War against polio or polio workers?
The Tehreeq e Taliban Pakistan (TTP) launched an effective and violent campaign against polio vaccination during their occupation of Swat. Apologists insist that this violence be viewed in the context...
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Local resistance to global austerity: it will never work
The localist form of citizenship may empower us, but it cannot confront capitalism. Against a global network of power must emerge globalised forms of struggle. Quebec students protest against tuition...
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Let them eat cupcakes
Dan Hancox opens his new column saying good riddance to Britain’s 2012, as the country, caught in the grip of a return to Victorian levels of wealth inequality, exacts its revenge on time.Britain’s...
View ArticleAl-Qaida, idea in motion
The United States's "remote control" campaign against Islamist targets is intensifying. But behind the headlines, the transnational diffusion of al-Qaida's idea is just as potent. The momentum in the...
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Best of the blogs 2012
Our guide to the best of the Arabic blogosphere in 2012.Rita from SyriaFirst and foremost, one of our own bloggers - Rita from Syria - deserves recognition for the quality and courage in her work....
View ArticleSyria - a bleak year ahead
Over 60,000 people have been killed in Syria. What prospects face the beleaguered country in 2013?An extensive 5-month report commissioned by the UN revealed this week that the generally accepted death...
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Grief and rage in India: making violence against women history?
There is uproar in India at the brutal gang rape of a 23 year old student on her way home from the cinema. Can we harness the international attention to this case to demand that the world's leaders...
View ArticleThe US must explain its postponement of a crucial NPT conference
Precious time has been lost in working for a stable regime in the Middle East that rids the region of all weapons of mass destruction and their delivery systems.On November 23, 2012 the US announced...
View ArticleYou don’t have to be a Tory to be a traditionalist in education
A rigorous and traditional approach to education would do more for social justice than has been achieved in four decades of 'progressive', child-centred schooling.Critics of the current education...
View ArticleGeneration Rent: stop blogging, start acting
When everyone wants to be the 'voice of the lost generation', who will do the finding?Last week I started reading an article and made it through three lines before reaching the words ‘unpaid...
View ArticleColumnism, complicity and crisis
Comment by ‘radical’ young writers is cheap fodder for a media sector with no sustainable funding model that is turning its back on investigation and reflection.The crisis is real, and it’s here to...
View ArticleAudio: New media and the British commentariat
The British media is exceptional in its status as part of the political class. But with the newsroom becoming defunct as a site of cultural production, and models of journalistic authority breaking...
View ArticleSyria's regime and a populist left
Syria under the rule of Hafez al-Assad acquired the image of a bastion of intransigent anti-imperialism that made it attractive to a section of the western left. The process reflected changes in...
View ArticleIf the god Janus were an economist, he would work for the IMF
The IMF may be quietly ackowledging the failures of stringent fiscal consolidation but much damage has already been done. With over a thousand economists and a wealth of evidence at their disposal a...
View ArticleDjango in chains: American racism and the bootstrapping myth
The ideology of Tarantino’s new film resists the necessary dismantling of white supremacy - the system of structural racism that privileges white people over others, regardless of the presence or...
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Russia’s Oprichnik economy
Owning a business in Russia today is a hazardous affair: each year thousands of companies close after their owners are accused of ‘economic crimes’ and face either prison or protection payments to...
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Czech nuclear power in the shadow of geopolitics
The upgrade of Temelin, a nuclear power station, has become the backdrop of a power struggle between the Unites States and Russia. Worryingly, a discussion on Czech energy policy is being silenced by...
View ArticleMoving the MDG debate on
A failure to reconcile a concern for human development with genuine economic development will make the High Level Panel’s already difficult task much harder. Last November David Cameron hosted the...
View ArticlePrivatising probation: ‘less crime, fewer victims, safer communities.’ Oh,...
The UK government packaged its privatisation of probation services in England and Wales today as 'the most significant reforms to tackling re-offending and managing offenders in the community for a...
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At the root of rape is language
The myth of Callisto is just one amongst the countless stories, fables and anecdotes of ‘ravished maidens’, a trope so recurrent and all-pervasive in literature, that it can be said for certainty to be...
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