
9 November 2011: Overkill or deliberate misinformation? Either way it looks they are starting to worry...
The BBC report of today's national student demo suggests that 4,000 police were on the streets, whilst they estimated that the number of marchers was around 2,000. Now, are they really claiming that it takes 2 Met police to keep each young student protestor in order? This is the equivalent of having over 100,000 cops at Man Utd home game. To have double the number of protestors is overkill by any stretch of the imagination.
Frankly, having been on the demo I think the 2,000 estimate lacks credibility. But no amount of misinformation can hold back the anger that young people across the country feel towards the Coalition. And with hundreds of striking electricians stopping the traffic earlier in the day, there are clear signals that working people are in no mood to accept blatant attacks on pay and conditions either. No wonder the authorities are beginning to worry. (MC)
Brazil: protests highlight the gulf between politicians and the people Tom Gatehouse reports on the movement sweeping Brazil
Why we must intervene and compete with the capitalist media Holly Rigby reports from the launch of a new radical media project in Scotland
Yoga and politics Davy Jones, a yoga teacher and political activist in Brighton, draws an unusual link
Biomass: the trojan horse of renewables? The government plans to make up to three quarters of the UK's renewable energy target with biomass – but it falls short of the mark, says Almuth Ernsting of Biofuelwatch
‘In Gezi Park there is free food, medical care, a kids’ area and a library’ Ece Bulut gives us the latest from Istanbul’s Gezi Park, and looks at how the movement is organising – and changing people
Video: The story of the No Dash for Gas 21 In November 2012 twenty-one environmental activists shut down and occupied EDF-owned West Burton gas fired power station. For 8 days they remained on top of two chimneys, stopping 20,000 tons of carbon dioxide being emitted. This is their story
No Dash For Gas activists told to do (more) community service Joel Benjamin reports as climate campaigners avoid jail sentences
This is the week Labour turned its back on the welfare state As Ed Miliband backs a cap on benefits spending, Tom Walker says that the more you read of Labour’s new welfare policies, the worse it gets
Erdogan and the ‘looters’: what’s behind the protests in Turkey Ali E Erol gives some background to the Turkish movement, and how it is challenging the prime minister’s version of ‘ethics’
Video: the first week of resistance in Istanbul An activist video summarising events so far at the Gezi Park occupation - and how it sparked a mass movement across Turkey
North Korea: War games gone wrong Tim Beal examines the US ‘playbook’ miscalculations that underlie the current US-North Korea crisis
The day Greece’s TVs went dark Hilary Wainwright reports from Thessaloniki on what happened when the state ordered Greece’s state broadcaster to shut down
Winning at Walmart The OUR Walmart campaign has been shaking up labour organising in the US. As they prepared for their current strike, Alex Wood spent a month with the people behind a new kind of fightback
Toxic gas: why we need to stop fracking Tony Bosworth and Helen Rimmer report on plans to expand fracking across the UK and look at why we need to leave shale gas in the ground
Rio’s iron heel As host of the World Cup in 2014 and the Olympics in 2016, the Brazilian government is trying to ‘pacify’ the gangs in Rio’s favelas. But, Mike Davis reports, the needs of the favelados have taken a back seat
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