Britain’s Low-Pay Scandal
More than a million low-paid workers have regularly skipped meals during this pandemic, while thousands more miss heating and bills. There’s only one solution to Britain’s endemic poverty pay – a real living wage.
3626 Articles by:
Billy Anania
Billy Anania is an art critic, editor, and journalist in New York City.
Shipping Containers Are Not Housing
Manchester’s developers and charities are proposing to house the homeless in shipping containers. The move is part of a trend of inhumanity disguised as stylish efficiency.
We Need a New Deal for Childcare
Before Covid-19, childcare was overpriced for families and underpaid for workers. With the pandemic forcing many providers to close, the sector needs a radical overhaul – to ensure quality care and decent conditions.
It’s Time to Outlaw Fire and Rehire
Across Britain, bosses are exploiting the pandemic to attack working conditions – with almost 1 in 10 workers asked to reapply for their jobs on worse terms. It is a national scandal and the government must act.
A Love Letter to Live Music
In the last year, the survival of the live music industry has been thrown into doubt. But gigs are worth fighting for — both as a livelihood for musicians, and as a collective creative experience.
The Fight for Myanmar’s Future
Myanmar’s coup has prompted a mass protest movement, but many involved understand the fight isn’t just Aung Sang Suu Kyi versus the military – it’s about building a real democracy.
24. The War on Disabled People: An Interview with Ellen Clifford
In this week’s episode, Grace is joined by activist and author Ellen Clifford to discuss the impact of successive governments’ human rights violations, a decade of austerity, and the pandemic on the lives of disabled people in Britain.
The Government Abandoned Disabled People Long Before Covid
A huge proportion of the UK’s Covid deaths have been disabled people — but devastating cuts to health services and local government funds put the community at risk years before the virus hit.
The Last Battle for Barnoldswick
This year’s successful Rolls Royce strike brought Barnoldswick back to the headlines – but in the mid-1980s it was the site of one of the longest strikes in British history.
The Art of Everyday Life
Critic and philosopher Herbert Read was a contradictory figure – an anarchist and a knight, a lover of medieval art and industrial design – but at the centre of his work was the belief that we can all be artists.
For Labour, the Scottish Leadership Election is Make-or-Break
Ballots open today for the Scottish leadership election. Anas Sarwar represents the failures of the Labour establishment — while Monica Lennon offers a roadmap to a democratic socialist future.
Labour Can’t Back Away from the Green New Deal
As the climate crisis worsens, Labour must be at the forefront of the fight for a radical Green New Deal – one that meets the challenge of our time by transitioning from carbon while empowering workers.
How Britain’s Scandalously Low Sick Pay Kills
Britain has one of the worst rates of sick pay in Europe at just £95.85 per week. It leaves workers with a stark choice – go in sick during a pandemic, or stay home and face poverty.
Legalising Torture
The Overseas Operations Bill effectively decriminalises torture abroad. It’s been labelled a political reaction to a series of legal claims – but its real motivation is thoroughly ideological.
Our Economy Shouldn’t Be Based on Glorified Gambling
The GameStop short squeeze raised questions about Wall Street reform – but the conversation it should have started was whether stock market speculation should direct investment in our economy at all.
Starmer’s War on Grassroots Politics
For Keir Starmer, scrapping the Community Organising Unit and attacking party democracy are part of a single project: to turn Labour back into a party of the establishment.
‘Fire and Rehire’ Hits Manchester’s Buses
In north Manchester, nearly 500 Go North West bus drivers are balloting for strike action over ‘fire and rehire’ proposals which would force them to accept longer hours and pay cuts – or face the sack.
At Home in the Welfare State
Sweden’s welfare state imagined a ‘Folkhemmet,’ or People’s Home, which is now being dismantled – but individual stories help us to remember what social democracy meant to the generation that built it.
Childcare Is a Workers’ Right
In the middle of a pandemic, Royal Mail are threatening to close a nursery that cares mainly for the children of postal workers – making them choose between a £1,000-per-month hike in costs or unemployment.
Scotland’s Red Council
North Ayrshire’s council is undertaking a bold experiment in municipal socialism – pursuing transformative policies on housing, the environment and workers’ rights which point the way towards a different kind of local government.