Labour prospects in May elections may be irrevocably damaged by Birmingham Council’s costly refusal to settle the year-long dispute, warns STEVE WRIGHT
The great unravelling: the portal — another world is possible
In part 4 of a series looking at ecology and economics in the era of rapidly accelerating global crises, ALAN SIMPSON reflects on what the future holds
Melting ice caps
[Gerald Simmons/Creative Commons]
HENRY FOWLER and ROB POOLE explain the significance of today’s Megapicket
One hundred years after 1.7m workers shut the country down in defence of the miners, the struggles that sparked the 1926 General Strike are still with us – and will be honoured on London’s May Day march this year, writes MARY ADOSSIDES
The Labour Growth Group and its think tank partner, the Good Growth Foundation, have taken funding from major lobbying firms linked to housebuilders, banks and Heathrow – raising questions about corporate influence at the heart of Starmer’s pro-growth project. SOLOMON HUGHES reports
The fatal shooting of Alex Pretti, a registered nurse and union member, has sparked nationwide protests and renewed calls from National Nurses United to dismantle Ice and related agencies, says MARK GRUENBERG
A Vatican photo-op, a hard-right donor and a rhetoric of mass deportations reveal how appeals to ‘Christian values’ are being reshaped by Reform and Tory MPs, says SOLOMON HUGHES
“A sense of cosmic specialness is no guarantee of good stewardship.”
— David Wallace-Wells
“Historically, pandemics have forced humans to break with the past and imagine their world anew. This one is no different. It is a portal, a gateway between one world and the next.
We can choose to walk through it, dragging the carcasses of our prejudice and hatred, our avarice, our data banks and dead ideas, our dead rivers and smoky skies behind us. Or we can walk through lightly, with little luggage, ready to imagine another world. And ready to fight for it.”
— Arundhati Roy
THE ink had barely dried on Arundhati Roy’s visionary invitation when “old economics,” crude lobbying and legitimate fear closed ranks on it.
None make the coming choices less urgent. They just clarify how much “luggage” we must leave behind. “Not normal” is the new normal.
Economics, as we know it, has imploded. No amount of ventilators will restore its former health. No amount of credit thrown out by central banks will avert its demise. And yet, beneath a welter of social measures, governments still bail out the owners of capital, in markets that are dead or dying.
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