The now annual fight between the X-Factor winner and people with taste for the Christmas No.1 spot in the UK charts was something of a damp squib last year. Following the first failed mobilisation in 2008 (the battle of the Hallelujahs) and the glorious RATM victory in 2009, the uncoordinated multiple attempts last year failed badly.
NUJ Delegate meeting interviews
Reflections on the 26 March demo
I spent quite a few hours on Saturday, 26 March, walking the streets of London fairly slowly with approximately half a million other people. Some of the time I carried a flag, for a short while I help carry the national banner of my union, the National Union of Journalists. When I finally got to Hyde Park, some friends and I walked down towards Victoria Station to find a pub for a much needed drink, then my partner and I went and got some food and finally home, exhausted.
That was probably like the experience of most of the rest of the 500,000 marchers at the TUC’s long-awaited March for the Alternative. Amongst those who walked themselves to exhaustion and then went hope were probably quite a number of other anarchists like me.
Remembering black metal
I’ve recently rediscovered black metal. No, not the silly facepainted Nordic screaming nonsense, but the late 80s/early 90s scene featuring bands with black people in them playing rock and metal music heavily influenced by funk and soul. The three main bands were actually a big part of the scene as the underground started to come into the mainstream – just as grunge was bursting through and a weird and wonderful mix of music was suddenly available to me in Dublin.
Zionist consistency (if only)
Dear Biblical Scholars,
We, the proud supporters of Israel, are deeply concerned about an aspect of the history of Judaism, as reflected in the various texts based thereon. The passage is contained in the Books of Samuel and is famously known as David vs. Goliath.
Solidarity with the people of Egypt and the journalists under attack trying to get the story out
A few notes to the media re: Tunisia
As a sub-editor for more than a decade, I’ve lots of experience reworking copy into a readable form. Sometimes it takes a bit more than fixing the typos and adding proper punctuation, sometimes journalists get things wrong and you have to fix them.
Netroots – why you should join a union
Naomi Wolf, rape and where society is now
I had no intention of writing about this issue – in fact, I’ve got a number of other things to write and had planned to do at least one of those tonight. However, I saw the debate between Naomi Wolf and Tory MP Louise Bagshawe on Newsnight. Then I started taking notice of the stuff on Twitter about it and found the link to Wolf’s Guardian piece and read some of the comments.
Continue reading “Naomi Wolf, rape and where society is now”
Student demos: This is just the beginning – what comes next?
The super-fast radicalisation of the student demonstrations caught everyone by surprise. Direct action is on the agenda again and it’s coming from a group people discounted as being “the children of Thatcher” and dismissed as being fundamentally consumerist and non-radical.
Continue reading “Student demos: This is just the beginning – what comes next?”
The revolution will be streamed 