The latest New Internationalist podcast…
In this episode I chat to Chris Brazier, New Internationalist’s longest serving co-editor (he’s been at the mag since 1984!) about 40 years of New Internationalist and the progress (and lack of) the world has made in that time. Is the idea of ‘development’ well and truly dead?
Listen to the podcast here at the New Internationalist website and find out more about the latest magazine, ‘What has development done for me?‘
January’s New Internationalist podcast looks at how the super rich are gaining from the economic crisis while the poor get the blame…
My latest New Int podcast features co-editor Vanessa Baird, and author and columnist Owen Jones discussing with me their ideas for turning the tables on the super rich and putting a stop to the demonization of the poor.
As the wealth gap grows, despite the economic crisis, January/February’s double magazine explores how the ‘feral rich’ get away with it and what can be done to stop them.
Listen to the podcast and find out more about the magazine at the New Internationalist website.
My recent articles on or in New Internationalist…
I’ve had a couple of interviews published in the magazine recently, including a Q&A with Man Booker Prize nominee Jeet Thayil, for November (online here), and an interview with the amazing feminist activist Khanum Lateef from the the Kurdistan region of Iraq, published in December’s issue.
On 21 November I went to London for the NUS demo and wrote a couple of blog posts – before and after.
For December’s podcast I spoke to NI’s Hazel Healy and Charlie Harvey. We had an interesting discussion about digital freedoms and non-freedoms, privacy, the practicals of free software and why tech is so dominated by men.
For anyone interested in the free software movement check out this month’s massive web hit, Hazel Healy’s interview with Richard Stallman.
October was a busy month at newint.org – here’s some of the content I’ve written or produced…
‘The power of we – My post for Blog Action Day 2012: why I think collective action and internationalism are as important as ever.
Natasha Makengo from Save the Congo and Shukri Sultan from Hands Off Somalia – As part of our blog series celebrating young activists I interviewed Natasha and Shukri about how they got involved in campaigning and what inspires them to keep going.
November’s podcast features Professor John Kirk on Cuba’s revolutionary healthcare system. I asked him about Cuba’s foreign medical missions, how they run universal free healthcare at home and spoke to him about some of the criticisms.
And lastly, I wrote a post about my friend Shrouk’s family who had fled Egypt five years ago because of their abusive father with prominent state connections. They had been taken from their home in the early hours of the morning and were eventually sent back to Eqypt despite a massive campaign to keep them in Wales. The campaign to Save the Saleh Family continues – find out more at the Facebook page.
My latest offerings from the New Internationalist website…
Podcast: Jody McIntyre on youth activism – As part of the lead up to October’s youth issue I made a podcast featuring an interview with guest-editor Jody McIntyre.
‘We were wrong to think the environment could wait’ – Interview with Lidy Nacpil, the inspiring Filipino economic and climate justice campaigner who started out as a student activist against the Marcos regime.
The dos and don’ts of cross border feminism – Last weekend I went to UK Feminista’s Summer School for a day and caught this session on building global solidarity.
Right, I’m off for a little holiday to Gent, Belgium now. Looking forward to catching up on some reading on the bus journey – am finally going to get through Paul Mason’s Why It’s Kicking Off Everywhere – better late than never!
Finally posting about the podcasts I’ve started making at New Internationalist.
The first one, for the September issue of New Internationalist, is on the legalization of drugs. In it I speak to Vanessa Baird, NI co-editor about why she thinks the war on drugs isn’t working.
You can listen to the podcast here. Read more about September’s New Internationalist here.
Today I spoke to Jody McIntyre for October’s episode on youth activism. Here’s a video taster for October’s issue – Youth rising: why apathy is not an option.
This article first appeared on the New Internationalist website.
As the end of the London Paralympic Games draws closer, the legacy of the event for the disabled community is on the agenda. Will the inspiration and excitement have a lasting positive outcome for people with disabilities in Britain?
Many campaigners are unconvinced. They are also angry at the Games’ sponsorship by Atos. The company is deeply unpopular for its Work Capability Assessments (WCAs), which help the Department for Work and Pensions decide who receives health and disability related benefits and who is ‘fit for work.’
The tests have come in for a huge amount of criticism for being inaccurate and unfair as the government tries to cut the cost of the welfare bill, leaving many without the support they depend on.
When Atos’ sponsorship of the Paralympics was announced, it caused an outcry. Many found it offensive that the organization was going to be so closely associated with an event celebrating the best of disabled sport.
Last week saw the climax to a week of action by activists intent on ramming home the message that the French company don’t #giveatoss about disabled people. On Friday 31 August Disabled People Against the Cuts (DPAC) and UK Uncut teamed up outside Atos’ UK headquarters for a ‘Closing Atos Ceremony’.
Protesters also blockaded and occupied the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). As police broke up the demonstration outside, DPAC reported one arrest, several injuries to protesters and damage to one woman’s wheelchair.
In a poignant twist, Friday’s protest also coincided with the death from cancer of 51-year-old Cecilia Burns from Northern Ireland – just six months after DWP found her ‘fit to work’ following an Atos assessment.
Earlier in the week DPAC staged a vigil outside Atos, delivering a coffin to remember others who had died, including people who committed suicide after receiving their assessment results.
Elsewhere, actions included a mass ‘die-in’ in Cardiff’s city centre, which blocked a major road, as well as a blockade in Manchester outside an Atos office.
Paralympians themselves have voiced their concern about Atos. Former swimmer and seven-time medal winner Tara Flood played a role in the ‘Atos Games’ as part of a spoof ceremony where she had a medal awarded then taken away after an Atos assessment.
During the opening ceremony of the Paralympics it was thought Team GB were hiding their Atos-branded lanyards in an act of protest. However, team officials later denied this.
The Paralympics and whether they benefit the struggles of disabled people has become a thorny issue. Activists have been accused of drawing attention away from the games and the achievements of the athletes…
Read the rest of this blog here at the New Internationalist website.
This weekend a law criminalising squatting in residential buildings in England and Wales came into force, leaving up to 20,000 people facing eviction, fines or imprisonment.
Similarly to protesters, squatters are a often stereotyped and misrepresented in some of of mainstream press as freeloaders, anti-social, a nuisance to the community. Unlike any squatter I have ever met.
Sure, just because I haven’t met squatters fitting that description it doesn’t mean they don’t exist. Squatters are like any group of people, not a homogenised mass. They make use of empty buildings, making them home and sometimes a community space as well.
Squatters utilise all sorts of buildings but these laws only apply to residential ones. It is estimated there are 350,000 long term empty homes in the UK, 279,000 in England. These are the buildings people would have been able to squat.
As the squatting law has been discussed in the press over the last few days the same old inaccurate moans have come out, as well as some great reporting. Here are some of the squatting myths that get to me the most:
Sure, squatters are not paying rent or a mortgage but they are subject to the same tax laws as everyone else, including council tax. While some may not pay, that makes them no different to non-squatters.
Often buildings are empty because they are not of good enough standard to rent. If people decide to squat them this often means connecting up energy supplies and fixing things round the house, things which often cost money and a lot of time.
Buildings must be empty for people to squat them. They must not break in or cause criminal damage. They can not squat people’s homes. There were already laws in place to deal with all of those things.
Even if they’ve entered through an open window and caused no damage to a building that has been empty for years they can still be evicted. What was known as ‘squatters rights’ didn’t mean squatters could just take any building they want.
It’s the age old criticism thrown at anyone vaguely ‘alternative.’ While the rest of us are working hard, paying our way how come these people have the time, and cheek to protest/occupy/squat/actively try and change or do anything positive?
Many squatters have jobs, many don’t (seemingly the yardstick of ‘laziness’ used by people in these arguments). Living in a squat is itself almost a full time job and most keep residents there 24/7.
A lazy squat just wouldn’t work.
For more information on the law and squatting in general go to the Advisory Service for Squatters.
The law is being challenged in court by Irene Gardiner in Wales, find out more here.
This article first appeared on the New Internationalist website on 10 August 2012.
Photo thanks to markhillary.
Fairtrade is typically seen as something done by the West for the ‘developing world’, but a recent crisis in British dairy farming has raised the question of whether a similar concept should apply closer to home.
Since July, a campaign has been gathering pace, led by a coalition of farming organizations including the NFU and the grassroots Farmers for Action (FFA), for a fairer price for milk.
The main message, aimed at milk processors and retailers, is: pay farmers more for each litre of milk they produce. From 1 August 2012, the main companies supplying British retailers were preparing to reduce the price received by farmers to below the cost of production, which is about 30 pence ($ 0.47) per litre.
On 11 July 2012 over 2,000 farmers protested in London. Other actions have included women bathing in milk in town centres and blockades of processing plants in Leeds, Shropshire and Leicestershire.
Public reaction has been largely positive and the #SOS Dairy hashtag has been a common sight on Twitter. A poll last month by YouGov and The Grocer magazine found that an impressive 83 per cent of the public were aware of the farmers’ protests, with 67 per cent thinking they should be paid more, even if it means milk becomes more expensive to buy.
But British framers have been here before. In 2010 there was a similar crisis after the collapse of the Dairy Farmers of Britain co-operative in 2009, and the loss of more than 1,000 jobs. A campaign was started by the newspaper Farmers Guardian calling for Fairtrade for British Dairy Farmers with a 50,000 strong supporting petition.
Lucy Dunne from the World Development Movement (WDM) pointed out in a recent blog: ‘What is interesting in this debate is that supermarkets agreeing to at least meet the cost of production is hailed as a “victory” for farmers.’ She calls for the current dairy campaign to feed into a bigger and more sustainable, global movement.
The Fairtrade Foundation questions whether their mark or something similar is the answer for British farmers. On their website they recognize the obstacles British farmers are facing, but say farmers in developing countries are likely to have less infrastructural support, social security or other ‘safety nets’ available.
Amy Horton, food justice campaigner at WDM says there is a growing movement that supports Fairtrade, as well as food sovereignty. She uses the example of the Cumbria Fairtrade Networkwhich has been promoting ways to align the principles of Fairtrade with supporting local food producers and local markets.
‘Fairtrade has played an important role in strengthening the movement for trade justice,’ says Horton. But she argues that it doesn’t change the structural and political problems in an unjust food system, and will not bring ‘the more radical overhaul of the food system demanded by the movement for food sovereignty’…
Read the rest at the New Internationalist website.
This article first appeared on the New Internationalist website on 31 July 2012.
A cockroach, a tapeworm, herpes, a blood-sucking leech – just some of the terms used to describe Atos Healthcare by people who have come into contact with the company..
Assessments for disability and health related state benefits, conducted by Atos, have been hugely controversial. The company is paid by the British government’s Department for Work and Pensions to help decide who can work and who can’t, who keeps receiving money and who doesn’t. Not only are their results often found to be inaccurate, but the process can be lengthy and debilitating.
In September 2011, the Atos Stories collective started advertising online for people’s experiences of Work Capability Assessments with the aim of making them into plays. Judith Cole [a pseudonym] decided to set up the project after reading horror stories in the press. ‘I think I first saw the story that probably went around on Twitter about a poor guy who’d died of a heart attack after an Atos assessment,’ she says.
Adam Lotun, 49, is one of the people who got in touch with his experience. He says he has had two assessments by Atos, one where he was considered able to work, and one where he wasn’t.
However, he feels neither was in-depth enough to determine the true impact of his multiple health issues which include mental health problems, learning disabilities, needing a wheelchair for mobility, and a machine to help him breathe at night. ‘If I was a horse they would put me down,’ he says.
By May 2012 the small collective had three play scripts ready: Atos Stories, a drama with music, The Atos Monologues and Atos Street Theatre, all available via their website for people to put on in their communities.
Campaigners can use the plays to raise awareness about Atos and the issues faced by people with disabilities. Interest has been building, including from activists angry at Atos’s sponsorship of the Paralympics.
Kerry-Anne Mendoza is a 30-year-old campaigner from Our Olympics. ‘There’s still a shocking amount of public ignorance about the stuff that’s happened with Atos and what the actual impacts are on the disabled community,’ she says.
Act Up, a community theatre company based in Newham, London is putting on a performance of Atos Stories. The group is made up of both people with disabilities and people without. ‘We are now trying to adapt it and make it accessible for our group,’ says Yvonne Brouwers their chair…
Read the rest at New Internationalist.
Amy Hall 