The #GreenSurge - which has seen the Green Party's membership quadruple in a year - has happened for good reasons, says Natalie Bennett: a deep disgust and frustration at 'mainstream' politics and its subservience to vested interests; and the growing yearning for a better, greener, fairer future.
… Join the politics of the future! Natalie Bennett | 9th March 2015 Comment Politics UK natalie-b-gp-spring-conf.jpg The … deep disgust and frustration at 'mainstream' politics and its subservience to vested …
How can Green parties acquire real political power? A new book by Per Gahrton, founder of the Swedish Green Party, is much more than a useful reference text on the history of Green Parties around the world, write Bennet Francis and Rupert Read. It's also a valuable manual in realpolitik that resonates here and now in the UK.
… Green Future: lessons from history for Green politics Rupert Read Bennet Francis | 8th December 2015 Reviews Politics EU UK Ecology green-parties-cut.jpg … How can Green parties acquire real political power? A new book by Per Gahrton, …
The real significance of last night's TV debate was the vigorous assertion of a new progressive politics in Britain, expressed by the 'trimulierate' of female party leaders from the SNP, Greens and Plaid Cymru - the three sharing a positive vision of a green, fair, inclusive future in which all participate in the nation's prosperity.
… Easter rising - progressive politics is reborn! Oliver Tickell | 3rd March 2015 Comment Politics UK leaders-debate-2015.jpg The real … the vigorous assertion of a new progressive politics in Britain, expressed by the …
The more the GM industry claims to enjoy the support of 'science', the more it resorts to emotive attack and insult against its opponents, while doing its best to suppress the many scientific truths that are not to its liking, writes Colin Todhunter. In truth it is driven by profit, politics and ideology, and is based on fraud and the capture and corruption of governments and regulators.
… 30th December 2015 News GMOs Regulators Media Politics Science gmo-poster-cut.jpg The more … Todhunter. In truth it is driven by profit, politics and ideology, and is based on fraud … claims based on ignorance and are driven by politically motivated ideology. The actions of …
The Conservative attack on the environment is being carried out for good reasons, writes Chris Rose: because they can; because it delights their support base; because it heads off UKIP; and because they think it carries no political risk. Now it's up the UK's green movement to prove them wrong. But have our 'herbivorous' NGOs got the stomach for a fight?
… Europe Chris Rose | 31st July 2015 News UK Politics Climate Change Society … UKIP; and because they think it carries no political risk. Now it's up the UK's green … Something similar, if less magical and more political, is happening right now in the …
Last week David Cameron backed down over his plans to bring back fox hunting by 'fatally amending' the Hunting Act, writes Dominic Dyer. The way he spun it, it was all about SNP interference in English law, but the real problem was opposition within the Conservative Party, which increasingly sees blood sports as a barbaric relic that alienates voters of all persuasions.
… Fox hunting is political poison for David Cameron and the … 20th July 2015 News UK Hunting Natural World Politics Law UK Last week David Cameron backed … Wilson famously said a week is a long time in politics and David Cameron must be reflecting …
The magnitude of Corbyn's victory today represents an irreversible seismic shift in British politics, writes Oliver Tickell. Finally the Tories face serious, principled opposition that will reveal them as the far-right ideologues they truly are. The reverberations will echo far, wide, long and deep, including to the US where the socialist Bernie Sanders is well on his way to winning the Democratic nomination.
… Victory! Corbyn's political earthquake will resound long and … Oliver Tickell | 12th September 2015 News Politics Energy War UK USA Trade Finance … an irreversible seismic shift in British politics, writes Oliver Tickell. Finally the …
Naomi Klein famously called for a 'grand coalition' of the progressive left to fight climate change and Earth-destroying capitalism, writes Alexander Reid Ross. And now it's happening, drawing together diverse strands that encompass the fight for social and racial justice, the right to work, health, clean air and fresh water, and our freedom to be alive and thrive on this our one planet.
… Alexander Reid Ross | 6th March 2015 News Politics Indigenous Peoples USA Health Energy … peril. Something must be done. But what? The political party in power in Greece is called … what one could possibly call a conventional political party: it is more of a work of …
The respected Russian campaign group Sakhalin Environment Watch is being forced to choose between registering as a 'foreign agent' label and closing down, writes Oliver Tickell. Environmental campaigning, it seems, is now a 'political activity'.
… campaigning, it seems, is now a 'political activity'. Sakhalin Environment … it is applied: "Russian law doesn't consider political parties getting foreign financing as … 'foreign agents'. United Russia, the ruling political party, is getting a significant part …
Political earthquakes in Canada and Australia have seen climate-sceptic leaders replaced by new ones committed to effective climate action, write David Konisky & Matto Mildenberger. It may be going too far to say that's why they were elected - but these elections do show that green policies are no electoral drawback.
… | 23rd October 2015 Comment Climate Change Politics Canada Australia USA trudeau-victory-cut.jpg Political earthquakes in Canada and Australia … out of wealth-producing nations ." Harper's political demise comes shortly after fellow …
This week the people spoke - and a tad under a quarter of them voted to put the Conservatives in power for another five years, writes Jonathan Cook. Was it an act of collective insanity? No, it's much worse than that. It's because our politics, media and ultimately our minds are controlled and manipulated by billionaires.
… victory Jonathan Cook | 9th May 2015 Comment Politics Media Corporations UK … it's much worse than that. It's because our politics, media and ultimately our minds are … - given that Brand had shaken up British politics over the previous 18 months by …
Technology is crucial to all the big issues, but criticism is hampered by mythologies and structures of power, writes David King. Designed by and for corporate interests, modern industrial technologies embody a 400-year old technocratic philosophy of control of nature and people which must be confronted.
… King | 27th June 2015 Comment Technology Politics Economics Society blue gathering … society hinges on technology, mainstream politics barely acknowledges them? Even on the … how much were issues of technology politics discussed in the election campaign? …
Honduras has endured six years of violence and land grabs after the 2009 US-backed military coup made the country a playground for Hillary Clinton's billionaire friends, write Eric Draitser & Ramiro S. Fúnez - and a hell for the country's indigenous and small scale farming communities, whose leaders are routinely murdered with impunity by US-trained forces.
… Fúnez | 2nd July 2015 News Honduras USA War Politics Human Rights Land Grabs Indigenous … US-trained cabal of generals and right wing politicians and landowners. It could correctly … it, then and now, are complicit in an ongoing political, economic, and social tragedy in …
Indonesia's murderous campaign of military repression in its stolen territory of West Papua continues, writes Jason MacLeod. But a courageous 50-year struggle for human rights and freedom is finally bearing fruit, with growing recognition of West Papua's right to nationhood among its Pacific neighbours. Real hopes of a better future are rising above the blood and pain.
… West Papua Pacific Indonesia Human Rights Politics War Indigenous Peoples … together in an inequitable and unstable political arrangement. West Papua is the … West Papuans were sidelined. It was Cold War politics with a silver lining for the United …
The Apollo Programme proposed this week to make renewable energy cheaper than coal through technological advances is welcome, writes James Dyke. But the real problems are political, not technological. Unless we back the Apollo vision by challenging the power of fossil fuel companies, it can never succeed.
… for renewables cannot take off without political power James Dyke | 4th June 2015 … Energy Renewables Fossil Fuels Corporations Politics Finance Technology apollo-cut.jpg The … writes James Dyke. But the real problems are political, not technological. Unless we back …
Democracy campaigner Donnachadh McCarthy is in court tomorrow tomorrow on a fictitious charge of 'assault against a security guard in Parliament Square'. But his real offence was to expose the corruption at the heart of the Lib-Dems, with the sale of peerages by political parties for around £300,000. And now the CPS is trying to deny him a fair trial.
… McCarthy | 13th August 2015 Comment Law Politics UK Human Rights donnachadh-arrest.png … of the Lib-Dems, with the sale of peerages by political parties for around £300,000. And now … about how corruption works in Britain's political system and taken to a police station …
Food and water shortages and sharp price hikes in the necessities of life are driving civil unrest and rebellion across the Middle East and North Africa, writes Nafeez Ahmed. Adding to the problem, many of the afflicted countries are of strategic importance for their oil and gas, putting them on the front line of destabilizing 'counter-terrorism' operations.
… Nafeez Ahmed | 13th May 2015 News Water Food Politics Society Oil Energy Middle East … study, ' Quantitative Assessment of Political Fragility Indices and Food Prices as … most accurate, the research found, is the 'political instability' score of the World …
There is huge untapped potential in the green economy to create millions of decent jobs, writes Jean Lambert - but only if lessons are learned from the Government's flawed, now scrapped, Green Deal. Lesson one: we desperately need a well-funded, ambitious replacement.
… jobs: the potential is there, but where's the political will? Jean Lambert MEP | 11th August 2015 Comment Green Economy Politics EU UK Energy Efficiency … ambition. In the European Parliament, some political groups struggled to connect the idea …
A culture of environmental denialism is deeply embedded in the institutions of government, writes Duncan Brack. So how to put that right? How about a powerful new Office for Environmental Responsibility? And an annual 'natural resource budget' complete with bright green box?
… how Duncan Brack | 27th March 2015 Comment UK Politics red-box-chancellor-cut.jpg A culture … resources will lead to economic crisis and political chaos. Put simply, we are living … at risk. So why do we base many of our political decisions, and the structure of the …
Long a feature of British urban life, domestic squatting has now been criminalised, writes Almudena Serpis. But suddenly two social centres have come to life in a squatted bank in Brighton, and a long abandoned pub in London, reviving the rebellious spirit of the squatting movement, and promulgating a radical anti-austerity message that evokes the struggles in Greece, Spain and beyond.
… 2015 Ethical Living UK Cities Green Economy Politics Law Human Rights old-bank.jpg Radical … itself and all over the walls you can see political struggle manifesting itself. Though … that is tackled here. A powerful means of political resistance The squatting movement in …
Greens are celebrating a decision by the main UK broadcasters to include them in the 2015 TV election debates alongside the SNP and Plaid Cymru - as their UK membership exceeds 58,000!
… Oliver Tickell | 24th January 2015 News Politics UK Media poll-result-200115.jpg … Sky will include party leaders from seven political parties in this year's pre-election … that we now are in an age of multi-party politics" , said Green Party Leader Natalie …
Within minutes of Labour's election defeat its MPs were denouncing Miliband for failing to 'embrace aspiration' and alienating 'wealth creators', writes Ben Whitham. But the real problem was that he never expressed a coherent alternative to neoliberalism and austerity, presenting at best a 'Tory lite' agenda that failed to inspire. And who are the real wealth creators anyway?
… Corbyn? Ben Whitham | 4th July 2015 News Politics UK Economics Society … with business. I am clear that no political party can win a general election in … of neoliberalism. Among the great Western political economists of the 18th and 19th …
Naomi Klein's magnum opus on climate change, capitalism and the growing resistance to extreme energy is positive, inspiring and full of hope, writes Jonathon Porritt. But it's also deeply challenging: the 'everything' that has to change is not just government and corporations, but you, me and the ideas that guide our lives.
… absolutely 'on the front line' of the politics of climate change today, profound in … is not exactly an epicentre of radical politics, but pretty much the whole community … fossil fuel companies, and builds pressure on politicians to introduce across-the-board …
The Green Surge is getting very scary - for Labour Party MPs, candidates and supporters who fear that Green support will undermine 'their' vote, writes Ian Sinclair. So when exactly will it be safe for those desperate for an alternative to neoliberalism and austerity to vote for a genuinely progressive party?
… Ian Sinclair | 3rd February 2015 Comment Politics UK Greece Media … members - has produced some illogical and politically blinkered responses from … However, on the topic of electoral politics the inescapable fact is Jones is …