Tenant activists in Stirling have been inspiring fellow students across Scotland to fight back against rip-off landlords and university rent rises. CIAN IRELAND and DANIEL DEERY report on 18 months of hard campaigning.
On 4 February 2019, around 40 students at Stirling University met to form a tenants’ union. Agitation had been increasing in recent months following more than a decade of unrelenting rent rises in university accommodation.
WILL BROWN reviews a fascinating and timely examination of the sources of anticolonial opinion in Britain, one that reinforces the importance of new and more honest accounts of Britain’s imperial past.
DAVID CONNOLLY reviews the Labour leadership’s response to recent controversies at the Proms and with the Overseas Operations Bill and wonders whether Keir Starmer is trying to ride two horses at the same time.
MARIA GOULDING reflects on Ali Smith’s recently completed series of seasonal novels, an interwoven quartet written and published each year since the Brexit referendum. They are, she says, ‘both enjoyable and serious novels for our times’.
Red Labour’s BEN SELLERS talks to ILPers and fellow north-east party members MARY STRATFORD and DAVID CONNOLLY about the gains and losses of the Corbyn leadership, the role of the left under Keir Starmer and how Labour can re-build in ‘red wall’ communities.
JOY WHITE reports from Newham in east London where a changing community is struggling to recover from Covid-19 after a decade of austerity, inequality and widening wealth gaps.
Our dear friend and comrade Eric Preston died on 20 September. He was a driving force in the ILP for 60 years, shaping much of its perspective and political thinking. ILP chair DAVID CONNOLLY gave the eulogy at his funeral on 8 October.
MARY HULL draws on her personal and professional experience to explore the contested but increasingly important terrain of transgender rights. The left needs to listen and learn, she says.
PAULINE BRYAN reviews a major new biography of Sylvia Pankhurst – suffragette, class warrior and tireless campaigner against racism, fascism and imperialism. ‘Her big life deserves such a big book.’
Comment
We Need to Talk Trans
MARY HULL draws on her personal and professional experience to explore the contested but increasingly important terrain of transgender rights. The left needs to listen and learn, she says.