London

  • Britain: Mass protest against war in Afghanistan

    The Stop the War Coalition-organised demonstration on October 24 brought the centre of London to a standstill. It was a landmark demonstration, led by Lance Corporal Joe Glenton — the first serving soldier in the British army to join an anti-war march.

  • Mark Steel: United action need to confront BNP

    There’s something touchingly innocent about the argument that the far-right British National Party (BNP), which won two European parliament seats in June, should be allowed space in the mainstream media as this will “expose their ignorant ideas”.

  • John Pilger: Britain's postal strike is the war at home

    The struggle of striking British postal workers against privatisation plans is as vital for democracy as any national event in recent years. The campaign against them is part of a historic shift from the last vestiges of political democracy in Britain to a corporate world of insecurity and war.

  • Mark Steel: The logic of anti-immigrant racism

    Over the last few years it’s become one of our quaint English traditions that on any day following the announcement of immigration figures, certain newspapers display headlines such as “TEN MILLION OR SOMETHING LIKE THAT POLES TO SWARM INTO BRITAIN LIKE PLUMBING LOCUSTS!!! And they plan to BUGGER OUR KITTENS!!!”

  • Britain: What not to do at passport control

    What is the smart thing to do when you are travelling through a major international transport hub and are asked to “step this way” by someone in a uniform or a Marks and Spencers suit to answer a few questions while they rummage through your luggage?

  • John Pilger: The system is corrupt

    The theft of public money by members of parliament, including government ministers, has given Britons a rare glimpse inside the tent of power and privilege.

  • Britain: A student rebellion catches on

    One of the many upsetting aspects to being in your 40s is hearing people your own age grumbling about “young people” the way we were grumbled about ourselves.

  • How truth slips down the memory hole

    One of the leaders of demonstrations in Gaza calling for the release of the BBC reporter Alan Johnston was a Palestinian news cameraman, Imad Ghanem. On July 5, he was shot by Israeli soldiers as he filmed them invading Gaza. A Reuters video shows bullets hitting his body as he lay on the ground. An ambulance trying to reach him was also attacked.

  • Britain: Blair proposes new terrorism laws

    The proposed “anti-terror” laws would allow police to demand people’s names and addresses and question them as to where they have been and where they are going. Those giving unsatisfactory answers could be arrested and fined up to £5000 (about A$12,000). Under current British laws, police already have powers to stop and search people, but not to demand answers to questions or to issue fines for non-compliance. “Stop and question” powers are already in place in Northern Ireland.

  • A woman's place is in the struggle: Women of the new Iraq

    A group of Iraqi women recently met the US ambassador to Iraq in an effort to push the framers of Iraq's new constitution not to limit women's rights. Many Western feminist groups and some Iraqi women activists fear Islamic law, which if enshrined as

  • BRITAIN: More immigration needed, not less

    The British Midlands are being engulfed by race riots, pitting the children of whites who lost jobs in the country's devastating deindustrialisation against sons and daughters of those who came to fill service jobs in the