When seeking a new Vice-Chair for the BBC Trust, would you seek out a distinguished journalist? Or the Chairman of Europe's biggest arms company, one with a murky past of corruption and supplying deadly weapons to despotic governments? For the British oligarchy, writes Harry Blain, the answer is obvious.
The BBC's silent scandal - the arms magnate at the top Harry Blain | 8th April 2015 Comment Media Politics UK Corporations War bae-hawks-cut.jpg When seeking a new Vice-Chair for the BBC Trust, would …
Environmental campaigner and former politician Donnachadh McCarthy on the power of political lobbyists and the damage they do to democracy.
… The increasing corporate domination of our education system is undermining the crucial freedom of thought required for the education of our future democratic citizens. …
This May the Greens are hoping to win their first seats in the Welsh Assembly, and become a strong force for social and ecological progress, writes Alice Hooker-Stroud, newly elected leader of the Wales Green Party. At the heart of the vision: sustainable, prosperous, empowered communities.
… communities are dependent are closing. Higher education funding in Wales - that's university … a many 'devolved matters' including health, education, housing, highways, agriculture, …
If we are to survive long into this century and beyond, our society will have to learn to re-indigenize (or rewild) itself - both its people and its environment, writes WILLIAM HAWES
… useless waste will be forced to shut down. Education will be reoriented to focus on the …
As thousands rely on food banks to make it through the winter and a milk price crash threatens the survival of Britain's independent dairy farmers, Colin Tudge - co-founder of this week's Oxford Real Farming Conference - examines the growing need for an agrarian renaissance to tackle the increasingly obvious failings of neoliberal agriculture.
… ignorance which must be corrected by public education. In truth, today's industrial … uses its power to devise a system of education that teaches the virtues of the …
Next April the UK government proposes to increase taxes on self-consumed solar electricity installations on schools, offices, warehouses and factories by a whopping 6-8 times, write the STA and undersigned. This inexplicable move, which threatens a once thriving solar industry already on its knees, must be abandoned.
… Solar Energy Renewables Politics UK Finance Education school-solar-cut.jpg Next April the …
Celebrities have a unique ability to engage people in environmental campaigns, writes Pat Thomas. Neil Young is a case in point: his latest album, The Monsanto Years, conveys an eloquent message of the dangers of GMOs and corporate power, and his upcoming European tour offers green campaigners a unique opportunity to engage a broader public in the fight for a green future.
… found that many believe that health care, education and poverty are all more pressing - …
Fresh from his surprise election victory, David Cameron is facing calls to expedite a 'free vote' in Parliament to repeal the law that forbids hunting with dogs, writes Chris Pitt. We must make sure our MPs vote to protect wild animals from the horrendous cruelty that resumed hunting would inflict on them.
… by the government (the economy, unemployment, education, that kind of thing), those wishing …
New proposals on land reform in Scotland are a mixed bag, writes Craig Bayne: some good, some bad, and some downright ugly. Leading that last category is the failure to tackle offshore land ownership in tax haven shell companies, and force disclosure of the real landowners.
Scottish land reform - don't forget the tax havens! Craig Bayne | 18th September 2015 Comment UK Scotland Land Grabs Law Politics bruce-fummey-cut.jpg New proposals on land reform in Scotland are a …
Liberal environmentalism represents a dangerous delusion, writes Scott Parkin - that 'playing nice' with Earth-destroying corporations and politicians can yield results worth having. Radical change on climate will only result from bold, confrontational direct actions against the fossil fuel industries and their apologists.
The liberal climate agenda is doomed to failure Scott Parkin | 29th August 2014 Comment Climate Change Fossil Fuels Politics USA utah-tar-sands-cut.jpg Liberal environmentalism represents a dangerous …
The quiet desperation of declining towns and cities across America's West is understandable, writes George Wuerthner. Of course people dream of the 'good old days' when there were wild prairies to be grazed, forests to be felled and oil wells to be sunk - and try to bring them back. But in so doing they neglect and abuse their real and enduring wealth: nature, landscape and wildlife.
… are older, white, with a high school education or less. These people have suffered …
Turkey's Gezi Park protestors are finding common cause with Kurdish communities, writes Rosa Wild. Both are suffering from Erdogan's annihilation of land, forests, parks and cities in pursuit of economic growth. A new eco-democratic resistance is taking root.
… names, but most importantly, Kurdish-language education was legalised - in private schools only. The right to mother-tongue education has been a central demand of the …
There's a plan afoot in Yemen, writes Martha Mundy, but no one is telling you about it. It's a plan so big that a country of 20 million people has to be starved and bombed into total submission, yet the world is indifferent. Yes, its oil. Lots of oil, and gas too, and lakes of fossil water, all lurking beneath the desert sands of the Arabian peninsula. How do we know? Because they told us.
… has been bombing of civilian, historical, educational, religious and medical targets, …
If there's one good thing about Trump, it's that he has put an end to the TPP and TTIP trade deals, right? Don't celebrate yet, writes Pete Dolack. There's another 'trade deal' waiting in the wings, TISA, and negotiators have been busy expanding its remit to include huge parts of TPP and TTIP, while giving free rein to the global behemoths of internet and finance to expand their monopolies.
… services, manufacturing services, adult education services, payroll services, … years of cross-border organizing and popular education to stop the TPP, and this effort …
Donnachadh McCarthy, former deputy chair of the Lib-Dems, speaks to The Ecologist about the collapse of British democracy and his hopes for reform.
… as "independent". The prostitution of our education system means the potential … estate cannot be for profit; academia must be educationally free from corporations; and the …
Despite the best efforts of the GM industry and Government, no GM trials are to take place in the UK in 2014. Could this spell the beginning of the end for genetically modified crops in the country?
… proposes using public money to force pro-GM 'education' onto the curriculum." Last June a ' …
All but one of the candidates in next week's Copeland by-election are backing a massive new nuclear power station in the constituency that would cost us tens of billions of pounds. Only the Green Party's Jack Lenox is resisting the spin, hypocrisy and outright lies that his rivals have swallowed whole. Here he explains why this risky, unaffordable white elephant must be scrapped.
… for the project amid savage cuts to the NHS, education and social care? The argument for … they live. For those who have exposure to education in programming, there are … facing Copeland like poverty, improving education, and sorting out infrastructure and …
One hundred years ago this August, guns rang out as a Europe made unstable by hatred, nationalism and a complex web of treaties went to war. Now the entire world appears poised for conflagration, writes Guy Horton. But where are the leaders to pull us from the brink?
… hatred knows no class, racial, religious, or educational boundaries. The age of racial, …
To achieve true sustainability, ecological movements across Europe must push for independence from an EU ideologically locked into a neoliberal 'free trade' agenda wedded to endless economic growth, writes David Acunzo.
… political will and great strides in popular education. We cannot be sure that leaving the …
Detroit is shutting off water to 40% of residents to prepare the water system for a corporate buyout, writes Justin Wedes. Residents are organizing to resist the water shuttoffs, anti-democratic rule and the demands of Wall Street - but they need our help!
… Occupy Wall Street , Justin continues his education activism with the Grassroots Education Movement, Class Size Matters . …
Cuba is a global exemplar of organic, agroecological farming, taking place on broad swathes of land in and around its cities, write Julia Wright & Emily Morris. These farms cover 14% of the country's agricultural land, employ 350,000 people, and produce half the country's fruit and vegetables. But can they survive exposure to US agribusiness?
… providing extension services supplying education, seeds and other resources, and …
A radical new Seed Law drafted by Venezuelan people, farmers and NGOs was signed into law in the closing days of 2015, write William Camacaro, Frederick B. Mills & Christina M. Schiavoni. Striking back against the corporate takeover of seeds and peddling of GMOs, the Seed Law bans transgenic seeds, protects the country's germplasm, and establishes the legal foundation for a participatory, agroecological food and farming system.
… 2013, the VFTC stepped up its organizing and education efforts. These efforts included, as …
Greens are united in opposing neoliberal 'austerity', write Rupert Read & Sandy Irvine. But there's another kind of austerity to which we are committed - that of living within ecological limits. But base the transition on social, economic and environmental justice, and there will be nothing austere about it. The future we're working for is one of sustainable, life-enhancing abundance.
… others, with much more centralisation, as in education. The state is highly pro-active in … interest payments are higher than spending on education, for example. George Osborne …