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Vive La Zad ! – in the midst of the tear gas, La Zad exists in our hearts
The police arrived at 03.00 am on the morning of Monday 9th April. The exact number is, of course, unclear but it is said that 2,500 officers in riot equipment, with crash helmets and visors, Perspex shields and plastic body armour were deployed. Two and a half thousand highly trained men appeared out of the…
11 Apr 2018 james -
Defending the NHS – Platform and a community of health
Recently I was sitting talking with a friend who was relating the harrowing tale of her partner’s sudden illness. My heart was in my mouth as she described the paramedics arriving in minutes to their home, the ambulance that took them to Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Woolwich, her partner being transferred to a specialist clinic…
4 Mar 2018 james -
Communal Memory – the power of community to resist Shell in Nigeria
I’m holding in my hands a report published by Amnesty International in November last year – ‘A Criminal Enterprise? Shell’s involvement in human rights violations in Nigeria in the 1990s’. It analyses in forensic detail exactly how much Shell staff knew about, and were involved in supporting, the actions by the Nigerian military taken against…
22 Feb 2018 james -
Transitions Just and Unjust – the question of power
We’re descending from the peak of A’ Chailleach (The wise old Woman). Trudging down the steep slope of Sron na Goibhre (Under the Nose/promontary of the Goats) on the northern edge of the Fannich mountain range. My knees are exhausted as they absorb the shock of each step on this sodden mass of grasses and…
9 Jan 2018 james -
Today, remembering the Ogoni Bill of Rights
10th November 2017 marks the 22nd anniversary since the executions of nine Ogoni men from the Niger Delta who had been protesting against the exploitation of oil in their homelands. These Nigerian activists – outspoken author and playwright Ken Saro-Wiwa, Saturday Dobee, Nordu Eawo, Daniel Gbooko, Paul Levera, Felix Nuate, Baribor Bera, Barinem Kiobel, and John…
10 Nov 2017 jane -
Bribes, bulldozers and BP: what makes a gas mega pipeline?
Earlier this week, the Guardian’s Azerbaijani Laundromat investigation uncovered thousands of covert payments totaling £2.2bn from Azerbaijan’s ruling elite to prominent Europeans through a network of opaque British companies. Today, Platform and other organisations had a letter published in the Guardian, filling in the blanks in the story. Azerbaijan is particularly keen to present a…
7 Sep 2017 Sarah -
Council workers’ largest trade union votes for divesting pensions
After two years of impressive mobilisation by UNISON grassroots members across England, Scotland and Wales, the trade union has officially taken on fossil fuel divestment policy. Yesterday the union’s National Delegate Conference voted unanimously to seek divestment of Local Government Pension Schemes from fossil fuels over five years giving due regard to fiduciary duty UNISON…
23 Jun 2017 anna -
Council workers’ largest union commits to divesting pensions from fossil fuels
Full text of UNISON motion (pdf). UNISON to “seek divestment of Local Government Pension Schemes from fossil fuels over five years giving due regard to fiduciary duty” Local government pensions have £14 billion invested in oil, coal and gas UNISON is the largest organisation representing pension-holders working for local government The largest body representing local government…
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Conversations with Suzi Gablik – Living in wartime.
I’ve recently returned from a visit to my friend and mentor, Suzi Gablik, in Virginia, USA. She has been an inspiration to so many over the past 33 years since the publication of ‘Has Modernism Failed’, and later her book ‘Conversations Before The End of Time‘. Her work harnessed an ecological sensibility in the…
29 Apr 2017 james
