activist needs
Clifford Singer talks to Paul Mackney from the new 'Coalition of Resistance'
Siobhan McGuirk talks to the Adbusters Media Foundation
Jerome Phelps exposes the secret indefinite detention of migrants
A campaign is mounting over Northern Rock, the bank whose collapse heralded the financial crisis. Hilary Wainwright reports on the effort to create a community-owned bank serving wider social needs, not private profits
Saving local newspapers and developing new, democratic news outlets is not a matter of money but of political will, argues Jeremy Dear, who outlines where the money could come from
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?
Stefan Simanowitz reports from Lanzarote on the remarkable victory of a solitary Western Saharan hunger-striker over a normally implacable Moroccan regime
Time is running out for our public services. Already the Tories are beginning to dismantle local government, local democracy and public sector trade unionism. New Labour has no vision for the future of public services except ‘efficiencies’ and privatisation. Trade unions, service users, community organisations and the left must: Use popular, diverse and understandable ways […]
Marianne Maeckelbergh argues that one of the global justice movement's key innovations has been its approach to democratic decision-making
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
A global climate change deal for the planet at Copenhagen needs to be about equality and freedom. Otherwise it's not a planet worth saving, says Paul Chatterton
Kevin Blowe reviews Rush! The Making of a Climate Activist by Tamsin Omond (Marion Boyars, 2009)
'We were sleeping peacefully that night. I got up to find the children vomiting all over. First I wondered whether it was something they had for dinner. Then I too started vomiting. Soon all of us, my husband and me carrying the children were running . . . My three year old daughter Nazma had swelled up so much like she would burst.'
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
Vijay Prashad's The Darker Nations: A People's History of the Third World (The New Press), reviewed by Nick Dearden
Have you heard the one about Cap'n Bob, bob, bob?
35 years ago, workers at the Lucas Aerospace company formulated an 'alternative corporate plan' to convert military production to socially useful and environmentally desirable purposes. Hilary Wainwright and Andy Bowman consider what lessons it holds for the greening of the world economy today
As the anti-corporate pranksters the Yes Men launched their new film, {Red Pepper} dispatched Brendan Montague to meet them and get the lowdown on their unusual form of activism
Andrew Beckett of Smash EDO says Milan Rai's criticism of direct action campaigns misses the point
Milan Rai looks at the growth of local campaigns against
arms manufacturers
The International Accompaniment and Observation Delegation reports on the current situation in Honduras
The police are no more our servants than corporations or the media. Kevin Blowe examines how the government's increasingly authoritarian approach to crime and security has enabled the police to emerge from a series of scandals and controversies with their powers enhanced. He argues that campaigners need to radically rethink their approach to policing in Britain
The treatment of 12 students branded as terrorists despite no evidence being laid against them has aroused widespread anger. A campaign on their behalf is gaining momentum across the country, writes Frances Webber
The collapse in votes for mainstream parties, coupled with increasing outbreaks of strike action - official and unofficial - signifies growing political unrest in Britain. But how far will the rebellion spread? Peter Lazenby reports
'They did such a fine job that the military dictatorship in Indonesia, to which the plane was to be delivered the next day, has demanded a completely new one.' John Pilger
'God save the sex pistols they're a bunch of wholesome blokes
_ They just like wearing filthy clothes and swapping filthy jokes
_ God save television keep the programmes pure
_ God save William Grundy from falling in manure'
A revitalised left needs to consider what exactly it wants before it can determine how to achieve it, says Siobhan McGuirk
The old, failed internal combustion engine of politics is not the way forward, argues Alex Nunns
Siobahn McGuirk reports from the student occupation at the University of Manchester, the longest in the wave of student militancy over Gaza
As the global movements for peace and social justice head back onto the streets, Ben Lear looks ahead to a year of protest
Red Pepper has always been about more than radical journalism. Our origins lie in the extraordinary movement that converged across parties, movements, identities and geography to support the mining communities. The Chesterfield Socialist Conferences, and then the Socialist Movement, attempted to realise the potential of this convergence. As its limits became apparent, we created Red […]
For generations the left has built campaigns by handing out literature on the streets and chatting with the public - but in Liverpool the police are trying to drive them from the city centre. Andy Bowman looks at the united response
'Virtual' activism and protest are not geeky or trivial, argues Neil Scott, but an important tool in modern communications and politics. The left has a lot to lose if it doesn't acknowledge their potential
As we face increasingly international and interconnected crises around food, finance and climate, we need to know more about our global allies
in the South. James O'Nions looks beyond the familiar but limited NGOs that stand for North-South relations in the mainstream media
As protesters continue to fill the squares of Athens, the two ministers targeted by the demonstrators have gone - but the young people who took to the streets after the police had killed one of them had a lot more in mind than a cabinet reshuffle. Two participant observers, Ilias Ziogas and Akis Gavrilidis, sent us interim interpretations of the intense resistance that is shaking Greek political institutions
In towns and cities across the country, activists are reaching out to local communities with a new style of 'rooted' politics. Paul Chatterton reports on the UK's 'autonomous social centres'
Samuel Grove takes apart the pro-US, anti-Chavez bias of the Guardian's Latin American correspondent Rory Carroll
Steve Platt looks back at the role of cannabis in the 'counter culture' of the 1960s and 1970s and how people on both sides of the political and cultural divide believed that a hardy psychoactive plant could change the world. He wonders how it could ever have aroused such passions - both for and against its use - and asks why it's still illegal
How are we getting the message about climate change across? The use
of apocalyptic language prophesying imminent ecological catastrophe
and social meltdown is something that unites activists, journalists and,
increasingly, politicians. But it is uncertain whether this generates action or defeatism among the public, argues Stefan Skrimshire
The mayoral elections were last month's London story but there's another kind of politics growing in the communities, schools and workplaces of the capital - one that's shown itself to have the power to achieve practical results from business and government alike. Deborah Littman reports
New Labour is dead. The New Tories are in the ascendancy. The left needs to look beyond its existing, inbred networks, writes Hilary Wainwright
Senior mental health nurse Karen Reissmann was sacked last year after being found guilty of gross misconduct by Manchester Mental Health and Social Care Trust for speaking out against NHS cuts. Tom Haines-Doran catches up with her to ask about the latest in the campaign to have her reinstated
MP Nadine Dorries unveiled 20 'reasons' for lowering the abortion limit to 20 weeks. Here Laurie Penny gives 24 reasons why it should remain at 24 weeks
The last thing the legacy of 1968 needs is nostalgic commemoration, writes Mike Marqusee. Even as it was happening, it was being packaged for consumption. Nor should we celebrate it in the name of some abstract spirit of resistance. It was a year of contradictions and confusions, many of which continue to confront anyone who wants to take part in a movement for radical change
The Greens can justifiably claim to be the largest progressive party in the UK, but often meet with suspicion from the left. Are they given a fair hearing? Alex Nunns weighs the evidence
This bold venture comes as a result of people from different left and radical traditions - or none - getting together in greater Manchester to say that there IS an alternative to Labour's policies of war and privatisation
The cuts in teaching English for speakers of other languages (Esol) spell disaster for the poorest and most vulnerable members of settled immigrant communities, asylum seekers and refugees. Hazel Healy reports
Five years on from the invasion of Iraq, we sound out the views of some the school-age protesters that we interviewed at the time
With plans for a third runway at Heathrow currently under consultation and airports cross the UK looking to expand, David Matthews surveys the new coalitions linking local residents' opposition to environmental concerns about climate change
Penny, from the campaigning group Backlash, says banning so called 'extreme porn' is an insult to female sexuality
Joe Jenkins reports on the the Peace Tax Seven, a group of conscientious objectors seeking a judicial review of the war tax policies in Britain
Hilary Wainwright examines how new technology and new forms of organisation are coming together to transform the left and labour movements, political representation and democracy
The nation state can no longer deliver the left’s global agenda, says Nigel Harris. Globalisation is our best hope of reducing world poverty, he says Robin Blackburn replies with some ideas for a new system of global welfare Join the debate on the Red Pepper forum Other Red Pepper debates
As the Green Party balloted its members on whether to appoint a leader, in November 2007, Rupert Read and Shahrar Ali debated the pros and cons. Read the debate on the Red Pepper forum
After the first parliamentary meeting organised by bloggers from across the political spectrum, Chris White asks if 'open-source campaigning' could take off
Feminism is back - and this time it's hypertextual. Laurie Penny reports on the new women's spaces on the web
Powerful historical forces are at work in the Middle East, the global economy and the climate that will unpick the status quo, writes Clare Short. Can the left reinvent itself to meet the challenge?
Welcome to the new-look Red Pepper magazine and website. Let me put it in context.
By Hilary Wainwright
This article is one of a series on who to vote for. See this month's print magazine for Kierra Box on why 'The government always gets in' and former British ambassador Craig Murray on why 'A vote for Labour is a vote for torture'.
A rising tide of direct action on climate change is spreading across the UK. Tom Bailey records the spread of this movement, from last summer's Camp for Climate Action, which targeted the Drax power station, to this year's gathering near Heathrow Airport
The acquittal of two men who broke into the Fairford airbase to try to disable B52 bombers at the start of the Iraq war is a victory for democracy, writes Stuart Weir
Behind the April Fool's Day pranks lies an ancient subversive tradition, Martin Wainwright writes
From academic seminars to birthday parties, there are no end of ways to blockade Faslane, writes Hilary Wainwright
If you would like to keep us up to date on your community, union or organisation, or would like to sell the magazine or help out at the Red Pepper office, send us an email or contact the address/telephone number below.
In contrast to the mainstream media, Red Pepper's content comes directly from an international network of writers based in the alternative movements for radical social and environmental change.
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Red Pepper is a magazine of political rebellion and dissent. Influenced by socialism, feminism and green politics, it is a resource for all those who imagine and work to create another world - a world based on equality, solidarity, and democracy.
During the past year the pressure group Compass has undertaken a thoroughgoing attempt to rethink a democratic left politics of freedom, equality and solidarity. The first of three publications, The Good Society, was published in September 2006.
Jonathan Rutherford, the chair of Compass's Good Society Working Group, argues that at its heart must be a new set of values and a new idea of the individual
As the impending climate crisis looms, Heidi Bachram takes a look at what direct action has to offer.
If you would like to reuse an article from Red Pepper either in print or online, please contact us first. There are many options available, with free usage for non profit campaign groups and activist blogs – just tell us first!
Throughout the 1960s, volunteers who joined the struggle for African-American civil rights in the US southland were denounced as 'outside agitators.' The white establishment accused them of stirring up the local blacks, who of course would otherwise have remained content with their lot.
Dear Subcomandauntie,
Although always a radical at heart, it was the Iraq war that finally prised me from my armchair and into a rapid upward spiral of political activism. Alas, my overwhelming experience throughout has been one of repression - mental and physical - from state, police, capital and those authoritarians within our own movement. Demoralised and depressed, the last thing I can face right now is the prospect of robocops running riot against me and fellow demonstrators in Scotland this July. But this cowardice racks me with guilt and I desperately don't want to feel this way. Can you help?
Burned Out of Birmingham
They were dancing in the isles at Tesco in Hackney on May Day, but it wasn't over half-price donuts. Up to 200 activists temporarily occupied the store as part of the EuroMayday 'precarity' actions, highlighting insecure working conditions and what protesters say is 'the tyranny of 24/7 constantly on-call work regimes'.
Nine people were in court last month, facing charges brought in accordance with the Anti-Social Behaviour Act after they held a peaceful protest outside offices belonging to US bulldozer manufacturer Caterpillar.
Protest doesn't have to be po-faced. Black-clad posturing and worthy hand-wringing are all well and good, but sometimes you just want to dance. "Creative occupation" is party as protest - be it dancing on the motorway or raving on the tube. It creates spaces for individual and communal expression in defiance of global McMonoculture. Everyone's invited
The trouble with staging a war of aggression is that in order to win public support, it must be dressed up as a war of defence. And to do that governments have to lie and invent threats that don't exist. But eventually the truth comes out.
We are probably all familiar with the notion that a lively, informative media is an essential, perhaps key, component in maintaining our democratic ideal of informed self-government. Equally likely, it seems, is a general awareness that the media often fails to live up to the standards we require of it. But what appears to be less well understood is that far from making well-intentioned mistakes, the mainstream media are inherently and systematically biased. Indeed, despite an increasing number of books and websites dedicated to analyzing the corporate/establishment structure of mass media, even activists still pay scant attention to a phenomenon that plays a crucial role in limiting any positive gains they might hope to achieve.
"Red Pepper, breaking a decade; New Labour, broken and decayed,' suggested a wit in the office. But now is not the moment for narrow triumphalism (beyond celebrating the larger font size and the monthly miracle performed in getting the magazine out at all).
Tam Dalyell tells us why he agrees with the Linlithgow Constituency Labour Party association motion recommending Tony Blair reconsider his position as leader of the party because of his support for a war against Iraq
Dave Castle continues Red Pepper's interviews with theorists whose work contributes to a renewal of the left. This month he talks to Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe whose work on social movements and class offers a controversial theorisation of insights familiar to grassroots activists.
