Category: activism
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Very angry day, nice evening
I was not where I said I’d be on the night of the eclipse. I did some messaging, tried to mitigate complications it may have caused but wasn’t one hundred percent successful. That happens sometimes. I know my limits, and on the whole, I function – that’s what decades and decades of practice in coping…
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Public Emergency Number One
I have deleted my first few attempts to write about this opportunity to address the climate crisis. It’s so enormous, and comes after so many frustrations and failures. The faux left are still out there shouting “one struggle, one fight!” — meaning anyone who’s discontented enough to be out on the streets must agree with…
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What if your union fails to represent you?
I’m very fortunate I suppose, that I stayed with Unite despite its political failures in recent years — I had been wondering about switching to a union that’s kept faith with socialism but this week, I found myself very glad I’m in Unite. Four unions – ASLEF, the Musicians’ Union, USDAW and Unison have stated…
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The enemy of my enemy
I thought Magdalen Berns was our queen. Heroes don’t die just because they die. She gave her life for us. She did. She knew she didn’t have much left, but she used it – with stunning energy, to teach us to rediscover our voices, after the trans lobby thought they had successfully cowed women into…
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Like a snowball
Or: what happens when your playbook doesn’t work any more This week, the big story amongst women’s and lesbian and gay campaign groups was that Amnesty report, that labelled some of our favourite organisations as ‘anti-rights’ groups. The report was very quickly withdrawn when the letters and emails from the slandered organisations started flying around…
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Climate crisis: we’re sunlighting!
Good news! We are united! One of the startling things I learned at the excellent People’s Emergency Briefing event held in Bexhill (St Peter’s Community Centre, 3rd July) was that 86% of the population want the government to take urgent action to deal with the climate crisis. I mean, to deal with the climate crisis.…
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Echoes, encounters, encampments
The film starts with a shot of empty grass surrounded by a tall fence. “Create a space for people to gather, and they will do it,” says someone remembering the recent encampment. I’m thinking about Greenham Common, about the New Age Travellers’ encampments, then about Parliament Square, how I stood and stared at that ancient…
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The hair-raising transformation of a SPAD
[Note to Hastings: I am three blogs behind myself, because I was stuck on this book review. On the one hand, there’s the angry, bitter, political version, reflecting the rage and dread we’re all feeling; on the other, a positive review, full of admiration and falling over itself to tell everything I learned — because…
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Where’s the cafe that’s just perfect for you…?
It might be the quality of the coffee or the sandwiches. It might be the staff, the sounds, or the nature of the space. It could be the meeting place of people like you, or the vibe that says ‘seaside’, or ‘Hastings’ (or St Leonards, if you’re over that way). It could be so many…
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For a Materialist Left: Photos and videos
I said I’d post again when the videos were released. Links below. Thanks to Ian McNee for a smashing set of photos here’s a selection… All the speeches will be available soon on the Materialist Left YouTube channel, for which, thanks goes to Inside Film. Here are the first two panel sets… Panel 1: Mary…
