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Category: UK

  • Trade unions ‘won’t rest’ until Tories repeal their draconian anti-strike laws

    The Trades Union Congress (TUC) has warned the Conservative government that trade unions “won’t rest” until the “draconian” anti-strike laws are repealed.

    TUC: the fight against anti-strike laws is not over

    The union body warns the fight against the legislation “doesn’t stop here” – adding that unions will be discussing how they take on the new anti-strike laws at the “once in a generation” special Congress taking place on Saturday 9 December.

    The warning comes as minimum service levels regulations in rail, ambulance services and border security passed today.

    The statutory code of practice regulations also passed today, which the TUC says will wrap unions in “burdensome” red tape.

    Ministers are separately consulting on rules affecting workers in hospital settings, schools, universities and fire services.

    This is despite warnings from unions and employer groups that the plans are unworkable.

    The laws will mean that when workers lawfully vote to strike, they could be forced to attend work – and sacked if they don’t comply.

    TUC research found a massive one in five workers in Britain – or 5.5 million workers – are at risk of losing their right to strike as a result of the Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Act.

    Taking on these “spiteful new laws”

    Commenting on minimum service level regulations passing, TUC general secretary Paul Nowak said:

    The fight against this draconian legislation doesn’t stop here – unions won’t rest until these laws are repealed.

    That’s why we are calling this weekend’s once in a generation special Congress.

    Unions will be discussing how we take on these spiteful new laws and how we step up resistance and campaigning.

    Make no mistake. These new Conservative anti-strike laws are unworkable, undemocratic and likely in breach of international law.

    They represent an unprecedented attack on the right to strike – and they’ll poison industrial relations and drag out disputes.

    Labour gets this. That’s why they have done the right thing and promised to repeal this nasty legislation at the earliest opportunity.

    And it’s why employers, politicians and civil society groups are queuing up to oppose this legislation.

    The UK already has some of the most restrictive trade union laws in Europe. Now the Tories want to make it even harder for people to win fair pay and conditions.

    Widespread criticism of the anti-strike laws

    The legislation gives ministers sweeping powers to impose strike restrictions in any service within health, education, fire, transport, border security and nuclear decommissioning – and has faced widespread criticism.

    NHS Providers recently warned that the legislation could worsen industrial relations, harm patient care and lead to more disruption.

    The Joint Committee on Human Rights (JCHR) wrote to the government to express “serious concerns” about its anti-strike legislation breaching international law.

    The EHRC also warned that the legislation could see all striking workers in affected sectors lose their unfair dismissal protection, as whole strikes could be deemed illegal.

    The House of Lords Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee criticised the Act for giving blanket powers to UK ministers while providing virtually no detail.

    The Act has also faced a barrage of criticism from Acas, civil liberties organisations, the House of Lords Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee, race and gender equalities groups, employment rights lawyers, and politicians around the world.

    Featured image via the UCU

    By The Canary

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Johnson says ‘sorry’ – but ONLY for getting caught calling Long Covid ‘b*llocks’

    Boris Johnson’s first day at the Covid Inquiry was underscored by his inability to apologise to long Covid patients properly – summing up his arrogance and contempt for most of the public.

    ‘Gulf War syndrome’ ‘bollocks’ says Johnson

    As the Canary previously reported, earlier in the Covid Inquiry a lawyer for some Long Covid groups revealed that Johnson had written that the disease was “bollocks”. He also noted the former PM wrote it was “Gulf War Syndrome stuff”.

    Now, we know that Johnson didn’t really believe this – but only if you believe him in the first place. This is because on Wednesday 6 December lawyers questioned him again on long Covid. As Press Association (PA) reported, Hugo Keith KC asked Johnson if it was “fair” that he’d been “less than sympathetic” to people living with long Covid, and whether or not it was fair he “questioned” the existence of the illness. Johnson said:

    [It’s] not really [fair], no.

    The words that I scribbled in the margins of submissions about long Covid have obviously been now publicised and I’m sure that they have caused hurt and offence to the huge numbers of people who do indeed suffer from that syndrome.

    And I regret very much using that language and I should have thought about the possibility of future publication.

    ‘Thought about the possibility of future publication’? Translate that from ‘Johnson doublespeak’, and you get ‘I should have thought about whether I’d get caught‘.

    Johnson also claimed the ‘Gulf War syndrome/bollocks’ comments were him trying to “get to the truth of the matter” of what long Covid was. He also said advisors only gave him a “proper” paper on the disease in summer 2021. This is despite former health secretary Matt Hancock claiming to the Covid Inquiry that the government began a “messaging campaign” in October 2020.

    Long Covid: hedge your bets, apparently

    Despite this, PA reported that:

    Johnson “continued to make disparaging references to whether or not this is Gulf War syndrome stuff” in February 2021, and again in June 2021.

    The former PM also sent a WhatsApp message in February 2021, saying:

    Do we really believe in long Covid? Why can’t we hedge it more? I bet it’s complete Gulf War Syndrome stuff.

    So, we know that Johnson is not really sorry about his comments – but we don’t know if he’s any closer to accepting that long Covid is actually a real, physical disease (just like Gulf War syndrome is). Typical Johnson, really – no one is any the wiser even after listening to him.

    Only apologising because he got caught

    PA reported that chief executive of Long Covid Kids Sammie McFarland said of Johnson’s testimony:

    Boris Johnson didn’t apologise for using the language because it was wrong; he only apologised because he got found out and his actions have caused years of bullying and stigma for people suffering from Long Covid. We need a sincere apology.

    But more than that we need action and the inquiry to create meaningful and impactful recommendations going forward.

    Johnson also said that people think they are unwell. He needs to recognise that this is a real disease and a consequence of the pandemic alongside the unfortunate deaths and hospitalisations.

    McFarland is correct: Johnson is only sorry he got caught. What other non-apologies (or in his words, ‘bollocks’) he’ll spout on his second day of evidence to the Covid Inquiry is anyone’s guess – but it’s unlikely to be any comfort to the millions of people affected.

    Featured image via the Daily Mail – YouTube

    By Steve Topple

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • A new book charts the fictional life of one man across seven decades – but exposes British political reality, too

    A new book charts the fictional life of one man across seven decades. Moreover, it documents 70 years of political and social upheaval. However, while a work of fiction, the author has told the Canary that with the book The Unheard she hopes to ‘reveal the unspoken impact of political decisions and societal events… that helps the reader make more sense of themselves and the world around them’.

    The Unheard: seven decades of upheaval

    The Unheard is the enraging and involving debut novel by acclaimed documentary photographer, Anne Worthington:

    The Unheard book cover

    The book, released in July 2023 with Confingo Publishing, explores the psychological impact of sweeping political and social change.

    Spanning seven decades and working backwards through the turn of the millennium, the landscape of Thatcherite Britain, the latent effects of war, and shadowed throughout by events in the early life of the man at its centre, Tom Pullan, the book tracks the impact of tumultuous change, and how the past influences the present. The novel deals with the effects of events rather than the events themselves.

    Worthington was awarded an MA Creative Writing with Distinction in 2018. She wrote The Unheard to make sense of her father’s experiences after undertaking research into the effects of trauma. She was a finalist for Iceland Writers Retreat, and shortlisted for Fish Flash Fiction Prize. The Unheard won the Michael Schmidt Prize in 2018.

    Backwards in time

    The first part takes place in 1999 when Tom has dementia. A point has been reached where his wife cannot take care of them both and they must live separately. Tom knows the visitors that come to the house are trying to tell him something but cannot remember what it is. And the people in his memory aren’t the ones he sees around him now.

    Fifteen years earlier, in 1984, Tom is working in an office where cuts have been announced, and the policies of the government carry a sense of dread that remind him of earlier times. Haunted by the past, fearful of the future, horrified by what he sees as a callous reinvention of the country, he is left with no space to breathe. If the long shadow of the prime minister stunts the prospects of Tom’s family, it also reminds him of his earliest losses.

    As the Depression continues in 1931, Tom’s father has lost a business and the family home, and starts a labouring job for the foreman he used to employ. Tom’s brother has disappeared and Tom is left to make sense of a world that is violent and unpredictable. This is the event that marks him the most.

    Living with volatility

    Worthington told the Canary that the premise for The Unheard came from a combination of her and her family’s own experiences, but also those she documented as a photographer:

    The ideas emerged over a long time and the book brought them together. I came to writing having been a documentary photographer where I map the ways social and economic forces play out in people’s lives. A photograph doesn’t always contain enough space to show details or effects over time, whereas writing can.

    My family lived with the psychological impact of political decisions, and I began to look at this more closely. It was something that was brushed over and accepted as part of life. Like many people they dealt with the past by burying it, hoping it could be forgotten even though it affected them. We lived with the volatility that comes from this, and an unsettling sense that something was wrong without knowing what it was.

    I traced it back and began to see how political events from the past had created a domino effect that led to further consequences, even years later for those who weren’t alive at the time. These ripples seemed to hide in plain sight and some of what happened found its way into the book.

    In The Unheard, readers are drawn into a world where brutal events from the past lie just below the surface. Plunged inside the characters’ heads, we experience their thoughts and feelings: sorrow and rage they cannot share; the intense feelings and turbulent sexuality of a teenage girl, and a boy who saw something that casts a long shadow over his life. In the process, history is humanised, fleshing out its casualties while treating them with the dignity they deserve.

    Worthington is a documentary photographer and writer. She grew up in Blackpool in the Northwest of England before moving to Manchester.

    Worthington: a background in photography

    Living in the inner-city area of Hulme at a time when Manchester was at the centre of the UK music scene, she became part of the mix of artists, ex-students, and squatters that made the partly abandoned blocks of flats their own. She was part of the Dogs of Heaven collective that produced large-scale art performances.

    Concerned with housing and housing issues, she and a group of tenants campaigned for, designed, and developed a building of 50 flats for social rent together with workspace and a theatre.

    During this time she first picked up a camera and taught herself photography. Worthington went on to become a documentary photographer. Over the next 20 years she produced a body of work that highlighted the conditions of housing and the effects of social and economic change that began during the 1980s. Her work is exhibited widely, featuring alongside documentary photographers such as Shirley Baker and Tish Murtha.

    Tracing the consequences of events

    It is this background which made the content and context of The Unheard so important to Worthington. She told the Canary:

    In the book, I trace the consequences of an event that happens early in the life of Tom Pullan, the man at its centre. Years could go by and the event would remain dormant in his memory only to be reawakened when the political environment reminded him of earlier times. I include historical context so readers can see this for themselves; the way two political periods correlate in this character’s mind, the way memory conspires to construct the present.

    The book needed a timescale of several decades to show this. In the book, Tom sees similarities between Thatcher’s Britain and the Depression of the 1930s when the event that marked him the most took place. His reaction creates ripples for himself and those around him.

    The event at the centre of the book slowly looms into focus as we move through the story. The book encompasses a timespan of several decades but it’s very short for a novel. I wanted the reader to be as close to the characters as possible so that you get to hear what they think and feel. I have a sparse writing style so there are few spare words, the writing moves quickly through the story. The characters have no space to breathe and the reader doesn’t either.

    I ended up solving a puzzle with this book. It’s true when I say that photography is the reason why I write about these themes, but these themes run through my family. I grew up with my dad but knew very little about his past, so in some ways, he was a stranger who pushed his past away so it wouldn’t affect him. It followed him everywhere and we lived in the ripples it created.

    I can make more sense of him now. His were the experiences of a generation who lived through huge social and political upheaval, as we do now. He lived in routine fear and life felt provisional to him. His past might have gone unspoken about but it could be felt instead.

    The Unheard: clever, insightful, and engaging

    Moreover, Worthington has some clear messages she hopes readers take away from The Unheard:

    When I was writing, I wanted readers to know what the characters think and feel, the things they don’t share with anyone, things they don’t like to admit even to themselves. The voices come from deep inside their heads so there’s very little distance between the reader and the characters, and I hope readers feel involved with these people and what they have to say.

    I like books that take readers into someone’s world and show them what’s hidden from view. This book is full of internal voices and I hope people see the contrast between what we present publicly and what we keep to ourselves – that both are true even though they conflict.

    In a more general way, I’d like to think that a book like this reveals the unspoken impact of political decisions and societal events – that it might show someone something useful that helps make more sense of themselves and the world around them.

    Plus, she’s already got another book in the works – and she’ll also be holding live readings of The Unheard:

    I’m writing another novel that’s just as slow in the writing as this one was. A couple of hundred words is a good day for me. Some of my photographs of East Manchester will feature in Photo North festival in Leeds. I’ll be doing readings about The Unheard. Dates have to be confirmed but I’ll post them on IG @anneworthington1

    The Unheard is a clever, insightful, and extremely well-constructed fictional look at the impact that political and social decisions by those in power has on the lives of everyday people. Worthington has woven an engaging and moving narrative across the book. Moreover, she has also highlighted just how seven decades of upheaval have impacted us all. It’s a must-read – and bodes well for Worthington’s future projects.

    Featured image via Confingo Publishing

    By Steve Topple

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Just Stop Oil activist Louise Harris hits number one in the iTunes chart with hit song ‘We Tried’

    Just Stop Oil activist Louise Harris’s new climate crisis single We Tried has hit number one in the UK iTunes singles chart one week after its release, overtaking the likes of Dua Lipa and the Beatles. Now, Louise is aiming for Christmas Number one – with the likes of Chris Packham backing her:

    Louise Harris: rising up the charts

    The climate anthem, backed by Packham, Brian Eno, and Christiana Figueres (Chief Negotiator of the 2015 Paris Agreement), immediately entered the Big Top 40 Chart from Global – announced number 27 on Sunday 26 November and number 26 on Sunday 3 December. This is the first time a song about the climate crisis has achieved such popularity. Louise will be donating all proceeds to climate causes.

    Up until now, Louise was only known for being the Just Stop Oil protestor who filmed herself crying on top of a gantry over the M25, her emotional testimony going internationally viral this time last year. This protest led to Louise’s arrest, and she was remanded to prison for eight days. She has now re-entered the public eye, however, with a powerful song and music video “about the climate crisis and what will happen if we don’t act”.

    She recently sang the song outside of Rishi Sunak’s house as part of a Just Stop Oil protest and was unexpectedly arrested. As she posted on X, the implication is the cops won’t let her perform We Tried live:

    Now facing a suspended sentence, Louise has turned to music to express her grief, despair and anger at the escalating climate crisis and lack of appropriate action from governments.

    We Tried

    We Tried is deliberately written from the perspective of our currently projected future of irreversible climate catastrophe (“We ran out of time…oh well, we tried”). Louise hopes this song will allow people to feel how they would feel if this future happened – and then use that feeling to spur themselves into the only hopeful solution left: collective climate action.

    The powerful music video centres on a tear-stricken Louise and is interspersed with childhood videos, footage of politicians, climate victims and activist movements past and present. The emotive lyrics talk of an avoidable defeat: “Well, maybe we were meant to win… but not enough good drowned out the sin… they watched the world cave in”.

    The video fades to footage of Louise’s famous gantry action where she pleads through tears: “I’m here because I don’t have a future…Why does it take young people like me, up on a fucking gantry on the M25, for you to listen?”.

    It ends with the message: “It’s not too late to avoid irreversible climate catastrophe. “There is a rapidly closing window of opportunity to secure a liveable and sustainable future for all” [IPCC Report, March 2023]. We have time – but not for long. Join collective action today”:

    “No-one is exempt” from the climate crisis

    Louise explains:

    I wrote “We Tried” back in July 2022, three days after my 24th birthday, an age which children born today may never reach. The song expresses feelings of grief, anger, a longing to be taken somewhere else, and exhaustion at living in a world where you are constantly being gaslit – by the media, politicians, and, hardest of all, by people you love.

    The message of my song and video is this: The climate crisis affects me and my family, you and yours. No-one is exempt. It has been created by a few handfuls of people in power who, I’ve concluded, must not know what love is. But what matters is – I know what love is. You know what love is. We know. And together, we outnumber the people in power 8 billion times over. So what are we waiting for? We must come together, and act – not as individuals, but as a collective – through civil disobedience; protest; a mass movement. Can we truthfully say ‘we tried’?

    Where are all the songs and films and plays about this life-threatening emergency? Music and art have a unique power to move people emotionally, and empower them into action. Historically, they have been instrumental in bringing about social change, in sparking revolutions. It’s time to do it again. After all – if art can’t change the world, what can?

    We Tried is not ‘lovely’. It’s fucking horrific.

    This climate anthem is just the beginning of Louise’s music activism journey, with plans to release an entire climate album in 2024, if she reaches her goal of £20,000. You can donate to her crowdfunder here.

    Packham said of We Tried:

    It’s a beautiful song. It’s melodic. It’s ‘catchy’, it’s ’pop’, it’s ’sing-along’. It’s lovely, isn’t it…?

    No, it isn’t.

    It’s fucking horrific, terrifying, and tragic. Listen to it, hear every desperate note, each lingering plea. Don’t just look at, see the pictures. Read the music, read the room, our planet’s youth in abject distress. This is their voice, their cry, their tears laid bare. So ask yourself: do you want this to be the ultimate anthem for doomed youth, a threnody for their funeral? It’s beautiful, beautiful for its razor sharp honesty, beautiful for its truth, beautiful for its purity of frightened heart.

    Please listen, please learn, please act.

    Former UN Climate Change Executive Secretary Figueres said:

    I often talk about facing the climate and ecological crises head on: not shying away from the pain and in fact using it to generate the clarity of what needs to be done. Here’s a young woman doing just that with this song: musician and activist Louise Harris. A powerful song. Thank you Louise.

    Download or stream We Tried on your preferred platform here and donate to Louise Harris’s crowdfunder here. 

    Featured image via Louise Harris/Just Stop Oil

    By The Canary

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Even Tories are turning on the government’s anti-strike laws as senior Conservative hits out

    The Conservative chair of the transport select committee has warned that minimum service levels in the anti-strike laws could worsen industrial relations and “end up making [rail] services less reliable”.

    Iain Stewart, Conservative MP and chair of cross-party committee, also slammed the government’s plans for a lack of detail. The chair criticised the government’s “half-hearted response to our recommendation”.

    Stewart urged ministers to keep a close eye on developments cautioning that “major changes to timetabling on the rail network haven’t always gone seamlessly in the past.”

    Widespread criticism

    The legislation gives ministers sweeping powers to impose strike restrictions in any service within health, education, fire, transport, border security and nuclear decommissioning – and has faced widespread criticism.

    NHS Providers recently warned that the legislation could worsen industrial relations, harm patient care and lead to more disruption. The Joint Committee on Human Rights (JCHR) wrote to the government to express “serious concerns” about its anti-strike legislation breaching international law. The EHRC also warned that the legislation could see all striking workers in affected sectors lose their unfair dismissal protection, as whole strikes could be deemed illegal.

    The House of Lords Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee criticised the Act for giving blanket powers to UK ministers while providing virtually no detail.

    The Act has also faced a barrage of criticism from civil liberties organisations, the House of Lords Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee, race and gender equalities groups, employment rights lawyers, and politicians around the world.

    Plus, as the Canary previously reported:

    More than 80 businesses, unions and civil society organisations have issued a joint statement as part of the UK and EU Domestic Advisory Groups – two watchdogs which are charged with holding the UK government and EU to account on their commitments under the post-Brexit deal.

    The joint statement says they recognise the concerns about the impact of the Strikes Act on the UK government’s legal obligations under the deal, which stipulates that workers’ rights must not be lowered from the level they were at in 2020.

    New regulations

    The transport committee chair’s comments come as minimum service levels in rail, the ambulance service, and border security are back in the Lords on Wednesday 6 December.

    Ministers have said these new rules will be rushed into force by the end of the year.

    Ministers are also consulting on rules affecting workers in hospital settings, schools, universities and fire services.

    This is despite warnings from unions and employer groups that the plans are unworkable.

    The laws will mean that when workers lawfully vote to strike, they could be forced to attend work – and sacked if they don’t comply.

    Trades Union Congress (TUC) research found a massive one in five workers in Britain – or 5.5 million workers – are at risk of losing their right to strike as a result of the Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Act.

    The TUC will hold a special Congress to discuss the next stage of campaigning against the Conservatives’ anti-strike laws. The event will take place at Congress House on Saturday 9 December 2023, from 10am-1pm.

    ‘Undemocratic, unworkable, and likely illegal’

    TUC general secretary Paul Nowak said:

    The Conservative anti-strike laws are a recipe for chaos and toxic industrial relations. They will do nothing to improve public services and transport.

    It’s little wonder so many MPs, employers and civil society groups have warned about the impact of this legislation.

    These anti-strike laws are a deliberate attempt to restrict the right to strike – a fundamental British liberty.

    Make no mistake – they are undemocratic, unworkable and likely illegal.

    And crucially they will poison industrial relations and exacerbate disputes rather than help resolve them.

    That’s why unions won’t stop fighting this nasty legislation until it’s repealed.

    Featured image via Sky News – YouTube

    By The Canary

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Johnson’s appearance at the Covid Inquiry is more ‘b*llocks’ says Long Covid campaign group

    Boris Johnson will be giving evidence at the UK’s Covid Inquiry into the coronavirus pandemic and the then-government’s response on Wednesday 6 December. However, many people are expecting little more than more spin, lies, and excuses from the former PM. Not least among this is campaign group Long Covid Advocacy – who is summing up Johnson’s appearance as “What Boris Inquiry Bollocks Next?”

    Long Covid: ‘bollocks’ said Johnson

    As the Financial Times reported:

    Johnson will be forced to revisit and explain how his government responded to coronavirus on Wednesday as he appears before the UK’s official inquiry into the pandemic.

    The chaos at the heart of Britain’s handling of Covid-19 has been laid bare in recent weeks, with testimonies describing a “toxic” culture in Downing Street and how Johnson was “bamboozled” by scientific data.

    Allies of the former prime minister said he would apologise for mistakes made by his administration but would robustly defend its successes. Johnson’s team is aware he faces many serious claims, but believes he has answers that will help rehabilitate his reputation.

    ‘Rehabilitating’ Johnson’s reputation is a ridiculously gargantuan task – not least in the eyes of people living with long Covid, and other post-viral illnesses like myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME). This is because the public found out earlier in the inquiry that Johnson referred to the idea of post-viral illness as “bollocks”. As the Canary reported at the time:

    Anthony Metzer KC is the barrister representing the groups Long Covid Kids, Long Covid SOS, and Long Covid Support. During the opening day of the second module of the Covid Inquiry, he presented on behalf of the groups – and made a staggering revelation. Metzer told the public inquiry:

    “In October 2020, while the Department of Health and Social Care [DHSC] was publishing guidance on Long Covid and called for recognition and support for people with long Covid, then Prime Minister Boris Johnson scrawled in capitals that long Covid was ‘bollocks’.

    “Mr Johnson has admitted in his witness statement that he didn’t believe Long Covid truly existed, dismissing it as ‘Gulf War Syndrome stuff’”.

    He summed up by saying:

    “The UK’s senior most decision makers were dismissing, diminishing and disbelieving the very existence and risk of Long Covid”.

    So, Long Covid Advocacy has hit out ahead of whatever ‘bollocks’ Johnson will try to spin.

    No protection, no warning, and now no cure

    It’s launched a hard-hitting image for Johnson’s Covid Inquiry appearance:

    A distorted image of Boris Johnson with the wording "Long covid bollocks. 2 million affected. No protection. No warning. No cure."

    The group said in a statement:

    It is estimated that nearly two million people have long Covid due to a dismissal of its existence at the highest echelons of power.

    There was:

    • No Protection – we were not given the tools or information to protect ourselves – respirator masks, ventilation guidance, air filters.
    • No Warning – we saw no public health messaging.
    • No Cure – there is no effective treatment or cure for long Covid.

    We are seeing the same mistakes where the medical & political establishment ‘poo poo’ & dismiss certain illnesses, such as Gulf War syndrome & ME, that they don’t understand. This needs to change.

    This is a multi system, biological & devastating disease. It has a quality of life equivalent to Parkinson’s and worse than stage 4 lung cancer.

    We need the political establishment to get real and act.

    Again, as the Canary previously reported and the Covid Inquiry noted, post-viral illness was entirely predictable – yet Johnson and the government chose to ignore the threat. However, at the heart of this is the devastating impact the PM’s decisions have had on people now living with the disease.

    Ravi Veriah Jacques lives with long Covid. They said:

    Where once my life traversed several countries, it now consists of several rooms. Long Covid has stolen almost everything I loved – performing the violin, jumping into relationships, producing academic work, seeing old friends. I’m almost three years in. This cannot be the rest of my life.

    Amy Boylan said similar:

    My life stopped when I caught Covid in March 2020. It filled my blood with persistent clots and badly damaged my immune system. I can’t walk or work, care for myself or my kids. There are millions like me, globally. We desperately need research and treatment to restart our lives.

    Chronic illness: decades of dismissal

    Moreover, people living with ME – which is very similar to long Covid and which nearly 50% of people living with the latter meet the clinical criteria for – have seen this all before. ME is generally a post-viral illness. Like that and Gulf War syndrome, because of – yet often also in spite of – the lack of knowledge on just why people get it, many medical professionals have psychologised ME. So, Long Covid patients having to endure medical professionals and the state dismissing their illness was sadly predictable.

    The Canary wrote in November 2020 that:

    Long Covid patients may get a similar whitewashing of their illness as people with ME historically have.

    Kirstie Sivapalan lives with ME. She said:

    Living with ME, I find it both hopeful and frustrating there is more focus on Long Covid research. I believe we will get long-awaited answers that the medical community can no longer dismiss, but patients with ME are still the poor cousins. It’s disheartening to watch research repeated, heralded as new, and decades of experience ignored.

    No more long Covid bollocks. People want their lives back.

    So, Long Covid Advocacy and the community are calling for:

    • Urgent moonshot biomedical funding – £100m a year as stated by the Coronavirus All Party Parliamentary Group.
    • A ReCOVer-like fast-tracked treatment based study.
    • Prevention to stop endless reinfection – monitoring, filtration, and ventilation legislation.

    Claire Higham is the founder of Long Covid Advocacy. She said in a statement:

    Catastrophic mistakes are being exposed in the UK Covid Inquiry that led to mass death, disability, and devastation. Yet we are not out of the woods. People are still not recovered, still dying, and still contracting long Covid. We need prevention, public health messaging, and an emergency research Moonshot for long Covid based on firm biological principles.

    Of course, a lot of this could have been avoided if Johnson hadn’t thought post-viral illness was “bollocks”. Whether or not he will have the self-awareness to admit his arrogance at the Covid Inquiry is debatable. However, for nearly two million people, he’s already done the damage.

    Featured image and additional image via Long Covid Advocacy

    By Steve Topple

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • 53% of employees end up working when they’re supposed to be off

    More than half (53%) of people have had to work while taking time off in the past 12 months, according to a new study from Forbes Advisor, the financial guidance and price comparison platform. Survey data was obtained from a survey commissioned by Opinium on behalf of Forbes Advisor with a sample size of 2000 UK adults on 17 November 2023.

    Work-life balance: what’s that?

    On average, those who work while on leave spend two-and-a-half hours per day on various tasks. Almost half of these people (48%) reply to work emails or messages and nearly a third (32%) have completed administrative tasks. Almost a quarter (23%) have taken their work laptop or phone away with them on holiday, while one in five (18%) continue to work as normal while off the clock.

    One in five (22%) have worked while on holiday, either in the UK or abroad. In terms of bank holidays, 14% of UK workers have previously worked on Easter Sunday, 13% have worked on Boxing Day, while 11% have worked on Christmas Day.

    The most common reason (24%) for working on holiday is because people feel a responsibility to reply when a colleague messages them. A further 18% state that they get stressed if they miss things while being away. 16% of employees use their time off to review and set work related goals for themselves. One in 10 (9%) fear not being viewed as a team player if they do not work on holiday.

    Three out of 10 (28%) hybrid and remote employees believe that working remotely means they are expected to do work on holiday more than office workers. Only 44% of office-based employees have worked while off the clock, compared to 64% of hybrid and remote workers. 

    Despite half (50%) of UK employees stating that working on holiday means that they are unable to fully relax, three out of 10 (30%) believe that working while on holiday is the only way to stay on top of their workload.

    The pressure of being “always available”

    Kevin Pratt, business expert at Forbes Advisor, says:

    The workplace has changed massively over the last few years, including the rise of remote working, but it seems many employees still face the pressure of being ‘always available’.

    Holidays can be a useful time to reflect on work-related goals, but undertaking work-related tasks while away can be detrimental to the primary purpose of having a break. Checking emails and messages may seem quick and harmless, but doing so can contribute to the overall feeling of being unable to fully relax while off the clock, especially if they require or trigger significant further action.

    As Christmas approaches, it is important to manage your workload effectively and set expectations with your manager, and to have the time off you need to reset.

    Featured image via ArseniiPalivoda – Envato Elements

    By The Canary

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Just 30% of students think that university security staff keep students safe on campus 

    A new report from the Centre on the Dynamics of Ethnicity (CoDE) reveals that despite security staff being a common sight on university campuses, only one third (30.8%) of students surveyed agreed that they keep students safe on campus. The report follows a series of high-profile and controversial incidents involving campus security services and police and students at UK universities.

    Whose campus?

    The Centre on Dynamics of Ethnicity is the UK’s leading centre of research into ethnic, racial, and religious inequalities. Its new report is called Whose campus, whose security? In this first-of-a-kind study, students raised concerns about racial profiling and discrimination from campus security staff.

    Nearly three-quarters of students surveyed agreed that some people would be more likely the have encounters or issues with security staff than others, with 78.6% saying that race was a key factor, followed by gender (61.7%) and social class (54.8%).

    Only 22.6% of students who identify as trans, non-binary, or an ‘other’ gender identity said that security services keep students safe and the report found cases of transphobic and misogynistic behaviour from security staff towards students.

    ‘Intimidated and scared’ by security staff

    Students reported instances of sexual violence, assault, or drink spiking being dismissed or not believed or by security staff. Sexual violence and drink spiking were important issues for students, and many felt that security staff did not treat them seriously enough. The report also highlighted some cases were security staff accused students of lying about being spiked, or blamed them for leaving drinks unattended.

    In many universities, security staff are also the designated first responders to mental health incidents. Though there were cases where security staff were sensitive and supportive to students in crisis, there were many more where the response from individual security staff was inadequate or insensitive, sometimes even making the problem worse.

    Security staff have wide-ranging and often conflicting responsibilities, and the report raises serious questions about whether they are best positioned to fulfil this role. One student remembered being intimidated and scared during a mental health crisis when she was escorted back to her student accommodation by security staff in ‘police-type uniform’. Others noted that security staff arrived quickly but clearly had little or no training in dealing with mental health emergencies.

    Concerns over the ‘securitisation’ of universities

    Lead author of the report, Remi Joseph-Salisbury, says:

    From the student protests in response to the treatment of Zac Adan, to NUS Liberation policy raising concerns about security services, and the formation of student activist groups such as Cops off Campus, it’s clear that the role of campus security needs much closer scrutiny. This report provides an evidence base and highlights a range of problems. The onus is now on institutions to respond and show that their commitments to equality are sincere and determined.

    Second author, Laura Connelly, says:

    Universities seem to be necessitating that security services take on expanding roles, and yet students are unclear about whether campus security keep them safe. Some actually perceive security to be a direct threat to student safety, citing examples of racial profiling, transphobia, victim blaming in relation to gender-based violence, and the targeting of student activists. Despite these harms, university complaint processes are difficult to navigate, slow, and offer little recourse to accountability. We hope this report prompts action from universities, so that campuses become places where all students can feel safe.

    Co-author, Siobhan O’Neill, says:

    The increasing securitisation of university campuses – both through security personnel and policing – is a concern not only for students but also for the wider communities in which universities are located. Our report found a number of interpersonal and institutional harms related to the practices and processes of security on campuses. including issues around racial profiling and racism. Universities, who have a duty of care to their students and who have made commitments to tackling inequalities, ought to pay due regard to the concerns raised in this report and address them with urgency.

    Exerting control – not exercising care

    Dr Shabna Begum, interim co-CEO of the Runnymede Trust, says:

    We are deeply concerned with the securitisation of our educational spaces; whether its police in schools – or campus security services, there is a creeping extension of a surveillance and punitive culture in spaces that should invite young people to feel nurtured and cared for. This report also highlights the racialised nature of that experience and that alongside students with other protected characteristics, they are afforded the least protection and experience the most restriction.

    Perhaps most shocking is that the budget allocations for campus security services were more than double that allowed for counselling and mental health services, this is such an extraordinary indictment of an education system that would rather exert control than exercise care for its student community.

    Whose campus, whose security? comes following a series of high-profile and controversial incidents involving campus security services and police and students at UK universities. It is the first piece of research to investigate students’ views on, and experiences with, security services and police on UK university campuses.

    Authored by Dr Remi Joseph-Salisbury, Dr Laura Connelly, Dr Kerry Pimblott, Dr Siobhan O’Neill, and Dr Harry Taylor, the report shows that students have a range of concerns about campus security services, as well as the police on campus.

    Featured image via UoM Rent Strike

    By The Canary

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Anti-war groups call ‘Stand with Gaza in your workplace’ day of action: urgent meeting TONIGHT

    The so-called ‘humanitarian pause’ is over and Israel is renewing its onslaught on Gaza. Although the pause may have offered a brief glimpse of a potential peace, in reality Israel was still carrying out unspeakable crimes in Gaza, as well as in the West Bank – shooting dead at least 9 children since Friday 1 December. So, Stop The War Coalition (STWC) and the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) have organised a day of UK action in solidarity with Palestinian people.

    They’re holding an organising meeting as well on Tuesday 5 December at 6:30pm. You can register for that here.

    Israel: creating a “hellish scenario” in Gaza

    As of Tuesday 5 December, Israel was expanding its assault on Gaza into the southern part of the besieged region. However, international aid organisations have warned that civilians in the densely populated territory are running out of places to flee to. Lynn Hastings, UN humanitarian coordinator for the Palestinian territories, told Agence France-Presse (AFP):

    Nowhere is safe in Gaza and there is nowhere left to go… If possible, an even more hellish scenario is about to unfold, one in which humanitarian operations may not be able to respond.

    Israel has killed nearly 15,900 people in Gaza, around 70% of them women and children. The Occupied West Bank has also seen a surge in violence, with Israeli settlers and security forces killing more than 250 Palestinians since 7 October.

    In the Gazan city of Rafah near the Egyptian border, resident Abu Jahar al-Hajj said an air strike near his home felt “like an earthquake”. “Pieces of concrete started falling on us,” he said. In Deir al-Balah further to the north, Walaa Abu Libda found shelter at a hospital, but said her four-year-old daughter remained trapped under rubble.

    “I don’t know if she is dead or alive”

    “I don’t know if she is dead or alive,” said Libda, one of an estimated 1.8 million people Israel has displaced in Gaza; roughly three-quarters of the population, according to UN figures.

    Meanwhile, World Health Organisation (WHO) chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that his organisation had received a notification from the Israeli military:

    that we should remove our supplies from our medical warehouse in southern Gaza within 24 hours.

    Predictably, Israel denied this – once again accusing another world-leading humanitarian organisation of lying.

    In the UK, marches in support of Palestinian people have been ongoing for weeks. But now, STWC and CND have organised a day of workplace action – to highlight Israel’s ongoing atrocities, and show solidarity with the Palestinian people.

    Stand with Gaza in your workplace

    On Thursday 7 December, STWC and CND are calling on all those in work, college or university to ‘Stand With Gaza’ by organising a walkout, lunchtime or early morning protest (or other collective action) calling for our government to call for a permanent ceasefire. You can find out more about the day of action here.

    Previously on Wednesday 29 November people took workplace action calling for a permanent ceasefire:

    Every collective act, big or small, sends a message to those who are suffering in Gaza that we are with them and puts pressure on our government to call on the Israeli government to stop bombing Gaza.

    As Stop the War founder and vice president Andrew Murray wrote in November:
    In the last few weeks the massive movement to bring an end to the Gaza war has given Keir Starmer the biggest jolt of his miserable leadership, forced the Liberal Democrats to back a ceasefire and, most significantly, brought down a semi-fascist Home Secretary. Be in no doubt, none of this would have happened without hundreds of thousands taking to the streets, in London and across the country, to demand that British politicians support a ceasefire and work to end the calamity unfolding in Gaza. Mobilising millions delivers what misery and massacres alone could not — forcing open the political cracks.

    There will be an online meeting on Tuesday 5 December at 6.30pm to build the Stand With Gaza Day of Action as well as the National Demonstration on Saturday 9 December. You can register for the 5 December meeting here.

    Additional reporting via Agence France-Presse

    Featured image via STWC

    By Steve Topple

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Business, unions, and civil society in UK and EU flag concerns over Tories’ anti-strike laws

    Bodies from both the UK and EU have warned that the Tory government’s proposed anti-strike laws. The Trades Union Congress (TUC) has said that one leading legal academic has gone so far as to say that the minimum service levels in the bill could breach post-Brexit commitments – putting the UK on a collision course with the EU.

    Anti-strike laws: overarching concerns in the UK and EU

    More than 80 businesses, unions and civil society organisations have issued a joint statement as part of the UK and EU Domestic Advisory Groups – two watchdogs which are charged with holding the UK government and EU to account on their commitments under the post-Brexit deal.

    The joint statement says they recognise the concerns about the impact of the Strikes Act on the UK government’s legal obligations under the deal, which stipulates that workers’ rights must not be lowered from the level they were at in 2020.

    The UK and EU post-Brexit watchdogs add that they will be monitoring for breaches and will continue to scrutinise the UK government on this new law.

    The EU Commission recently put its concerns about the Strikes Act to the UK government.

    The joint statement also flags concerns on plans to repeal EU-derived rights with the Retained EU Law Act.

    Stark warning

    The joint statement comes as a leading legal academic warns that the Strikes Act risks putting the UK on a collision course with the EU.

    Federico Ortino, professor of international economic law at King’s College London, says that the anti-strike laws could put the UK in breach of its legal obligations under the UK-EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement.

    Ortino warns that this breach could “affect trade and investment between the EU and UK”.

    New regulations

    Minimum service levels in rail, the ambulance service, and border security are making their way through parliament this week.

    Ministers have said these new rules will be rushed into force by the end of the year.

    Ministers are also consulting on rules affecting workers in hospital settings, schools, universities and fire services.

    This is despite warnings from unions and employer groups that the anti-strike laws are unworkable.

    The laws will mean that when workers lawfully vote to strike, they could be forced to attend work – and sacked if they don’t comply.

    TUC research found a massive one in five workers in Britain – or 5.5 million workers – are at risk of losing their right to strike as a result of the Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Act.

    The TUC will hold a special congress to discuss the next stage of campaigning against the Conservatives’ anti-strike laws. The event will take place at Congress House on Saturday 9 December 2023, from 10am-1pm.

    Ortino said of the anti-strike laws:

    The Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Act 2023 runs the risk of violating some of the labour-related obligations imposed by the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement.

    In particular, as it imposes greater restrictions on the right to strike in the covered sectors, the Act may contravene Article 387 TCA, which prohibits the weakening or reduction of a Party’s labour levels of protection. Such greater restrictions have at least the potential to affect trade and investment between the EU and UK.

    Moreover, the Act may also contradict Article 399 TCA, which requires to respect and implement international recognised core labour standards, including those relating to freedom of association and the right to collective bargaining.

    TUC general secretary Paul Nowak said:

    The UK’s new laws are an attack on the fundamental right to strike – they’re unworkable, undemocratic and very likely unlawful.

    The UK already has some of the most restrictive trade union laws in Europe. Now the Conservatives want to make it even harder for people to win fair pay and conditions.

    In their rush to attack unions, the government risks threatening UK trade with Europe.

    This legislation could put the UK in breach of its post-Brexit trade agreement with the EU. That could mean financial penalties on the UK.

    It’s little wonder business, unions and civil society have come together to warn about this draconian legislation. The last thing they need is the UK on a collision course with the EU.

    That’s bad for trade. And it’s bad for workers and their jobs.

    Ministers are playing fast and loose with international commitments because they want to distract from their appalling economic record.

    Featured image via pixabay

    By The Canary

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Dozens of courts saw protests over the erosion of the role of our juries and their equity. We must Defend Our Juries.

    On Monday 4 December, hundreds of people gathered at dozens of Crown Courts across England and Wales to uphold the principle of jury equity, i.e. the right of juries to determine whether a serious crime has been committed, whatever the trial judge may think or say. The reason for this is simple: the UK justice system is eroding that basic principle in front of our eyes.

    The principle of jury equity

    The protests are part of the Defend Our Juries campaign. It aims to:

    • Bring to public attention the programme to undermine trial by jury in the context of those taking action to expose government dishonesty and corporate greed
    • Raise awareness of the vital constitutional safeguard that juries can acquit a defendant as a matter of conscience, irrespective of a judge’s direction that there is no available defence (a principle also known as ‘jury equity’ or ‘jury nullification‘)
    • Ensure that all defendants have the opportunity to explain their actions when their liberty is at stake, including by explaining their motivations and beliefs.

    Famously, the principle was used to acquit the civil servant, Clive Ponting in 1985, after he leaked information exposing the government’s misinformation over the sinking of the General Belgrano – despite the judge directing the jury that Ponting had no defence to breach of the Official Secrets Act.

    The principle of jury equity has recently become contentious over juries repeatedly acquitting members of groups taking action for political purposes, such as members of Extinction Rebellion, Palestine Action, and the Colston 4.

    Whereas some judges are content to leave the decision to the jury, others have been taking extreme measures to prevent juries from reaching not guilty verdicts in such cases. Measures have included banning defendants from explaining their motives for taking action (in some cases people have been imprisoned just for using the words ‘climate change’ and ‘fuel poverty’ in court) and arresting those attempting to communicate the long-established principle of jury equity.

    Most consequential sign in British history?

    In March of this year, Trudi Warner held a sign outside Inner London Crown Court, which communicated the principle of jury equity. Nearly nine months on, the impact of her sign has been profound. It has led, among other things, to a split in the legal profession over the proper role of the jury in British justice.

    On the one hand, Warner and others have been arrested for displaying the principle of jury equity, either for contempt of court or for perverting the course of Justice. In September, the solicitor general Michael Tomlinson KC announced he would apply to the High Court for Warner’s committal to prison.

    But as news of the arrests and Warner’s prosecution spread, outrage has grown.

    At first 24 people repeated Warner’s action in May, then 40 people did the same thing in July, and wrote to the solicitor general inviting him to prosecute them too. Then on 25 September, the first National Day hosted by Defend Our Juries took place, involving 252 people sitting outside 25 courts across England and Wales. Faced with this show of unity, the police decided not to arrest anyone and the attorney general has brought no more prosecutions.

    Now, people took the Defend Our Juries campaign nationwide once more.

    Defending our juries

    Actions took place across the country, in place like Bradford:

    Winchester:

    Southwark:

    Nottingham:

    Carlisle:

    Gloucester:

    Lewes:

    And London:

    Meanwhile, lawyers and legal academics and others have also rallied to the defence of Warner and the democratic principle of jury equity.

    Law ‘degenerating into farce’

    In July, a number of leading lawyers including Michael Mansfield KC spoke out publicly over the solicitor general’s prosecution of Warner:

    Jury trial is the jewel in the crown of the criminal justice system in the United Kingdom and has to be preserved and protected. The right of a jury to return verdicts according to their ‘convictions’ and ‘consciences’ has been enshrined since the trial of two Quakers in 1670 – William Penn and William Mead. It has been memorialised with a plaque in the Old Bailey. No defendant and no defence counsel should be prohibited from referencing this paramount feature of our system.

    Professor Richard Vogler wrote on 27 September:

    George Orwell noticed the tendency of repressive law to degenerate into farce, when truth becomes a lie and common sense is heresy. This is worth remembering now that the solicitor general, Michael Tomlinson KC, has concluded that it is right to take action against… Trudi Warner, for holding up a sign outside a criminal court, simply proclaiming one of the fundamental principles of the common law: the right of a jury to decide a case according to its conscience.

    More than 150 health workers have written an open letter to the attorney general and solicitor general “to express our deepest concerns regarding the prosecution of Trudi Warner”.

    They make reference to Xavi Gonzales-Trimmer, a young man who took his own life earlier this year ahead of a trial at Inner London Crown Court in front of Judge Reid, the judge who imprisoned three people for using the words ‘climate change’ and ‘fuel poverty’ in court, and where Warner displayed her sign.

    In a different context, concerning a police officer prosecuted for speeding to the scene of a life-threatening attack, Met commissioner Sir Mark Rowley recently said “Thank God for the sense of British juries”.

    Justice lottery in political trials

    This split between those who trust in the moral sense of juries and those who don’t, is now being played out directly in the courts. Over the last two months, three jury trials concerning more or less identical allegations have exposed a fundamental divergence in the approach taken by different judges, turning criminal justice into a lottery.

    First, in October this year, members of Extinction Rebellion were tried at Southwark Crown Court for causing an alleged £19,000 worth of damage to HM Treasury back in October 2019, after spraying it with fake blood, drawing attention to the Treasury’s backing for fossil fuel projects around the world. The judge in that case, Judge Cole, allowed the defendants to argue their actions were justified with reference to climate breakdown and to explain to the jury the significance of their role. The jury entered verdicts of not guilty.

    In the same month, Dr Gail Bradbrook, a co-founder of Extinction Rebellion, was tried at Isleworth Crown Court for breaking a window at the Department of Transport, also back in October 2019, to shine a spotlight on the Department’s support for HS2 and Heathrow expansion. Allegedly, the window cost £27.5K to replace.

    In that case the judge, Judge Edmunds, directed the jury that Dr Bradbrook had no defence in law and prohibited her from explaining her motivations to the jury under threat of imprisonment. He also banned her from explaining the principle of jury equity to the jurors and threatened to move to a judge only trial if she breached these cases orders. In that case, the jury found Bradbrook guilty.

    In the third case, which concluded in November, nine women were charged with causing £500,000 worth of damage by breaking windows at HSBC’s HQ in Canary Wharf in April 2021, in response to HSBC’s £80bn in fossil fuel investments since the adoption of the Paris Agreement. In that case, again, the judge, Judge Bartle, allowed the defendants to argue their actions were justified and to explain the role of the jury. The jury acquitted all nine of the women.

    Arguably, the split reflects a broader political antagonism between vested corporate interests, which threaten to undermine British democracy through lobbying, sponsorship, and legal action against governments, and calls for enhanced, deliberative democracy (through citizens’ assemblies) which draw inspiration from the principles of trial by jury as a counter to corruption.

    UN intervention highlights dangers of judicial lottery

    For those drawing the judicial short straw, the consequences can be severe.

    When Marcus Decker and Morgan Trowland were tried for holding a Just Stop Oil banner from Dartford Bridge, causing delay to the traffic, the judge prevented the jury from considering their defence of ‘reasonable excuse’. They were then convicted, imprisoned for two years seven months and three years respectively.

    Decker faces deportation proceedings, despite having a young family in London. In November it was reported that the UN had intervened alleging that the prison sentences imposed on Decker and Trowland were incompatible with fundamental civil and political rights.

    The intervention was followed by another letter from the leading climate scientists, Sir David King and Professor Jim Hansen, Baroness Rosie Boycott and signed also by a number of artists, concerning the nine women who broke the windows of HSBC:

    While we applaud the jury for recognising these women’s solid defence for taking such action and following their conscience, a collective act of madness is going unchecked both in the UK and across the globe. Those standing up in defence of life on Earth are being criminalised by the UK legal system, while our own government willingly continues to facilitate the destruction of our only home.

    ‘It should never be forgotten’ says Defend Our Juries

    Speaking on behalf of Defend Our Juries, Dr Clive Dolphin said:

    It should never be forgotten that in 1924 trial by jury was abolished in Germany via the Emergency Judicial Organisation Act, without effective debate in the Reichstag. To distract from the reality of what was occurring, the replacement courts were renamed Schwurgericht – ‘jury court’.

    History tells us that an authentically democratic component of the criminal justice system is a vital safeguard against the abuse of executive power.

    That’s why so many are risking arrest and prosecution today – to defend not only the principle of jury equity but to defend our democracy.

    Featured image and additional images via Defend Our Juries

    By The Canary

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • The line crossed by Starmer over Israel is far more dangerous than anything proposed by Corbyn

    The contested events of 7 October are purported to be an act of provocation by Hamas against Israel. In all truth the evidence is increasingly showing this is part-fiction, forming the pretext to escalation of violence against Palestine by a viciously hostile ruling class in Israel. Moreover, the political will to sustain this injustice against the peaceable people of Palestine is strong, binding together political malefactors around the world – especially Keir Starmer‘s administration in the context of UK politics.

    Israel: advancing geopolitical hegemony

    Israel is deliberately endangering national, regional, and global security in pursuit of geopolitical dominance in the Middle East, increasing the risk to civilian lives on both sides of the apartheid divide in the process and desecrating the spirit of human rights legislation.

    Ultimately the motive for erasing Palestine is to establish total regional dominance for the Israeli state, administered by a government completely invested in the advancement of geopolitical hegemony. This is not world domination waged because of belief in the supremacy of a discrete, distinct, singular ethnic or religious demographic.

    This is the work of a covert, clandestine, and unaccountable band of transnational elites whose bind transcends the illusory boundaries of nation, language or religion deployed to pacify civilians.

    The only interest Israeli elites have in the fate of the Jewish diaspora is in how serviceable Jews can be for legitimising its diabolical agenda. Israel sustains a large proportion of its support through a reckless and insidious appropriation of the legacy of the Holocaust, in order to inoculate itself from legitimate, righteous criticism. At the same time, the Israeli ruling class projects an image of itself as a righteous victim through means of tightly controlled propaganda.

    The technological capabilities of tools of combat, as well power for narrative management are slanted seemingly to the disadvantage of Palestine, but despite this asymmetry of strategic capabilities the consensus globally is decidedly at odds with Israel and its plan.

    Despite the abject horror of the massive loss of life in the Middle East right now, the mood of the global community as a whole is in favour of peaceful multilateralism, condemning imperial unilateral interventionism technically illegal under international law.

    The effect on the Labour Party

    The tragic, cynically calculated decline of Corbynism, as well as the subsequent ascendancy of the neo-Blairite Starmer project, have made the Labour Party a lot less free and was the direct result of massive conspiracy to prevent the election of a pro-Palestinian prime minister.

    When Starmer’s great power games started – after being elected on an ultimately insincere manifesto of party unity – firm censorship and propaganda was introduced to neutralise the threat the Labour Party’s democratic socialist faction posed to the status quo, which views free thinking and true democracy as an existential threat.

    One particularly vicious manifestation of this campaign is in the alliance between Zionist diplomacy and the Starmer administration, who ideologically converge.

    It’s usually condemned as antisemitism when people speculate about possible infiltration of Labour by Mossad and it certainly does have overtones of racist theories about the Jewish “cabal.”

    However my interest is not in asking if the global Jewish diaspora is a monolith with malicious intent; it evidently is not.

    My interest is in analysing and examining the political machinery of imperialism and any reasonable explanation of the shifting balance of power in geopolitics after WW2 would acknowledge the rapid escalation of the Israeli secret service, Mossad. It is not antisemitism to criticise intervention in the politics of another country by an intelligence agency.

    It’s standard procedure of intelligence cabals to interfere in foreign affairs and it is as true of Mossad as it is of MI6, the CIA, and other agencies. It is the modus operandi which bothers me, not the ethnic identity of its employees.

    Neutralising pro-Palestinian voices

    There is obviously influence for Zionist diplomacy over the Starmer administration, an alliance which created the necessity for Labour’s bureaucrats to embark upon a McCarthyist pursuit of its political enemies, and in the process controlling and narrowing the spectrum of acceptable opinion within the party to ostracise pro-Palestinian sentiment.

    This is a post-democratic era, characterised by escalated warfare against the left, locally, nationally, and globally, effectively ending free and fair elections.

    The Labour leadership’s list of enemies has grown to embrace, beyond Jeremy Corbyn, a large amount of the party membership he’s allied with. The Israeli ruling class and its perverse ethno-nationalist ideology fuelling genocide of Palestinians is perhaps the preeminent enemy of Corbynism and the main focus of its ire.

    Thus the regime has a strong motivation to eliminate and neutralise the influence of a pro-Palestinian, anti-imperial possible future prime minister. Once you understand characteristic imperial tactics and Machiavellian rubric, the true state of affairs becomes clear.

    Starmer, not content with kicking out Corbyn, is even making enemies of grassroots activists, people of integrity keen for a civic-minded debate on his controversial decision to suspend and remove the whip from Corbyn.

    It is certainly wrong to penalise free discussion of policy within the confines of the law of this country. Starmer is an adversary to Labour socialism because of his agenda to capitulate policy to the needs of big business donors. Most of his positions are the same as the Tory government’s, making it possible to see Starmer’s Labour and the Tories as one entity, the same power, despite surface differences and a very, very slightly more hospitable environment for social justice movements in the event of a Starmer government.

    Intersecting with the Tory hard-right

    An example of the intersection between the hard right Tory government and Starmer is the Parliamentary Labour Party’s (PLP’s) support for a surge in war spending, favouring bombs over investment in public services. It is not a delusional adherence to a 1960s political fantasy to suggest that taxpayer money could be better invested in schools, libraries, and hospitals, it is simply common sense and pragmatic utilitarianism (maximise positive outcomes for the maximum number of people).

    During moments like the coronavirus crisis, Starmer has been hesitant to present an alternative opposition to government policy, erring on the side of praise. His biggest commitment to the agenda of the right, however, comes from his rehearsal of pro-Zionist propaganda, with “antisemitism” being cynically used as a political tool behind the bludgeoning of apologist arguments for Israeli war crimes into public discourse.

    This repellent, opportunistic abuse of antisemitism was repeated throughout the media’s attempts to discredit Corbyn, so much so that they were able to destroy his reputation as a principled, veteran anti-racist. At one point, former US secretary of state Mike Pompeo, another ally of Zionist extremism, claimed that he would use his power to prevent Corbyn’s election when in fact that decision lies squarely with the sovereign UK electorate, or at least ought to.

    Such blatant Zionist interference in the internal democracy of the Labour Party was not acknowledged by the political mainstream, because these truthful, accurate narratives are portrayed as the antisemitic enemy to Israeli self-determination. The tale the establishment tells is one of widespread, aggressive chauvinism against Jews, against which their allies must be eternally vigilant.

    This story is disinformation, and the Labour left has collapsed under pressure from the political agents perpetuating this falsehood.

    The new McCarthyism

    The happenings of recent politics have proven that this information war and narrative control mission is focused not just on Corbyn, but on the entire alliance he galvanised.

    In response to internal party debate about the suspension and removal of the whip, party bureaucrats have suspended dozens of innocent members conscientiously questioning the leadership. The reporting on this development by the progressive, independent left media, which has rightly criticised Starmer’s nascent dictatorship, might be right, but it is not the view of the political establishment, largely sympathetic to the persecution of Corbynism.

    So far the media has ignored that Starmer crosses a line far more dangerous than what’s represented by Corbyn.

    The examples never end of the political policing of supporters of the Labour left, representing the agenda of a totalitarian regime that’s emerged during the new McCarthyism. To enforce this regime, the establishment has needed to reconcile the public to their own suppression. To rationalise its persecution of Corbynism, elites have treated it as a form of ideological extremism, with the implicit assumption that Blairite centrism is the only agenda deserving of time, attention, and respect.

    Policies crafted in the public interest generate outrage, while the cronyism and corruption of the centre is viewed as a standard.

    The leader of the opposition isn’t allowed to advocate policies that will resonate with the electorate, while the government is able to spin its self-serving policies in the media. And the narrow agenda of corporatocracy is protected by the media-politico complex, whilst the accurate criticisms levelled against it by independent media analysts is censored on social media.

    Resistance that precedes change

    This commitment to capitalist totalitarianism among elites – and therefore to the type of fascist reaction the West has so long thought itself immune from – is rationalised through the logic that it is a radical, progressive resistance to left fundamentalism. The monolithic ideology of capitalist realism has conquered heterogeneous, pluralist social democracy, making the superiority of the neoliberal regime the default assumption of the dominant political centre.

    Buoyant radical hope for a Corbynite restoration of the UK’s neoliberal political economy to its former glory as a world-leading social democracy has been betrayed by a violent crackdown. Reactionary in nature, the censorship and propaganda that’s occurring is imposed by authoritarianism, because it’s built upon hierarchical, elitist power. And authoritarian hierarchical, elitist power is a system that’s evolved to efficiently exploit the weaknesses of the people.

    The thought police of the ascendant Labour right yield authority from the aggressive Zionist psyops the elite class is happy to rehearse, and from the logic that Corbyn represents a fundamentalist threat to political virtues.

    Until we can next reelect a socialist to the leadership of the Labour Party, the best we can do to resist these cynical, opportunistic attacks on democracy is to insist on fearlessly having the debate that Starmer so fears.

    Featured image via Sky News – YouTube

    By Megan Sherman

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Animal welfare charity hopes never to see pandas in Scotland again as Yang Guang and Tian Tian leave Scotland

    Pandas Yang Guan and Tian Tian are set to begin their journey back to China, having spent 12 years on ‘loan’ in Edinburgh Zoo. However, Edinburgh-based animal welfare charity OneKind has been critical of the keeping of pandas at the Zoo. It hopes that people will reflect upon changing attitudes towards the captivity of wild animals for entertainment.

    Yang Guan and Tian Tian: going back to China

    As Sky News reported:

    Yang Guang and Tian Tian – the UK’s only giant pandas – are leaving for China [on Monday 4 December] after spending 12 years in Scotland.

    For more than a decade the large, furry animals have been the star attraction of Edinburgh Zoo since arriving in 2011.

    However, they are now returning under the terms of a 10-year agreement between the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland (RZSS) and the China Wildlife Conservation Association, which was extended by two years due to the COVID pandemic.

    China has been using so-called “panda diplomacy” since 1972, when the first animals were sent to the US in 1972 as a gift, following then-president Richard Nixon’s historic visit to the Communist nation.

    However, OneKind highlights its concerns with the continuous artificial insemination procedures performed on Tian Tian, the outdated notion of animals as diplomatic ‘gifts’, and the misleading claims of conservation.

    Pandas in captivity

    Its campaigner and press officer Eve Massie Bishop said:

    OneKind has never supported the keeping of pandas at Edinburgh Zoo and we have voiced our concerns continuously throughout the past 12 years.

    There is no good reason to keep pandas captive in zoos. It is generally not possible to meet the needs of wild animals in a captive environment. It also cannot be said confining the pandas to enclosures, simply for people to look at them, is in the best interests of these animals.

    Conservation of species is used to defend the existence of zoos, but this often means ‘preservation’ where the animal remains at a zoo for life. Conservation of species is most likely to succeed when carried out in the animals’ native habitat.

    Yang Guang and Tian Tian arrived in Edinburgh in December 2011 as part of a 10-year arrangement with the China Wildlife Conservation Association.

    But it was soon clear the two were not eager to breed. Officials at the zoo failed in an attempt to artificially inseminate Tian Tian in 2013. Yang Guang was later castrated after being treated for testicular cancer. Giant pandas are notoriously difficult to breed in captivity, with bears losing interest in mating the natural way – or simply not knowing how.

    On the artificial insemination procedures on female panda Tian Tian, Eve commented:

    During her captivity at Edinburgh Zoo, female panda Tian Tian was also repeatedly subjected to invasive artificial insemination procedures in a bid for her to produce a panda cub for the zoo. Unlike a human mother who makes a choice to undergo these procedures, Tian Tian had no choice.

    Even if Tian Tian had produced cubs, these individuals would never have returned to the wild, nor strengthened the numbers of the wild population.

    Political diplomacy and entertainment at the expense of animal rights

    On the return of the pandas to China, Eve stated:

    We hope that as the pandas embark on their journey back to China, the Scottish public will reflect upon changing attitudes towards zoos and the exploitation of animals for entertainment in the past 12 years since the pandas arrived in Edinburgh.

    The idea of animal diplomacy in 2023 – the exchange of a sentient individual as a diplomatic ‘gift’ – is quite frankly outdated. So too is the belief that it is justifiable to keep wild animals in an enclosure solely for entertainment purposes. Wild animals belong in the wild.

    The US has also returned some of its loaned pandas to China. All three giant pandas at the Smithsonian National Zoo in Washington – Mei Xiang and Tian Tian, who arrived in 2000, and their three-year-old cub Xiao Qi Ji (“Little Miracle” in English) – flew back on a cargo plane to China in November. The last remaining pandas currently in the US, at a zoo in the southern city of Atlanta, are due to return to China by late 2024.

    Additional reporting via Agence France-Presse

    Featured image via Edinburgh Zoo – YouTube

    By The Canary

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • As Starmer lurches further right a new party has been formed – and it is off to a transformational start

    A new political party was launched recently with support from several left-wing organisations and activists. Transform aims to fill the gap left by Keir Starmer, as he drags the Labour Party even further to the right.

    Launching a new political party

    Transform, which was created to fill a political vacuum left by Starmer’s Labour moving further to the right, held its founding conference in Nottingham on Saturday 25 November. Hundreds of supporters attended the launch in-person and online, which included speeches from Romayne Phoenix (former co-chair of the People’s Assembly) and Solma Ahmed (former member of Labour Women’s Committee and Momentum’s National Coordinating Group (NCG)):

    Ahmed said:

    Staying and fighting for Starmer’s party is no longer an option. We need an alternative that challenges the political system. That’s why I’m excited to support Transform: because it meets my ambitions for a better and more equal world.

    Joseph was one of the people who attended the launch. He told the Canary:

    The dynamism and hope at the Transform conference was palpable.

    Activists from around the country, some who has been Labour activists for decades, others young people new to politics came together with the aim of literally transforming politics and building a new party. Workshops were held on democracy, economics, Palestine, climate, and there were vigorous conversations exchanging views and building energy.

    The conference opened with a rousing speech from Muslim-Bengali activist, late of Momentum, Solma describing the horrors in Gaza and the betrayal of Labour and calling for support for a new kind of politics and a party who would represent those calling for a ceasefire.

    The closing speech, by the young leader of the Breakthrough Party Alex Mays, called for hope and energy from young people in the face of so many crises to see a new type of party and a new force in politics. The conference for me was really positive and showed how people from different political backgrounds and different generations could come together and forge a new political vision.

    Transform: doing politics differently?

    Transform was originally a call for a new left party, which was set up by the Breakthrough Party, Left Unity, Liverpool Community Independents, and supported by other individuals from across the labour movement including Ian Hodson, the National President of BFAWU, and former Labour MP Thelma Walker.

    It is aiming to do things differently. As Transform said on X:

    We are now in the process of electing a new leadership team, our Executive Committee, where there are 17 roles available. (Be aware that you need to join as a Transform member by Thursday 7 December to put yourself forward as a candidate).

    We want to be an intersectional, radically inclusive & safe space for everyone – in line with our 10 core principles. So we will be forming caucuses, spaces designed to empower people from marginalised groups, as we work to reverse historic & ongoing social & racial injustices.

    It also says that the process of developing policies will be democratic:

    Open for membership

    Alex Mays, founder and leader of the Breakthrough Party, said:

    Just like the Tories, Labour opposes a full ceasefire in Gaza, doesn’t support strikes, rejects nationalisation, refuses to defend refugees, and won’t scrap student fees – or even the two-child benefit cap. The British people can’t afford more of the same. We need a new kind of politics, one that provides meaningful solutions to climate change, the cost of living explosion, the erosion of democracy and the spread of war: challenging the system at the root of every crisis we face.

    Transform offers this. To everyone who wants to see this become a success I say get involved, join us and be part of the change that you want to see.

    Since its launch four months ago, Transform has gained thousands of members and supporters and already has over 50 local groups established UK-wide. The party is now open for membership and is in the process of registering with the Electoral Commission, with plans to begin developing a manifesto and preparing to stand candidates in the local elections and general election in 2024.

    Featured image and additional images via Martina De Camillis

    By The Canary

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • People have taken action UK-wide over fuel poverty – with a south London protest drawing unwanted attention

    Campaign groups Fuel Poverty Action, Unite Community, and their allies held nationwide protests this weekend, carrying out ‘Warm Ups’ to demand action on fuel poverty. People occupied British Gas offices, protested outside Scottish Power, and engaged their local communities.

    However, not everyone was receptive to the groups’ demands. Security at a South London shopping centre removed activists, simply for ‘warming up’ – albeit with a rather large banner reading ‘Cold Homes Kill’.

    Fuel Poverty Action: we need ‘energy for all’

    Fuel Poverty Action has carried out Warm Ups for over a decade. Activists enter buildings or public spaces in order to warm up as a group. They do this on the grounds of being unable to do so at home due to unaffordable energy prices and the poor conditions of housing. Of course, Fuel Poverty Action and others are also making points about the cost of energy and how it leaves countless poor people struggling.

    The actions are in support of the Energy For All campaign. Launched by Fuel Poverty Action in 2022, it demands that every household is guaranteed enough energy for safe and adequate levels of heating, lighting, cooking as well as protecting additional needs like medical and mobility aids. It would be paid for by ending fossil fuel subsidies, redistributing energy company profits, and higher tariffs on household energy use beyond necessities.

    Unite Community launched the Unite 4 Energy For All campaign in November to support the demand, in collaboration with Unite the Union’s campaign to nationalise energy.

    So, between Friday 1 and Sunday 3 December groups organised over 30 events as far afield as Southend-on-Sea, Portsmouth, Gateshead, and the Isle of Arran – raising awareness of the scourge of fuel poverty and the government and energy companies’ willful inaction.

    Warming Up energy companies

    On 1 December a Warm Up took place at Scottish Power HQ in Glasgow for the second winter running. Participants condemned warrants granted to the energy giant a month ago to forcibly enter the homes of families with newborn babies and install prepayment meters:

    People lined up with their fists in the air outside Scottish Power's head office

    Meanwhile, protestors entered and occupied a British Gas office in Cardiff for 30 minutes, the amount of time they say it takes the company to make half a million pounds in profit:

    People inside a British Gas office with banners that read "cost of living crisis, energy crisis, climate crisis, same crisis" and "warm homes for all"

    Then, on 2 December Fuel Poverty Action ‘Warmed Up’ at OVO Energy’s HQ in Bristol. They bedded down with blankets, sleeping bags, and hot water bottles to symbolise millions of people struggling to keep warm this winter:

    People sat on the floor outside OVO Energy's head office. They are wrapped in blankets and sleeping bags and have signs that read "energy for all"

    Further Warm Ups took place including at the Arndale Centre in Manchester and Kirkgate Market in Leeds:

    Protesters outside the Arndale Shopping Centre in Manchester with a banner that reads "Unite 4 Energy For All"

    Stuart Bretherton from Fuel Poverty Action’s Energy For All campaign said:

    The energy system, with its high standing charges, forced imposition of prepayment meters and other inequities, literally punishes people for being poor. Energy starvation this winter means that lives will be lost if we don’t see concrete action from this Government. People are ‘warming up’ to demand our human right to energy is respected and delivered. There’s plenty of money in energy company profits to ensure access to clean and affordable energy for all.

    However, one Warm Up in South London on 2 December was too much for a shopping centre’s security team.

    Bromley: warming up in the freezing cold

    In the Glades shopping centre in Bromley, members of Bromley and Croydon Unite Community, South East London People’s Assembly, and campaign group the Chronic Collaboration staged a protest and community engagement session. As well as occupying a space in the ground floor, they dropped a large banner off the first floor which read “Cold Homes Kill” – attracting a lot of attention from shoppers:

    However, around 10 minutes into the group’s action, and security were immediately getting involved – telling activists that the Glades was private property, and they couldn’t protest or speak to shoppers about fuel poverty there:

    Undeterred, and somewhat ironically, Unite Community, South East London People’s Assembly, and the Chronic Collaboration took their Warm Up protest outside into the cold. So, instead of a shopping centre they commandeered Bromley’s Christmas tree:

    A banner reading "unite 4 energy for all" attached to the bottom of a Christmas tree

    The groups engaged with shoppers over the Energy For All campaign – with hundreds of people taking leaflets, and dozens signing letters to the government calling for it to act over fuel poverty:

    A street scene with a woman on the left handing a couple a banner while someone films them all

    ‘We will be back’

    Paula Peters is chair of Bromley and Croydon Unite Community. She told the Canary:

    During the occupation of the Glades, security came along and told us it was private property and we were to leave. The action was peaceful and we were speaking to shoppers who were taking leaflets and signing Unite fuel poverty petition cards.

    We were also warming up – as many of us activists included disabled people on pre-payment meters who simply can’t afford to heat their homes.

    Security didn’t care about that, they chucked us into the freezing conditions outside.

    The resolve of the activists yesterday was determined. We will be back for a future protest action very soon to highlight fuel poverty. While people are dying, suffering as a result of corporate greed we will keep campaigning.

    Paula Peters being interviewed in front of a camera

    ‘Stand up and fight’

    Nicola Jeffery is the founder of the Chronic Collaboration – a chronically ill and disabled peoples’ rights group. She told the Canary:

    Fuel poverty is a growing problem in the UK. Yes that’s right, the UK – which is also one of the richest nations in the world. Over the last 13 years Tory governments have forced on its most vulnerable people continuous cuts under a policy of austerity. This has had a serious impact on chronically ill and disabled people, including affecting their health.

    As a result of rising bills and forced pre-payment meters, many are unable to properly heat their homes causing them to be in fuel poverty.

    Many people who struggle to heat their homes look for support locally. In some areas there are ‘warm banks’ available for people to use. Unfortunately, they are very few and far between and if you are chronically ill or disabled this isn’t always accessible or an option, leaving many struggling alone.

    We have ourselves experienced fuel poverty. As a undiagnosed chronically ill and disabled single mother, I was forced to live for nearly two years in receipt of just child benefit. This meant that I literally had £20 a week to live on during that time, £10 on gas and £10 on electric. I was lucky that I could rely on my friends and family for food and support. Others are not so lucky and need so much more support then they are getting.

    We at the Chronic Collaboration fully support Fuel Poverty Action and Unite Community’s collective effort. The government should act on fuel poverty – but it won’t. So, it’s up to all of us to stand up and fight.

    Nicola Jeffery being interviewed in front of a camera

    ‘Fuel poverty is costing human lives’

    As Peters summed up:

    The Warm Up action in Bromley and the banner drop in the Glades shopping centre were of vital importance to stress two things.

    Firstly, the tragic impact of skyrocketing energy bills in a cost of living crisis, meaning millions of people are not able to switch the heating on, which is impacting on people’s health. Tragically, every winter fuel poverty is costing human lives.

    Cold homes are killing people, and while people were Christmas Shopping in Bromley we wanted them to see that – hence the banner drop in the Glades.

    Secondly, the leader of Bromley Council and Tory councillors in 2022 flatly refused to provide the funding for charities and social enterprises to have warm hubs in council wards in Bromley; the council leader said he wouldn’t waste the money on gas and electric, and told residents to warm up in Bromley libraries instead.

    For many residents the nearest library is 1.5 miles away and only open 2-3 days a week due to Tory cuts. Their callous attitude shows what they think of residents – they simply do not care if people are cold and hungry.

    This attitude from Bromley council is also entrenched across much of the political class in the rest of the UK. So, governments and councils will continue to abandon people. However, groups like Fuel Poverty Action, Unite Community, and the Chronic Collaboration will not stand idly by. More actions are expected throughout the rest of the winter.

    Featured image via the Canary, and additional images via the Canary, Bromley and Croydon Unite Community, and Fuel Poverty Action, and video via the Chronic Collaboration

    By Steve Topple

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Guardian Shane MacGowan obituary criticised by the Pogues for being ‘full of errors’

    A Guardian obituary of the late Shane MacGowan has drawn criticism for being “full of errors”. Among many others, criticism came directly from the Pogues’ official X account:

    ‘A nasty undercurrent’

    Journalist Sarah Woolley suggested some of the wording represented a pattern:

     

    Several people said they stopped reading after the piece’s opening line:

     

    Tributes to MacGowan

    In contrast to the Guardian obituary, there were many warm tributes from musicians for MacGowan:

    For those interested to know more about MacGowan, the Pogues recommended the following piece:

     

    Featured image via Marcus Lynam – Wikimedia (cropped to 770 x 403)

    By The Canary

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Cops arrest 667 Just Stop Oil activists since 30 October – so, the group went to New Scotland Yard to let rip

    Just Stop Oil students and other supporters marched from New Scotland Yard in solidarity with political prisoners remanded for slow marching in recent weeks. They are calling for political prisoners being held for nonviolent climate protest to be freed, and for the climate criminals responsible for new oil and gas to be charged with genocide.

    Just Stop Oil: marching on New Scotland Yard

    At 12pm on Saturday 2 December, a crowd of around 80 Just Stop Oil supporters gathered at New Scotland Yard, where they heard testimonies from young political prisoners who have been imprisoned for demanding that the government take basic steps to protect the population by ending new oil and gas:

    Just Stop Oil marching with parliament in the background

    There are six Just Stop Oil supporters under the age of 25 currently imprisoned for marching, without having even been convicted.

    Before the march even started, the Metropolitan Police arrested two people. At least 63 police officers and 18 police vans are accompanying the march. The march stopped at the Supreme Court, before going on to the Crown Prosecution Service headquarters where the marchers staged a sit-down outside the entrance:

    A sit in outside the CPS

    One of those arrested before the march could even start today was Daniel Knorr, a biochemistry student from Oxford who said:

    I feel an intense amount of responsibility at this time, I have confronted the reality of my future head on. This leaves me with no choice but to try and stop this from happening by any means necessary. The British government is advised by some of the best scientific minds in the world, which have unequivocally told them that they have a matter of years left to avert total catastrophe.

    Continuing to licence oil and gas with this knowledge is nothing less than the intentional murder of hundreds of millions at a minimum. The correct response to what is happening is to stop it no matter what, placing your body and freedom in the way if necessary.

    “Our weird, fascist government is indifferent”

    There are currently eight Just Stop Oil supporters in prison, six of whom have been imprisoned, without trial, for peacefully marching in the road. They are Cressie Gethin (21), Noah Crane (18), Ella Ward (20), Ruby Hamill (19), Chiara Sarti (24), and Phoebe Plummer (22).

    Before she was imprisoned, 19 year old Ruby Hamill said:

    We are on course to lose all we know and love. Elsewhere, young people my age face torture for their peaceful resistance to a much more present threat. Our weird, fascist government is indifferent. Our demand is a no-brainer.

    They join Morgan Trowland and Marcus Decker, who have been imprisoned for over a year and were sentenced to three years and two years seven months respectively, in the longest sentences ever awarded for peaceful direct action.

    Thirteen Just Stop Oil supporters are currently under electronic tag surveillance. There have been 667 arrests of Just Stop Oil supporters since 30 October.

    “Alarm bells are ringing”

    Just Stop Oil’s fundraiser has currently raised £56,000 in the last 48 hours, and until 10am on 3 December donations to the fund were doubled by a group of generous donors, including Chris Packham.

    He said:

    Alarm bells are ringing! Good! – the world’s leaders are sleep-walking to oblivion, it’s time they woke up to their responsibilities and found the sense and courage to actually lead us towards environmental stability and recovery.

    The group said:

    Continued expansion of new oil and gas will bring about the wholesale destruction of ordered society and an end to the rule of law. We are not prepared to watch while the government continues to serve the interests of a few, at the expense of everyone else. It’s up to all of us to come together and resist. It is the will of the overwhelming majority of people that we take the actions necessary to ensure our survival and together we can make it happen.

    You can donate to Just Stop Oil’s fundraiser here.

    Featured image and additional images via Just Stop Oil

    By The Canary

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • After deleting his 10 pledges, real ‘conservative’ Keir Starmer is now praising the worst Tory PM ever

    In May 2023, Keir Starmer laid out why his Labour Party is the true vehicle of conservative values. Those who’ve watched him lurching ever rightwards will be unsurprised to learn he’s now praising – of all people – Margaret ‘milk snatcher‘ Thatcher. They’ll additionally be unsurprised to discover he’s doing it from behind a paywall in the Daily Telegraph.

    Their lack of surprise will be further un-tested when we tell them Starmer tries to set himself up as a man of the people in this paywall-gated, Thatcher-praising stinkpiece. ‘Which people?’, they won’t ask, because they know exactly which people he’s pitching himself to – namely the sort who can stomach paying for a subscription to the Daily Telegraph.

    Margaret fucking Thatcher

    In his piece, Starmer said:

    Margaret Thatcher sought to drag Britain out of its stupor by setting loose our natural entrepreneurialism

    As people have rightly pointed out:

    This is the opening paragraph of the Starmer piece:

    It is too easy to look at Britain today and throw your hands up in despair. Families across the country are bombarded with daily reminders of our current malaise: crumbling public services that no longer serve the public, families weighed down by the anxiety of spiralling mortgage bills and food prices, neighbourhoods plagued by crime and anti-social behaviour. Any one of these individually would be cause for outrage. Taken together they merge into something more insidious: the idea that our country no longer works for those it is supposed to.

    The irony is that although this obviously describes the here and now, most of it also describes Britain under Thatcher:

    You could argue that giving council tenants the right to buy their rentals aided social mobility. You could simultaneously argue that flogging off social housing without replacing it massively contributed to the nightmare we find ourselves in, in which renting is sky high, buying is sky high, and the prospect of being able to buy (and in some cases even rent) is looking increasingly unlikely for many.

    Needless to say, people had some opinions on Starmer’s comments:

    Promises not found

    A big part of Starmer’s rightwards lurch has been the slow abandonment of the 10 pledges he made in the 2020 Labour leadership race. Given the fact that every dropped pledge generated negative coverage, many wondered why he didn’t just rip the plaster off in one go. Instead, Starmer has allowed the plaster to grow grimy and damp before limply peeling it off – exposing the festering ideology beneath:

    Labour’s polling has undoubtedly benefitted from the cost of living crisis obliterating any credibility the Conservatives had with your average British voter. When the election rolls around, however, people will actually be paying attention – and some of them will notice that Starmer’s pitch is ‘if you’re fed up with the Tories, vote for me – Keir Starmer – the biggest fucking Tory there is’.

    Some have suggested that Starmer’s attempts to appeal solely to the right will actually be his political undoing:

    The context of this tweet is that the Starmer-led drive for a second referendum alienated the ‘Red Wall’ Labour voters who voted Tory in 2019 (the ‘Cambridge Analytica destroyed democracy’ is pretty silly, but everything before that is worth considering).

    Among the critics was SNP leader Humza Yousaf:

    ‘Thatcher bad’ is a very commonly held opinion in Britain, and that’s especially true in Scotland.

    Starmer supposedly wants to win back seats in Scotland, so it’s unclear why he’s forced himself into a position which is on a par with banning kilts or taxing Irn Bru. Maybe he’s actually just annoyed that Scottish Labour refused to back him up when he said Israel had the right to cut Palestine’s water and power off – i.e. to ethnically cleanse them (a clear statement he later claimed meant something other than the words he actually said) – and now he wants to get rid of the Scottish branch entirely.

    Car crash incoming?

    It really seems like Starmer doesn’t grasp what the general election is going to be like. During an election, impartiality rules kick in, and while it’s still nothing like genuine impartiality, it does mean journalists are nowhere near as terrible as usual. This means that all the back-peddling and broken promises – all the Thatcher praising – this stuff will come up, and Starmer will have to answer for it.

    The thing is, we know precisely how he’ll answer – namely by doing that awful thing he does of robotically repeating whatever uninspiring slogan he memorised that morning:

    Can Labour mess things up badly enough to destroy the current poll lead they enjoy? In the words of Starmer’s hero Margaret Thatcher, “of course they fucking can”. We don’t know when she said that precisely, but she likely said it at some point – perhaps when asked “can the working classes of Britain go fuck themselves?”

    Featured image via YouTube

    By The Canary

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • US official’s visit to RAF Lakenheath ‘further proof’ of nuclear mission in Britain says CND

    The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) sees the recent visit of US Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks to RAF Lakenheath, as further proof that Washington is preparing the Suffolk airbase to host new US nuclear weapons in Britain.

    RAF Lakenheath: hosting US nuclear weapons

    As the Canary previously reported, the US and UK governments and militaries are reportedly planning to allow American nuclear weapons to be stored at RAF Lakenheath in Suffolk. The Ministry of Defence (MoD) and West Suffolk Council have already put plans in place to develop the site – including a rapid airfield damage repair facilities (RADR), a child development centre, and a 144-bed dormitory.

    CND has already launched a legal challenge against the plans – but now, the visit of Hicks to RAF Lakenheath appears to confirm that the plans are still going ahead.

    Hicks’ tour included an inspection of “infrastructure improvements” at RAF Lakenheath. Among the works previously revealed in US Air Force budgetary documents are: upgrades to the special weapons hangers so they can store the new B61-12 guided nuclear bomb; rapid airfield damage repair facilities; and a 144-bed “surety dormitory” for US Air Force personnel. In US military terminology, the word “surety” is used to refer to the handling of nuclear weapons.

    CND has already challenged the planning rights used for the dormitory – which so far has not received an environmental impact assessment ahead of its planned construction next year. It believes that the construction of buildings at RAF Lakenheath for the purpose of a nuclear weapons mission poses an outstanding environmental risk. As the Canary previously reported, the group:

    claims the MoD and West Suffolk Council have failed to assess the environmental impact of potentially facilitating the weapons at the Suffolk airbase and has called on the MoD to halt development works at RAF Lakenheath while the necessary screening is carried out.

    In letters to the MoD and West Suffolk, CND says that under the Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) (England) Order 2017 the development does not have permitted development rights which would allow it to go ahead.

    The work could go ahead without an environmental impact assessment if it was being carried out by or on behalf of the Crown but this does not apply since the building works are being done by and for the USAF, it is believed.

    Moreover, the presence of nuclear weapons will make the base – and the UK – a target in the event of nuclear war; it will also run the risk of an accident at the base prompting a nuclear incident.

    Making the UK a ‘nuclear target’

    CND condemns the UK government’s lack of transparency surrounding the siting of these weapons at RAF Lakenheath. It has refused to answer questions about the deployment of US nuclear weapons to Britain; about new construction work at the base; or about any safety measures in the event of a nuclear accident.

    CND general secretary Kate Hudson said:

    Kathleen Hicks’s visit to RAF Lakenheath is further proof that Washington intends to use Britain as a launch pad for its nuclear arsenal in Europe. The lack of transparency surrounding this deployment is shocking given how dangerous it is. Russia has already retaliated: it has stationed its own nuclear weapons in Belarus in response.

    A YouGov poll found that almost two thirds of the British public don’t want US nuclear weapons stationed here. That’s not surprising – they will make us a nuclear target. CND calls on the UK government to say that US nuclear weapons are not welcome in Britain.

    Featured image via U.S. Air Force/Staff Sgt. Gaspar Cortez

    By Steve Topple

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Olivia Colman among over 1000 artists accusing art institutions of censorship on Palestine and Gaza

    Olivia Colman has joined over 1,000 other artists in calling out the arts sector over its ‘repression, silencing, and stigmatising’ of Palestinian artists and voices amid Israel‘s ongoing onslaught in Gaza and the Occupied Territories.

    Olivia Colman: joining other artists to end the ‘repression’ of Palestinian voices

    More than 1,300 artists, including Academy Award winning Olivia Colman, Olivier Award winners Harriet Walter and Juliet Stevenson, BAFTA winners Aimee Lou Wood, and Siobhán McSweeney, Paapa Essiedu (I May Destroy You), Susanne Wokoma (Enola Holmes), Youseff Kerkour (Napoleon), Nicola Coughlan (Derry Girls, Bridgerton) and Lolly Adefope (Ghosts, Loki), have launched a letter addressed to the arts and culture sector, that accuses cultural institutions across Western countries of:

    repressing, silencing and stigmatising Palestinian voices and perspectives.

    They say this includes:

    targeting and threatening the livelihoods of artists and arts workers who express solidarity with Palestinians, as well as cancelling performances, screenings, talks, exhibitions and book launches.

    In the letter, which you can read in full here, writers Deborah Frances-White (The Guilty Feminist), Kamila Shamsie (Home Fire), Marina Warner (Once Upon a Time: A Short History of Fairy Tales), Lara Pawson (This is the Place To Be), playwrights Abbie Spallen and Camilla Whitehill, and poets Daisy Lafarge, Malika Booker, and Emily Berry affirm that:

    Despite this pressure, artists in their thousands are following their conscience and continuing to speak out. Freedom of expression, as enshrined in the Human Rights Act and the European Convention of Human Rights is the backbone of our creative lives, and fundamental to democracy.

    Among examples of censorship, the letter cites Lisson Gallery’s ‘postponement’ of a London exhibition by Ai Weiwei; Folkwang Museum in Essen’s last minute cancellation of curator Anais Duplan’s Afrofuturism exhibition, and the Saarland Museum’s cancellation of a solo exhibition of artist Candida Brietz, both in Germany; the announcement by Hollywood producers that they had dropped actor Melissa Barrero from Scream VII.

    In each case the institution attributed the cancellation to comments made by the artist in support of Palestinian rights and unrelated to the content of their professional work.

    ‘Frustrating and wrongheaded censorship’

    This month the publicly funded Arnolfini, Bristol’s International Centre for Contemporary Arts, withdrew from hosting film and spoken word poetry events curated by Bristol Palestine Film Festival, claiming the events might “stray into political activity”. The events have been moved to other venues in the city.

    Letter signatory Hassan Abulrazzak, whose play And Here I Am based on the life of a Palestinian actor, was cancelled in Paris in October said:

    This censorship is as frustrating as it is wrongheaded. Now is the time to listen to Palestinians, to understand what their lives are like.

    Film directors Emma Seligman (Bottoms), Hany Abu-Assad (Omar), Ken Loach (I, Daniel Blake), Aki Kaurismaki (Drifting Clouds), Sally El-Hosaini (The Swimmers), Sara Driver (Boom For Real: The Late Teenage Years of Jean Michel Baquiat), urged arts organisations to join calls for a permanent ceasefire and to “stand up for artists and workers who voice their support for Palestinian rights”.

    They accuse arts organisations of a “disturbing double standard”, saying that:

    expressions of solidarity readily offered to other peoples facing brutal oppression, have not been extended to Palestinians.

    Award-winning composer Jocelyn Pook, Massive Attack’s Robert del Naja, David Sylvian and electronic composer Rrose along with visual artists Vanessa Jackson, Sean Edwards, Larissa Sansour, Luke Fowler, John Smith, Rosalind Nashashibi, Paul Noble, Florence Peake, John Keane, and P Staff, say they “stand in solidarity with those facing threats and intimidation in the workplace”.

    They, as well as Olivia Colman, go on to warn that:

    many artists are refusing to work with institutions that fail to meet [these] basic obligations” to uphold freedom of expression and anti-discrimination when it comes to speech on Palestine.

    Speaking out must be allowed

    Two thousand poets announced a boycott of the Poetry Foundation in the US after its magazine refused to publish a book review it had commissioned. Artists and writers internationally have declared they will no longer work with Artforum magazine, and editorial staff have resigned in response to the firing of the editor David Velasco who had published a letter, signed by 8,000 artists that called for a ceasefire and for ‘Palestinian liberation’.

    Last Friday, the UN office in Geneva put out a statement titled “Speaking out on Gaza/Israel must be allowed” which expressed “alarm at the worldwide wave of attacks, reprisals, criminalisation and sanctions against those who publicly express solidarity with the victims of the ongoing conflict between Israel and Palestine”. In it, UN experts stated that:

    artists, academics, journalists, activists and athletes have faced particularly harsh consequences and reprisals from states and private actors because of their prominent roles and visibility.

    Gabriel Frankel, UK legal officer at the European Legal Support Centre which monitors incidents of repression against advocates for Palestinian rights, said:

    we have… seen workers in the sector push back and remain firm in their commitment to justice, and we encourage those who have any concerns to contact the ELSC for advice.

    Featured image via Raph_PH – Wikimedia, resized to 1910×1000 under licence CC BY 2.0

    By The Canary

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Thanks to Palestine Action, a company has cut ties with Israel’s biggest arms manufacturer

    Direct action group Palestine Action has successfully managed to get a company to drop its association with one of Israel‘s largest arms manufacturers – directly complicit in its ongoing genocide in Gaza. It shows that, with perseverance, protest and direct action can bring about change.

    Palestine Action: holding iO Associates to account

    Palestine Action is a direct-action network of groups and individuals formed with the mandate of taking action against the sites of Elbit Systems and other companies complicit in Israeli apartheid, calling for all such sites to be shut down. When it launched in 2020, the network explained that:

    We have come together to promote civil disobedience and take direct action against the companies and institutions that Israel uses to violently enforce apartheid, occupation and colonisation on the people of Palestine.

    Now, after weeks of action the sole recruiters for the British operations of Israel’s largest weapons company, Elbit Systems, have confirmed via email to Palestine Action that they ended their association with Elbit on the evening of 29 November. For two months, activists in the Palestine Action network had disrupted iO Associates at their premises across the country, to impede their ability to recruit roles for Israel’s war machine.

    iO Associates recruited the likes of engineers, software developers, and finance staff for positions across the sites of the British branch of Israel’s largest weapons company, Elbit Systems.

    Elbit are the largest supplier to the occupation military, providing the vast majorities of its drones, munitions, surveillance gear, and parts for its tanks, jets, and precision missiles. From Britain specifically, they manufacture parts for Israel’s killer drones, along with weapons sights, tank parts, and more, exporting these technologies to Israel in great volume yearly. This is the nature of the business that iO was Associates with, and were IO Associates biggest client.

    Direct action working

    In response to their facilitation of Elbit’s criminal activities, iO’s offices were stormed and occupied in Manchester on 1 September, and again on 7 October. Activists painted iO offices red on 9 October in London, Reading, and Manchester:

    Palestine Action iO Associates

    They were forced to vacate their Manchester offices from 11 October, after the premises were also stormed by the Youth Front For Palestine, and then finally targeted in Edinburgh twice, on 11 and 17 October. After being forced to vacate their offices, having their online presence tarnished, and (as confirmed to us by former employees) losing their staff who resigned in opposition to their arms trade partnership, iO Associates have finally cut ties with Israel’s weapons trade.

    This is not the first success Palestine Action has had. As the Canary reported in December 2022:

    The minister of defence procurement Alex Chalk has confirmed that the government has ejected Elbit Systems from a £160m contract. The news follows significant third quarter losses for the Israeli weapons company, putting its future in the UK in doubt.

    All this is part of an expansive strategy by Palestine Action, by disrupting the suppliers and facilitators of Elbit’s presence in Britain. It has seen Elbit’s accountants (Edwards), haulage providers (Kuehne + Nagel), landlords (JLL) and many other complicit companies targeted, alongside the hundreds of actions at Elbit sites themselves, continuing to resist the presence of Elbit warmongers in Britain, and constantly reminding those associated with them that they have blood on their hands.

    As a result of iO Associates dropping Elbit Systems, the recruiters have been removed as a target of Palestine Action’s campaign. All targets who still facilitate Israel’s weapons trade are listed on elbitsites.uk

    Featured image and additional images via Palestine Action

    By The Canary

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Homelessness has rocketed and the Tories should be ashamed of themselves

    The latest government figures for England show the number of households in temporary accommodation has rocketed in the past 12 months – up nearly 11%. This includes a staggering 93% increase in the number of families with children forced to live in temporary bed and breakfast accommodation. That is, the number of children experiencing homelessness has once again gone up.

    One think tank has slammed the government – calling on the Tories to bring in the Renters Reform Bill now.

    Homelessness: up yet again

    On Thursday 30 November, the government published its latest quarterly figures on homelessness. Its own report found that across England, local authorities:

    • Assessed 73,660 households for potential homelessness.
    • 34,850 of those were deemed at risk of homelessness – up 1.5% from the same quarter last year. This includes 6,640 households threatened with homelessness due to service of a Section 21 notice to end an Assured Shorthold Tenancy – an increase of 10.3% from the same quarter last year.
    • 38,810 of the 73,660 households were homeless at that moment – up 6.9% from the same quarter last year. Households with children increased 6.5% from the same quarter last year to 10,670 households in April to June 2023.
    • On 30 June 2023, 105,750 households were in temporary accommodation, which is an increase of 10.5% from 30 June 2022. Households with children increased by 13.8% to 68,070, and single households increased by 5.0% to 37,680. Compared to the previous quarter, the number of households in temporary accommodation has increased by 1.2%.

    However, this is not the whole story.

    Think tank the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) looked at the government’s figures. It found:

    • An 18% increase in the number of households who were homeless and helped by councils as a result of a no-fault eviction compared to last year.
    • 9,800 households in total approached their council as they were at risk of homelessness due to a no-fault eviction between April and June 2023.
    • Families with children living in B&Bs are up 93% on a year ago.
    • Families with children in B&Bs beyond the six-week legal limit are up 146% on a year ago and 39% on the previous three months.

    Principal policy adviser at the JRF Darren Baxter said:

    Homelessness is on the rise and more families face the threat of eviction through no fault of their own. Families with children are being left with no choice but to live in unsuitable and costly temporary accommodation because of a lack of social housing.

    So far, the Tories have done little to stop the scourge of homelessness in the UK.

    Tory inaction = children’s misery

    The government has dragged its heels on the Renters Reform Bill – which was supposed to stop, among other things, no-fault evictions leading to homelessness. Just days ago on Tuesday 28 November, the Tories once again showed their contempt for homeless families. As the Big Issue reported:

    a last-minute change to the legislation means that the ban on no-fault evictions ­– also known as Section 21 notices – won’t come into force until after the courts have been reformed, a process for which there is currently no timeframe.

    Last night (28 November), the government blocked a Labour amendment that would see the ban come into force as soon as the Renters Reform Bill passes into law.

    Labour’s shadow housing and planning minister Matthew Pennycook accused the government of “kicking the can down the road.”

    Therefore, there is still no hope for renters on the horizon. Baxter summed up by saying:

    The government must bring in the Renters Reform Bill and abolish Section 21 without any more delays. The Bill must also be strengthened so it actually provides private renters with greater security than they currently have. This should include doubling the notice period for tenants when evicted under new no-fault grounds to four months.

    Tenants should also be protected from eviction for two years at the start of a tenancy. We must also build more social housing so that children aren’t left languishing in temporary accommodation while they wait for a suitable home.

    Featured image via MaxPixel

    By Steve Topple

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • The corporate media has failed to report a judge acquitting four Just Stop Oil activists

    Four Just Stop Oil supporters were acquitted of obstruction of the highway on Monday 27 November, after a judge declared they had a lawful excuse for their actions. Yet somehow, the corporate media has failed to report the story.

    Just Stop Oil: blocking Central London

    The four Just Stop Oil supporters had taken part in a roadblock at Piccadilly on 26 October 2022 to demand that the government halt all licensing and consents for the development of any new fossil fuel projects in the UK. As Just Stop Oil previously wrote:

    16 Just Stop Oil supporters walked onto Piccadilly near Green Park Tube station and disrupted traffic by sitting in the road with banners. Some supporters have glued onto the tarmac.

    Linda Ahtiainen, a recent graduate from Ruokolahti, Finland said:

    “I am taking action with Just Stop Oil because the government’s plan to approve over a 100 new oil and gas projects is completely irresponsible in the face of the climate crisis. I hope that people will understand the severity of the situation we are facing. New oil and gas projects are not just unnecessary, but will destroy everything we depend upon and all we hold dear. This campaign of civil resistance is not about any individual or groups of people but about ensuring the survival of humanity.”

    Clara O’Callahan, Ella-Rose Paez, Julia Redman, and Bethon Roberts appeared before Judge Bone at Stratford Magistrates Court on 27 November, accused of willful obstruction of the highway in relation to peacefully blocking Piccadilly near Green Park Tube station last October.

    Not guilty

    Finding no evidence of ‘significant disruption’ Judge Bone delivered a not-guilty verdict. Addressing the defendants, the judge commented that the ‘issues’ being protested about were of high importance to the public.

    O’Callaghan said:

    I took action with Just Stop Oil a year ago to peacefully protest the government’s genocidal actions in granting more licences. Regardless of the outcome of this trial, the truth is clear – new oil and gas is genocide. In the last year, thousands have died in climate-related extreme weather events. How many more people will be forced to suffer in the next year, and the next? When politics is broken, I believe it is a moral obligation to continue in civil resistance against a genocidal government.

    Also acquitted, Redman commented:

    I am 72 and have 7 grandchildren. I have never had to face threats to life, but as the climate catastrophe unfolds I am haunted knowing they shall face droughts, wildfires, floods, famine, storms, war and may be forced to flee their homes as the climate catastrophe unfolds. I want to be able to tell my grandchildren that I did everything I could to prevent this catastrophe.

    This not guilty verdict follows the acquittal earlier in November of nine other Just Stop Oil supporters in relation to the same roadblock. On 22 November, Adrian Johnson, Sarah Ath, Rosie Bowyers, and Daniell Cole were also acquitted by Judge Bone at Stratford Magistrates court on the basis that a conviction would be disproportionate.

    However, none of the corporate media has reported on any of the Just Stop Oil acquittals. It seems hellbent on demonising the group – most recently with its peaceful sit-in outside prime minister Rishi Sunak’s house on Wednesday 29 November:

    Just Stop Oil Sunak house protest

    The real criminals are in government

    In a defence statement, Johnson previously said:

    I have been brought to court today, but it is the real criminals who should be in the dock who are licensing and promoting new oil and gas. The Met police have been given overwhelming evidence of government crimes against humanity and of genocide yet still refuse to investigate them, while prosecuting ordinary people like myself.

    The not guilty verdicts come as the UN has intervened over the case of Just Stop Oil protestors, Morgan Trowland and Marcus Dekker, currently serving the highest sentences seen in this country for nonviolent protest in modern times.

    On Tuesday 21 November, a letter was made public from the UN to the UK government criticising the ‘severe’ sentences and warned that the new Public Order Act which came into force in July was inconsistent with international human rights law and is therefore undermining the civil society response to the climate crisis we desperately need, calling it a “direct attack on the right to the freedom of peaceful assembly”.

    Featured image via Just Stop Oil

    By Steve Topple

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • BREAKING: activists hold protest outside Barclay’s HQ over its profiting from Israel’s genocide

    Activists have staged a ‘silent protest’ outside Barclay’s HQ in London. It was over the bank £1.3bn of shares in companies that supply arms and tech to Israel.

    Barclays: complicit in Israel’s genocide

    On Thursday 30 November, activists from Fossil Free London held a silent demonstration outside the headquarters of Barclays, to stand in solidarity with Palestine and in protest of Barclays investments in Israeli arms companies:

    Barclays protest Fossil Free London

    The protest comes as the humanitarian situation in Palestine worsens, as displaced Palestinians call for a permanent ceasefire.

    Signs read ‘Barclays profits from genocide’ and ‘Barclays profits from apartheid’, as protestors stood silently outside the offices dressed in black as staff walked in:

    An activist holding a sign
    Last year, whilst remaining the number one European bank financing fossil fuels since the Paris Agreement, Barclays also owned £1.3bn worth of shares in companies supplying Israel with weapons and military technology:

    Barclays protest Palestine

    The protest is part of a series of actions by Fossil Free London that attempt to demonstrate the interlinkages between the climate crisis and the situation in Palestine. Last week, they protested outside BP after Israel granted twelve gas exploration licences off the coast of Gaza to six companies, including BP, at the end of October.

    As the Canary previously reported:

    Amidst Israel’s ongoing bombing of Gaza, Israel granted twelve gas exploration licences off the coast of Gaza to six companies, including BP, at the end of October.

    BP not only received this licence but is also set to acquire 50% of the Israeli Delek Group-owned NewMed, who have also been granted a licence. NewMed owns 45% of Leviathan, the largest gas field in the Mediterranean, situated off the coast of Israel.

    Billions invested to kill Palestinians

    Joanna Warrington, a spokeswoman for Fossil Free London, said:

    As Israel continues its genocide on the people of Gaza, all the bosses of Barclays see is a business opportunity. Just as they continue to finance new fossil fuel expansion projects, banks like Barclays prop up violent arms and fossil fuel corporations with their investments.

    All the time that banks like Barclays profit from human suffering as they invest in violent and environmentally destructive practices we will be here to hold them to account. The climate movement stands in solidarity with Palestinians, and against fossil fuel banks operating with impunity to fund the arms and oil that kill en masse.

    Fossil Free London’s protest came after research released by Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC), Campaign Against the Arms Trade (CAAT), and War on Want last year uncovered that Barclays holds over £1bn in shares and provides over £3bn in loans and underwriting to nine companies whose weapons, components, and military technology have been used in Israel’s armed violence against Palestinians.

    The companies identified include Elbit Systems, which produces military technology, surveillance systems and drones used in Israel’s attacks on Palestinians, including its bombing campaigns of the besieged Gaza Strip. A range of financial institutions have divested from Elbit Systems due to its role in producing weapons used in violation of international law, including internationally banned cluster munitions.

    Featured image and additional images via Fossil Free London

    By Steve Topple

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Young people shut down five offices of a property management company for its involvement in Israel’s genocide

    Young people and other activists have taken action across the UK against property management company Fisher German, which is complicit in Israel‘s genocidal assault on Gaza and the Occupied Territories.

    Shut down Fisher German

    On Thursday 29 November, as part of an international call to stand with Palestine and take action against the arms industry supplying Israel, people across five cities in England rallied outside the respective offices of Fisher German to urge the property managers to evict Israeli-owned Elbit Systems and all its subsidiaries from Fisher German properties.

    This was London:

    The offices in London, Liverpool, Manchester, Birmingham, and Newcastle were protested by groups comprised of ordinary people, trade unionists, healthcare workers, activists, and students. In Newcastle, demonstrators were able to get inside and crash the Fisher German offices:

    In all other cities the respective offices were shut down for the day, with employees told to stay home.

    This was Birmingham:

    Profiting from genocide in Palestine

    Fisher German are the landlords of UAV Engines, a subsidiary of Elbit Systems in Shenstone, Staffordshire. Elbit is Israel’s largest arms company, producing 85% of the Israeli military’s drones and 85% of its land-based military equipment. UAV Engines is responsible for producing the engines for Elbit’s Hermes 450 drone which is said to be the ‘backbone’ of Israel’s military drone fleet, used extensively in past wars on Gaza and is undoubtedly in use in the current Israeli assault.

    Elbit markets the Hermes 450 as ‘battle tested’ on the captive people of Gaza, a population of mainly children.

    Over 14,800 people have been killed by the Israeli military since 7 October, including 6,150 children, in what a former senior UN official has described as a “textbook case of genocide”.

    The Israeli assault on Gaza has targeted schools, hospitals, churches, mosques, and homes, with 60% of the housing stock in the Gaza Strip now destroyed and 1.8 million people displaced [3]. The Fisher German protests today are among many that have taken place over the country in recent weeks as activists draw links between British companies’ profits and the ongoing Israeli genocide of Palestinians in Gaza.

    Erin, one of the campaigners who took part in the action in Manchester, said:

    Over 14,000 people have been killed in Gaza in the last several weeks, with many more also being killed and driven from their homes in the West Bank. British companies such as Fisher German might be based thousands of miles away from Palestine but they play a very real role in supporting Israel’s genocide of Palestinians. Whilst Fisher German continue making profit out of genocide, we will not stop.

    Featured image via Youth Front for Palestine

    By The Canary

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Three in four young people are not being protected by employment rights

    A new Trades Union Congress (TUC) report published on Thursday 30 November reveals that nearly three-quarters (72%) of young people aged 16 to 24 miss out on key employment rights at work.

    While some workplace rights for employees begin from day one of employment, others only kick in after two years of continuous service – including protection from unfair dismissal and the right to statutory redundancy pay.

    The new report – published at the end of TUC’s Young Workers’ Month – shows that employees aged 16 to 24 are far less likely to have built up two years of continuous service in the same job, so are much more likely to miss out on key protections.

    That means nearly three in four young employees (72%) don’t qualify for vital employment rights, compared to around one in four (27%) of working people aged 25 and over.

    Zero-hours contracts

    Young people are also much more likely to be on zero-hours contracts – which means they are ‘workers’ (without employee status) who miss out on essential rights – like the right to request flexible working or the right to return to the same job after maternity, adoption, paternity or shared parental leave.

    Zero-hours contracts are characterised by low pay and variable hours. As a result, many zero-hours contract workers also miss out on key social security rights such as full maternity pay and paternity pay.

    One in seven (13%) 16 to 24-year-olds in employment are employed on a zero-hours contract – meaning they are around 5.5 times more likely to be on these contracts than workers aged 25 and over (2.4%).

    Women are hit harder – one in six (16%) young women in the jobs market are employed on a zero-hours contract.

    And young Black and Brown workers are 12 times more likely to be on a zero-hours contract than white workers aged 35 to 49 (15.9% compared to 1.4%).

    The report highlights that just under half a million young workers (474,000) are employed on a zero-hours contract.

    This means that despite only being around one in nine (11%) of the total workforce, 16 to 24-year-olds make up two in five (40%) of the 1.18 million workers employed on zero-hours contracts.

    Unemployment and low pay

    Workers aged 16 to 24 also face a higher unemployment rate than older workers. This is because people aged 16-24 are twice as likely to have been unemployed for six months to a year (22%) compared to those over 25 (11%).

    Overall, the unemployment rate for under 25s (12.3%) is nearly three times as high as that for all workers (4.2%). One in eight young people (12.3%) are without a job despite actively seeking work and being available to start work.

    And young workers are also paid less. Median hourly pay for 16 to 17-year-olds is £8 per hour and £10.90 for 18 to 21-year-olds, compared to £15.83 for all employees.

    This is partly because the National Living Wage (currently £10.42 per hour) does not kick in until an employee is 23.

    The government has accepted the Low Pay Commission’s recommendations to increase the National Living Wage to £11.44 from April 2024, expand it to 21 and 22-year-olds, lift the rate to £8.60 for 18 to 20-year-olds, and to £6.40 for 16 to 17-year-olds and apprentices.

    These changes follow pressure from unions and low-pay campaigners. The TUC says that this is a positive step – but that the top rate must be made available to all working people, regardless of age.

    Even with these current announcements a 20-year-old doing the same minimum wage job as a 23-year-old will still be earning £2.93 per hour (28%) less.

    Young people: ‘trapped in insecure, low-paid work’

    TUC general secretary Paul Nowak said:

    Every worker should be protected from being sacked for no reason – but three in four young workers can be fired at will by bad bosses. Just imagine working hard in a job for nearly two years – only to be let go with no recourse.

    Too many young workers are trapped in insecure work, on lower pay and without the workplace rights most of us take for granted.

    That’s not right.

    Featured image via drazenphoto – Envato Elements

    By The Canary

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Why is the Speaker of the UK House of Commons on a trip to Israel?

    The Speaker of the UK House of Commons, Lindsay Hoyle, has been on a trip to Israel – apparently to show “unity” with the rogue state over Hamas’s alleged killing of 1,200 Israelis on 7 October 2023. However, on X (formerly Twitter) people have been questioning why the supposedly impartial speaker is showing a clear biased line on international politics. Moreover, some people were downright seething.

    Hoyle: visiting Israel – or doing propaganda for it?

    Hoyle was visiting Israel in late November – the timing of it is so-far unclear. Israel’s far-right ambassador to the UK Tzipi Hotovely shared a video clip of his visit online. Hoyle was at kibbutz Kfar Aza, where Hamas reportedly killed around 50 residents, and took others hostage.

    He said that:

    Unless you witness and come here to see what’s happened, you cannot imagine the atrocity took place.

    The video Hotovely shared was more clumsy Israeli propaganda – not least the using of the colour red across certain caption text to accentuate it and increasing the font size on words like “death”. She also shared photo ops from the trip:

    Meanwhile, the number of Israelis Hamas killed has been disputed. Israel itself claims the figure is 1,200. However, there is growing evidence that some Israelis were killed by the IDF. As the Grayzone wrote:

    reporting by the Israeli paper Haaretz confirmed a viral Grayzone investigation which highlighted disclosures by Israeli helicopter pilots and security officials of friendly fire orders throughout the fateful day.

    One came from a member of the security team for Kibbutz Be’eri, who told Haaretz that “the commanders in the field made difficult decisions – including shelling houses on their occupants in order to eliminate the terrorists along with the hostages.”

    A tank battalion commander recalled receiving the same orders when he arrived on the scene, stating in a video interview, “I arrived in Be’eri to see Brig. Gen. Barak Hiram and the first thing he asks me to do is to fire a shell into a house [where Hamas members were sheltering].”

    The decision to use heavy weapons on the small homes of Be’eri wound up costing many Israeli lives.

    So, firstly Hoyle’s implication that Hamas committed the only atrocity on 7 October is likely incorrect. Then, you have the question of whether Hoyle should even be there in the first place.

    Impartiality out of the Speaker’s window

    As the UK parliament website states:

    role is to act as a neutral referee between the different sides of the House of Commons ensuring that the rules are followed, and order is maintained.

    Speakers must be politically impartial. Therefore, on election the new Speaker, who is a sitting MP, must resign from their political party and remain separate from political issues even in retirement. However, the Speaker will continue to represent a constituency and deal with their constituents’ problems like a normal MP.

    So, it would appear that Hoyle getting involved in the ongoing debate around Israel and Hamas is not remaining “politically impartial” – even if the majority of Israel-supporting, war crimes-enabling MPs in parliament might agree. People were pointing this out on X:

    Others questioned whether or not accepting official Israeli hospitality as a serving Speaker (assuming the Israeli state paid for his visit) was right and proper:

    Some people wondered if Hoyle would be visiting Gaza while he was there:

    That was highly unlikely, given that Hoyle was back in the UK hosting Elton John by late on Wednesday 29 November – and had already done that day’s Prime Minister’s Questions (PMQs):

    Overall, as one person on X summed up:

    This brings Britain’s law-making body into disrepute… The Speaker is, in theory, the neutral presiding officer of the world’s oldest Parliament. Yet here he is endorsing a government that’s defied international law for decades.

    How can he tell people to respect the law now?

    If you needed any clearer indication of Westminster’s disregard for Palestinian people’s lives – and its toxic support for a rogue, genocidal regime – then look no further than Hoyle’s visit to Israel. Sickening – but unsurprising.

    Featured image via Tzipi Hotovely – screengrab

    By Steve Topple

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • TUSC starts to gear up for 2024 elections – and its core policy platform shames Labour

    The Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) has announced the core policies platform that every candidate who wants to stand for the coalition in the May 2024 council elections has to accept as their minimum commitment to voters. In no uncertain terms, these policies shame the Labour Party.

    TUSC: gearing up for elections

    The council elections that will take place on 2 May next year will not be another routine set of polls for seats in the local town hall. They will be the last round of local elections before the general election, which must be called no later than December 2024 – if the contest to decide who will end up in 10 Downing Street is not, as it could be, held on the same day.

    Whenever the general election is actually held, the councillors that are elected in May 2024 will effectively be communities’ negotiators with the new government – for the funding needed to protect, improve, and expand vital local public services.

    But this will be against the backdrop of a funding crisis for councils – and the clear signalling from the Autumn Statement debates that all the establishment parties in parliament will continue the austerity squeeze on public spending.

    That’s why the TUSC says:

    Every vote for a TUSC council candidate, and every additional volunteer prepared to stand as a TUSC candidate, will be the clearest possible counter-signal we can give in the May local elections – whoever ends up in Number Ten, we want fighting councillors in our town halls.

    Spend what’s needed – and hand the bill to the new government

    After an almost 60% cut in central government support for local authorities since 2010, councils are facing an unprecedented funding crisis. Since 2021 five local authorities have issued a ‘section 114 notice’ declaring themselves unable to balance their books – in the previous 20 years only one such notice had been made.

    Estimates vary as to what the overall funding gap for all councils might be – from between £3bn for the 2024-2025 financial year, to £6.9bn including the year beyond. But when even the Tory-led Hampshire County Council said in an official council report in October that “the government must intervene if we and the whole local government sector are to avoid financial meltdown”, it is beyond dispute that local public services face a crisis.

    It is not the case, though, that the money isn’t there. Labour’s 2019 pledge under Jeremy Corbyn to tax share dividends and capital gains at the same rate as the income tax on wages, for example, would have raised an extra £14 to £15bn a year – more than enough to have met the council funding shortfall. But Sir Keir Starmer and the shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves, putting the interests of the rich and big business first, have dropped that policy, like so many other promises.

    That’s why TUSC is issuing a challenge to Labour councillors and candidates in the May council elections. It said:

    Councils still have borrowing powers and reserves which they can use to avoid all cuts in their 2024-2025 budgets and reserves so spent could be replenished and borrowing underwritten by an incoming Starmer-led government.

    But if you are not prepared to demand such a commitment from Starmer and Reeves now, what type of negotiator for our communities would you be if you were to be elected? We need socialists in our town halls, who will always put the interests of the working class first!

    What TUSC candidates will do

    TUSC says it is an inclusive umbrella alliance, not an exclusive one, with its banner available to be used on the ballot paper by every working-class fighter prepared to stand up to the capitalist establishment politicians at election time.

    Every trade unionist, anti-cuts campaigner, community or social movement activist, and socialists from any party or none who want to see an alternative to the establishment politicians, can become a TUSC candidate – free to also campaign, if they wish, for policies beyond our core policy platform below.

    But as a minimum commitment for the May 2024 elections – the TUSC core policy platform for our council candidates – voters should know that any councillor elected under the TUSC banner will:

    • Oppose all cuts and closures to council services, jobs, pay and conditions.
    • Vote for councils to use their reserves and prudential borrowing powers to avoid making cuts in their 2024-2025 budgets and demand from the incoming government additional funding to make up any future shortfall.
    • Refuse to co-operate with any commissioners appointed by the Tories to attempt to impose cuts on local services.
    • Demand that councils as employers refuse to issue ‘work notices’ against strikers under the new anti-union Minimum Service Levels Act.
    • Reject council tax, rent and service charge increases for working-class people to make up for cuts in central funding, support a new redistributive revenue-raising system to finance local council services, and demand central government restores the cuts in funding imposed since 2010.

    Back all workers’ struggles – unlike Labour

    The core policy platform also states candidates must:

    • Oppose the privatisation of council jobs and services, or the transfer of existing council services to social enterprises or ‘arms-length’ management organisations which are the first steps to their privatisation.
    • Use councils’ powers to immediately begin a mass building programme of eco-friendly affordable council homes to tackle the housing crisis.
    • Support democratically debated local Climate Emergency plans that create new employment, reduce emissions and improve air quality and the local environment, while protecting the jobs, pay and conditions of all workers.
    • Fight for united working-class struggle against racism, sexism and all forms of oppression.
    • Back all workers’ struggles against government policies making ordinary people pay for the crisis.

    Show your interest

    The TUSC all-Britain steering committee will start approving candidates from its first 2024 meeting on Wednesday, 10th January. An application form to be a TUSC candidate is available on the website here, and an explanatory TUSC Guide for Election Candidates and Agents can be found on the resources page here.

    And lastly, a list of the 105 councils with elections in May 2024 is also available, in the TUSC directory of elections here.

    Featured image via TUSC

    By The Canary

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Three rogue National Parks are under pressure to stop trail hunting on their land

    On Tuesday 28 November a letter signed by thousands of wildlife and nature lovers has been handed to the associations of national park authorities in England and Wales urging them to protect their vital countryside by stopping trail hunting. However, while many national parks have conceded to pressure three still allow the practice – which is, at best, a smokescreen for actual fox hunting.

    Time for change with trail hunting

    National wildlife charity the League Against Cruel Sports, plus partner members of the Time for Change Coalition Against Hunting, were in London at the headquarters of National Parks England to personally hand the letter over:

    A similar letter has been given to the National Parks of Wales organisation.

    At the beginning of the last hunting season the League published a report outlining the havoc hunts cause for rural communities: the livestock worrying, the trespass onto railways, the marauding of dozens of hounds across busy roads, the domestic animals killed or injured as a result of the hunt. All these activities would not happen if the hounds were truly following pre-laid trails, which is what they claim.

    So, the letter urges all National Parks Authorities to end so-called ‘trail’ hunting on their land, in which hunters with packs of hounds often chase and kill wildlife – a practice that should have been outlawed with the introduction of the Hunting Act 2004.

    It was signed by around 13,000 people in just five months and, as a result, 10 out of 13 National Parks Authorities in England and Wales have committed to ending trail hunting.

    Three rogue National Parks

    However, three – Exmoor, Dartmoor, and the Peak District– still consider trail hunting a legitimate practice. Not only that, but even within the boundaries of the national parks landowners are able to give hunts permission to chase and kill wildlife.

    The League Against Cruel Sports is asking people to email Exmoor, Dartmoor, and Peak District park authorities to urge them to ban trail hunting. You can do that here.

    Dan Norris, Chairman of the League Against Cruel Sports, said:

    We are grateful to those national Parks Authorities who have committed to protecting the land and wildlife in their care and who say trail hunting, which is so often a smokescreen for old fashioned illegal hunting, has no place in these precious rural areas.

    But there is more to be done. Our message to Exmoor, Dartmoor, the Peak District and to all the landowners who allow trail hunting on their land within the national parks of England and Wales, is clear: it’s time for change. Time to recognise that hunting hurts the countryside, it hurts the wildlife, and it hurts rural life. It’s time to stop hunting for good and to end trail hunting.

    In summer 2023 Chief Superintendent Matt Longman – National Police Chiefs’ Council Lead on Fox Hunting Crime – attended the launch of the Time for Change Coalition Against Hunting as its keynote speaker. There, he described trail hunting as “a smokescreen for continuing illegal hunting” and suggested the Hunting Act was not fit for purpose.

    A ban filled with loopholes

    One of the coalition members, Dominic Dyer from Born Free, said:

    It is part of the National Parks’ vision to see wildlife flourishing, and this can hardly be the case if that same wildlife is hunted. That’s why today we’re asking that hunts are not allowed within the boundaries of all national parks in England and Wales.

    However, as the Canary previously wrote there is still a long way to go:

    with a hunting ban full of loopholes and exemptions that are ripe for abuse, true justice won’t be served until national authorities strengthen the ban. Scotland has recently passed a new law that goes a long way towards fixing the flaws in the current legislation. Regardless of the presence of many hunt-loving politicians in the UK parliament, Westminster has no legitimate excuse for not following suit.

    Featured image via the League Against Cruel Sports

    By Steve Topple

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • ‘HSBC 9’ activists see support from across public life – and calls for the bank to be held accountable

    Public figures from across the arts, climate science, the economy, faith, and more have signed an open letter in support of nine Extinction Rebellion activists who were acquitted last week for breaking windows at HSBC’s HQ in Canary Wharf in 2021. The signatories are calling for the bank to be held accountable for their enormous fossil fuel investments: over £80bn pounds in the five years after the Paris Climate Agreement was signed.

    HSBC: party to a “collective act of madness”

    The signatories include:

    • Actors Emma Thompson, Stephen Fry, Juliet Stevenson, Steven McBurney, and Sir Mark Rylance.
    • Former Archbishop of Canterbury Dr. Rowan Williams.
    • Granddaughter of Suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst Helen Pankhurst.
    • Former Chief Scientific Advisor to the UK Government Sir David King.
    • Academy award winning film directors Adam MaKay and Andrea Arnold.
    • Comedians Nish Kumar, Stewart Lee, Frankie Boyle, and Rosie Holt.
    • Climate scientists professor James Hansen and Wolfgang Knorr.
    • Authors Ben Okri, Kim Stanley Robinson, and Monique Roffey.
    • Musicians and artists Thom Yorke, Es Devlin, Peter Gabriel, Brian Eno, and Love Ssega.
    • Fashion designer Bella Freud.
    • Co-founder of Kickstarter Yancey Strickler.
    • Economists Yanis Varoufakis, Kate Raworth, and Ann Pettifor.
    • Former CEO of Greenpeace International and Secretary General of Amnesty International Kumi Naidoo.

    The letter reads:

    While we applaud the jury for recognising these women’s solid defence for taking such action and following their conscience, a collective act of madness is going unchecked both in the UK and across the globe. Those standing up in defence of life on Earth are being criminalised by the UK legal system, while our own government willingly continues to facilitate the destruction of our only home.

    The world stands ablaze in front of us and still global powers choose to risk the death and displacement of billions in pursuit of uncurbed fossil fuel expansion. Yet, the world is in the ultimate crisis of accountability. As the case of these women shows, it is not illegal for banks such as HSBC to profit from destroying life on Earth. With billions invested in fossil fuels in the five years since the Paris Climate Agreement, we can’t help but wonder how many deaths these billions will have caused already? Why do such heinous crimes continue to go unpunished?

    The UK justice system: rotten to the core

    The three week trial concluded last Thursday when a jury of twelve concluded that the nine defendants were found unanimously not guilty after only two hours of deliberation. The legal defences of ‘necessity’, ‘protection of property’, and ‘belief in consent’ were all initially allowed by Judge Bartle, remaining in play until after the defence case had concluded and the women had given their evidence. The judge later ruled out all but ‘belief in consent’.

    During the course of the trial, the women wore clothes given to them by celebrated British fashion designer Stella McCartney CBE, who designed the clothing for Team GB in the London 2012 Olympics – lending them shirts, blazers, and suits to wear during the trial.

    The letter references climate protestors, Morgan Trowland and Marcus Dekker, currently serving the highest sentences seen in this country for nonviolent protest in modern times.

    On Tuesday 21 November, a letter was made public from the UN to the UK government criticising the ‘severe’ sentences and warned that the new Public Order Act which came into force in July was inconsistent with international human rights law and is therefore undermining the civil society response to the climate crisis we desperately need, calling it a “direct attack on the right to the freedom of peaceful assembly”.

    In a tweet responding to the UN letter, prime minister Rishi Sunak undermined the intervention letter by claiming that the government is on the side of working people. He said:

    It’s entirely right that selfish protestors intent on causing misery to the hard-working majority face tough sentences. It’s what the public expects and it’s what we’ve delivered.

    However, evidence shows that these extreme policy shifts are not being driven by ordinary people, but by shadowy lobbying groups such as Policy Exchange, and that when climate protestors are faced with the general public at jury trials such as the HSBC 9 trial, they are frequently being found not guilty.

    ‘We must urgently intervene’

    One of the defendants, Eleanor (Gully) Bujak, 30, said in her closing arguments:

    HSBC makes choices every day and they have the power to change those at any time, but first they need to know what’s happening. And so do we. Only then can we find the courage to do something about it.

    You have heard that governments are doing nothing about this crisis and nothing to hold the banks accountable, and I told you in my evidence that we as ordinary citizens cannot afford to simply leave these businesses and institutions to their own devices – we must intervene, urgently, however we feel we can.

    Because the truth is, it is not just this tiny handful of people who have any power to change things! They are not the only ones who can shape this world, or determine our future. There are moments in all our lives, when we find ourselves somewhere unexpected, when we have the opportunity to choose to do something extraordinary. And extraordinary things happen in court rooms.

    The letter concludes:

    Women throughout history have always gathered to resist in the name of life and love. Now, as money and power steer us on a path towards total climate and ecological collapse, protests like this are a rational response to the greatest crime humanity has ever faced. These women believed, as we do, that they are duty bound to resist a violent system that is risking the survival of everything we know and love.

    It is now incumbent upon all good people of conscience to rise up as these women have, to pull together and find our collective power. We must all take the most effective action we can, find our courage and work in firm opposition to the dereliction of our only home.

    We support all courageous and loving people who stand and fight for justice and the continuation of life on Earth. We will do everything we can to support them, and to play our part in building a new world where life is sacred.

    Please donate to the HSBC 9 legal fund here.

    Read the full letter here.

    Featured image via Extinction Rebellion

    By The Canary

    This post was originally published on Canary.