Protesters, buskers, preachers, the young: all could end up with 'ipnas'. Of course, if you're rich, you have nothing to fear. Until the late 19th century much of our city space was owned by private landlords. Squares were gated, streets were controlled by turnpikes. The great unwashed, many of whom had been expelled from the countryside by acts of enclosure, were also excluded from desirable parts of town. ...

eleased cabinet papers confirm what we always knew - that Thatcher lied about almost every aspect of the Great Miners Strike of 1984-85. Former striking miner Joe Henry looks back in anger. Reading Paul Mason’s website about the recently released cabinet papers relating to the 1984 miners’ strike reminded me of the Nazi Propaganda Minister, Joseph Goebbell’s, infamous comment: “If you tell a lie big enough ...

Five billion people across the world do not have proper social protection. In developing countries, more and more of them are calling for universal health coverage (UHC). That would allow the poorest peoples to cross the money divide to get treated, and encourage the modernisation of health infrastructures. Some governments in the South, such as Senegal, have already adopted UHC but that is not yet the case ...

Monsanto's extending its power over the globe, with a massive new frankenseed factory in Argentina. Sofía Gatica and local neighbours have spoken out, and she has received death threats and a brutal beating. The threat is urgent -- let's stand with them and stop the plant. ...

The struggle between rival camps in the Turkish political elite reached a highpoint on December 25 with the resignation of three senior ministers, followed hours later by a major cabinet reshuffle by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. ...

Sociologists research the lives and problems of the urban poor — but they haven’t so far investigated those of the super-rich, especially those wealthy property buyers who are changing the nature of life for everybody in London. ...

A new treaty being negotiated in secret between the US and the EU has been specifically engineered to give companies what they want — the dismantling of all social, consumer and environmental protection, and compensation for any infringement of their assumed rights. ...

From anti-austerity movements to middle-class revolts, in rich countries and in poor, social unrest has been on the rise around the world. The reasons for the protests vary. Some are direct responses to economic distress (in Greece and Spain, for example). Others are revolts against dictatorship (especially in the Middle East). A number also express the aspirations of new middle classes in fast-growing emer ...

Op 24 november vorig jaar schoot de Haagse politie de zeventienjarige Nederlandse staatsburger Rishi Chandrikasing dood op station Holland Spoor. Toen de politie werd verteld dat een gewapende man iemand op het station had bedreigd, achtervolgden drie agenten Rishi met getrokken pistool. Even later werd hij fataal geraakt in de nek. In zijn zakken zijn alleen sleutels gevonden, en een telefoon. ...

For the last few years after the crisis I couldn’t get my head around the fact that so many Dutch people knew so little about Greece, and yet they felt the need to express their views in a very loud and provocative way, and pass judgment. The first few months of the crisis in Greece, Dutch tabloids like De Telegraph, came out with front page reports from Greece and published photos of Greeks enjoying their ...