Category: activism
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What every women’s rights campaigner wants for Christmas

The glorious wave of new feminist books published in this decade has been one of the joys of the women’s rights campaign. For a while, my favourite was Julie Bindel’s Feminism for Women… Oh hang on, before that there was Caroline Criado Perez’s Invisible Women… A lot of people swear by Helen Joyce’s TRANS, but…
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From Assange to AI

You forget the year, you forget the order of events, some names escape you but certain experiences stay with you, hard and bright and real, and inform everything you do for the rest of your life. Like being a part of a gathering after dark in Parliament Square, a gathering called ‘Occupy Democracy’ – hearing…
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I’d like to apply for the Helen Thomas Award, please

I don’t mind if people think it’s a bit off. I think they should rename it the Emperor’s New Clothes Award. (If you’re of a sensitive nature, you should probably read the last bit first, the bit headed ‘naturally’ and work your way up to reading the whole thing.) Why isn’t anti-Palestinianism a thing people…
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What do we do about Them?

Every step of the way we’re shocked, horrified, looking around wildly for ways to stop it. Aching for the children of Gaza, we want to say we can’t believe humans could do this to other humans but, as we’re constantly reminded, the Holocaust happened. Other extensive mass killings have happened since. Humans wound up sufficiently…
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Discord, doubt and division

I started a thread on my Facebook page the other day to grab the attention of anyone I’ve still not made alternative links with. I said I’ve had enough of being messed about by social media. After a few exchanges and various emails, it was clear that most of my friends thought I should swap…
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Twits, cops and sisters

Leading to: What can I say about politicians? Reflections Last night, I ended up drinking hot chocolate in a Wetherspoons in Bexhill at umph oclock in the morning and found myself flipping through a magazine – gosh look, Spoons have their own magazine! It said that Spoons inform themselves about what people think by listening…
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The People we need to know about and some things we can do

(and Kingdom of Olives and Ash review part 2) I started reading this book after October 7th because understanding what’s happening in Israel / Palestine had suddenly become priority one. So urgent did it seem that I wrote a hasty paragraph or two when I was only halfway through, because I was already thinking I…
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Dear Socialists

*Header pic: Andy McDonald was one of the three MPs who turned up to talk to the RMT and their supporters when we went to Westminster to argue for the ‘keep the guard on the train’ campaign. (an aside perhaps, but vital for solidarity in the current struggles) Dear socialists, I’m glad you’ve remembered thought-crime…
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To those MPs, Cllrs and TU reps who haven’t yet called for ceasefire

Yes I know about the party directives, the potholes, the budget battles, the urgent community issues, the desire to win the next election etc You can’t solve any of those things in the middle of World War Three. The best you can say to yourself is that after World War Three, there won’t be anyone…
