The Red Pepper round-up: 14 September
14 September 2012: A selection of ace articles and videos from this week and upcoming actions for the following week, by Izzy Koksal
And the booing of politicians continues... this time it was Ed Balls who was put in his place by angry trade unionists after he refused to promise them pay rises if the Labour government come into power.
There was good news for the majority of the 182 Critical Mass cyclists who were arrested on the night of the Olympics Opening Ceremony for the crime of cycling; realising that they had no case whatsoever the Metropolitan police will be taking no further action against them. The police’s actions on that night – which saw people detained on buses, denied food and water, and given punitive bail conditions – were a clear abuse of police power as they sought to use the Olympics as an excuse for heavy handed tactics.
After anti-workfare campaigners forced the retreat of workfare in corporate stores across the country, the government have shifted their workfare schemes into the charity sector in the hope of rebranding workfare. Here are 10 arguments detailing what is wrong with charity workfare. In other workfare news, yet another case study has emerged of workfare being used to replace paid workers jobs.
As the housing crisis intensifies, resistance to it is building. Brum Tenants and Homeless Action Group have produced a report and an interactive map showing the 607 empty houses owned by Birmingham city council. If the council do not act, they will use the information they have gathered and take action themselves. In west London, West Ken and Gibbs Green tenants have been campaigning against Hammersmith and Fulham council’s plans to sell of their homes to private developers. The council agreed a £105 million land sale to developer CapCo last Monday, but local residents promise ‘we shall never surrender!’
Climate protesters built a giant ice pyramid blockading Shell’s London HQ in protest against their Arctic drilling.
Listen to Open Democracy’s ‘What was the true legacy of the Olympics?’ discussion with Suzanne Moore and Dan Hancox and join in the debate online.
The Centre for Labour and Social Studies has published a pamphlet presenting the key findings from Kate Pickett and Richard Wilkinson’s ground breaking book ‘The Spirit Level’.This is a great resource for furthering our discussions on inequality and what we can do about it. Owen Jones discusses the pamphlet here.
The latest edition of ‘Social Movements Studies’ is a special issue dedicated to the Occupy movement to mark its one year anniversary. The articles will be free to access and download until mid-November. Follow this link and register to access.
Upcoming events
Pussy Riot protest London as part of the Global Day of Action, Saturday 15 September, 11am, opposite the Russian Consulate at Bayswater Road
UK Feminista Summer School, 15-16 September, 10am, University of Bristol Students’ Union
Lambeth Save Our Services ‘Stop the Cuts’ lobby of Lambeth Council, Wednesday 19 September, 6pm, Lambeth Town Hall, Brixton
Fight for Sites public meeting organised by the Traveller Solidarity Network, Thursday 20 September, 7.30pm, Toynbee Hall, 28 Commercial Street, E1 6LS
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
Red Pepper is a magazine of political rebellion and dissent, influenced by socialism, feminism and green politics. more »
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