‘FORWARD MOMENTUM’ OR CONTINUED DECLINE?

Posted on April 4, 2021 by Norwich Radical in Community, Perspectives and tagged activism, bureaucracy, campaigning, community organising, david evans, democracy, general election, general election 2017, general election 2019, general election campaign, Green Party, jeremy corbyn, jon lansman, keir starmer, Labour, labour party, momentum, momentum norfolk, NCG, Norfolk Labour, party democracy, rallies, social media, socialism, Yvette Cooper.

by Sean Meleady

A group of left-wing Norfolk Labour activists have re-founded the Norfolk branch of the socialist pressure group Momentum. Originally they were affiliated with the pro-reform Forward Momentum faction, which argued that the group needed to change in a post-Corbyn era. Following the victory of Forward Momentum candidates in the Labour Party’s internal National Coordinating Group (NCG) elections, at the expense of the Momentum Renewal slate associated with Momentum founder Jon Lansman, they hope that the group can be revived locally.

THE ANTI-POLL TAX UNIONS: LESSONS IN COMMUNITY ORGANISING

Posted on January 28, 2021 by Norwich Radical in Community, Inter|national and tagged acorn, activism, All-British Anti-Poll Tax Federation, anti-poll tax unions, austerity, bailiffs, campaigning, civil disobedience, class, community organising, Danny Burns, featured, grassroots, miners strike, non-payment, poll tax, Poll Tax Rebellion, poll tax riots, protest, Thatcher, Tories, uk, unions.

By Niahl Hubbard

When activists look back to the movement that arose to challenge the introduction of the Poll Tax, they will see it as one of ordinary people taking on the establishment and coming out victorious. Whilst the rioting in Trafalgar Square and similar confrontations between police and protestors often takes centre stage in our collective memory of this period, there is the risk of overlooking the grassroots and community led resistance that fought every step of the way during the Poll Tax’s introduction – the resistance of the Anti-Poll Tax Unions.

CRIMINALISING TRESPASS, PART THREE: SUFFOCATING SPACES OF RESISTANCE

Posted on January 11, 2021 by Norwich Radical in Perspectives and tagged activism, BLM, campaigning, compulsory purchase orders, Crackley Woods, criminalising trespass, direct action, featured, HS2, Jellytot, land justice, occupy, privatisation, protest, public land, resistance, right to protest, right to roam, Stonehenge, Swampy, TINAAR, trespass, XR.

by Tesni Clare

For those who don’t know – and there are many who don’t, because the press have been worryingly silent on the matter until recently – there are a number of small, self-organised communities of activists living in tents and treehouses between London and Birmingham, along the proposed route of high speed railway HS2. The railway, and the protest camps, thread through some of this country’s last remaining pockets of ancient broadleaf woodland. Whilst many have been evicted, some camps have been there for over a year.

PEOPLE BEFORE PROFIT – TIME FOR THE FIGHTBACK

Posted on December 10, 2020 by Norwich Radical in Community and tagged activism, activists, anti austerity, Arcadia Group, austerity, Australia, bedroom tax, benefits, Boris Johnson, campaigning, climate crisis, climate jobs, construction, corruption, Covid-19, cronyism, CWU, Debenhams, east anglia, engineering, eviction ban, featured, fossil fuels, furlough scheme, gig economy, government, green economy, green industrial revolution, Hospitality, hospitals, Jane Loftus, Jo Rust, jobs, King's Lynn, Labour, MPs, nationalisation, NHS, norwich, pandemic, People Before Profit, Philip Green, PPE, public ownership, recession, redundancies, retail, Serco, social security, tax reform, Topshop, Tories, tourism, trade unions, TUC, uk, Universal Credit, welfare state, wildfires.

By John Sillett

The recent collapse into administration of shop group Arcadia and Debenhams’ department stores was shocking, but not unexpected. Both companies have had their assets looted by their owners; Arcadia’s owner Philip Green has become widely seen as the unacceptable face of capitalism. Whilst the vultures pick over the bones of Topshop and its relations, there has been an avalanche of redundancies in many sectors, from construction to engineering. The pandemic has hastened the collapse or rationalisation of companies depending on footfall, like retail, hospitality and tourism.

ACORN NORWICH – THE UNION TAKING ON DODGY LANDLORDS

Posted on June 19, 2020 by Norwich Radical in Community and tagged Acorn Norwich, ACORN Tenants' Union, activism, austerity, Brighton, Bristol, campaigning, coronavirus, Covid-19, Dereham, direct action, featured, flatfair, Generation Rent, Goldsmith street, grassroots, health and safety, housing, housing costs, landlords, letting agents, manchester, member defense, norwich, Norwich City Council, online activism, renting, residents, Sheffield, student accommodation, students, UEA, unions, wages, workers.

By Sean Meleady

Norwich may call itself a ‘fine city’, but this isn’t always the case for renters. Despite some positive stories, such as the Goldsmith Street social housing project, many tenants find life in the city tough.

THIS ELECTION IS THE FIGHT OF OUR LIVES – HERE’S HOW WE CAN WIN IT

Posted on November 15, 2019 by Norwich Radical in Student and tagged art, Brexit, campaigning, doorknocking, environment, family, fascism, featured, general election, general election 2019, green new deal, higher education, inequality, jeremy corbyn, Labour, marketisation, memes, momentum, music, NUS, political art, politics, public services, register to vote, social media, student debt, students, unions, universities, vote, young people.

By Bradley Allsop

The world is on the brink. A shattered environment, gargantuan inequality, a burgeoning mental health crisis, fascism openly spreading across Europe, public services at breaking point… but also the possibility of more radical and progressive change than we’ve seen in decades. Higher education specifically also faces two radically different paths ahead of it: continued marketisation, eroding academic integrity, burdening a generation with enormous debt, crushing academics under enormous workloads, increasingly insecure employment and workplace stress – or publicly funded higher education that opens up space to imagine and create a different sort of campus.

UNITED IN THE FACE OF CRISIS – THE STUDENT LEFT NETWORK

Posted on January 10, 2019 by Norwich Radical in Inter|national, Student and tagged campaigning, casualisation, climate change, corporate, democracy, education, far right, featured, fossil fuel divestment, higher education, individualism, inequality, Labour Students, left, living wage, marketisation, mental health, NUS, NUS turnaround, prevent, profiteering, rent strike, representation, social justice, student activists, student debt, student left network, students' unions, uk, universities.

By Bradley Allsop

Make no mistake – higher education in the UK is in crisis. After decades of uncertain policy and three successive Tory-led governments with a clear desire to marketise and corporatise our campuses, we’re left with a generation burdened with debt, with an explosion in mental health issues among students, with universities bereft of democracy and increasingly fuelled by precarious labour, with Students’ Unions that are often little more than marketing arms of their universities, and with continuing inequalities in educational attainment. The passionate learning, debate and inquiry that should be the soul of education has become little more than a thin veneer pasted over profiteering and corporate-style expansion.

THE FUTURE OF NORWICH MUSIC

Posted on November 11, 2018 by Norwich Radical in Arts, Community and tagged bands, campaigning, community organising, Ei Group, epic studios, featured, Gibraltar Gardens, gigs, Jon Fennell, live music, Megan Thrift, musicians, norwich, norwich music, promoters, The Brickmakers, the future of norwich music forum, The Garden House, The Woodman, The York Tavern, venues.

By Tom McGhie

It’s about half past six as we pull up outside the Brickmakers, the once great bastion of free music and celebrated Norwich venue. In the fading evening light, I can still make out the instantly recognisable logo of the guitar which adorns the pub’s entrance – a beacon of sorts for music lovers and punters all over East Anglia. The ‘Brickies’ is large enough to accommodate 300 people and on most Fridays and Saturdays it does so, playing host to many raucous rock gigs and performances. However, as with all local music venues, on non-gig nights the atmosphere in these places is far less febrile and only dedicated drinkers and regulars frequent the venue.

JUSTICE FOR CLEANERS AT KING’S COLLEGE LONDON

Posted on September 15, 2018 by Norwich Radical in Student and tagged abuse, academic staff, accountability, Bush House, campaigning, cleaning, deportation, direct action, discrimination, economic discrimination, exploitation, featured, gendered labour, health and safety, homophobia, immigration, immigration raid, IWGB, Justice for Daniel, KCL J4C, King's College London, LSE, LSE J4C, migrant labour, migrant rights, neoliberalism, occupation, outsourcing, pensions, racialised labour, Servest, sexual harassment, SOAS, SOAS J4C, SOAS nine, solidarity, students, trade unions, UCU, UCU strike, UKVI, Unison, university management, University of London, university staff, UVW, workers, workers rights.

By KCL Justice for Cleaners Campaign

Content warning: mentions sexual harassment, homophobic abuse

This week, the KCL Justice for Cleaners Campaign released a short film revealing the struggles of migrant cleaners at King’s College London, a day before management made a recommendation to the College Council as to whether to end the outsourcing of cleaning. Through the film, cleaners speak in their own words about the violence of the outsourcing model and how mistreatment at KCL is normalised.

BEYOND BURNOUT: TOWARDS COMPASSIONATE ACTIVISM

Posted on August 14, 2018 by Norwich Radical in Perspectives and tagged activism, burnout, campaigning, compassion, competition, cooperation, featured, grassroots, health, identity, mental health, movement, neoliberalism, politics, postgraduate, protest, social comparison.

By Anonymous

Being an ‘activist’ is a crucial part of my identity. It can be a difficult thing to be, in a society where ‘politics’ is a dirty word and its practice is often at best frowned upon, but I’m glad I’ve made it to this place. To be part of wider movements, making friends with incredibly talented, dedicated and inspiring people and, in my own flawed, stumbling way, trying to make the world a little bit better, is an enormous joy and privilege that not everyone gets to enjoy.

campaigning

THE ANTI-POLL TAX UNIONS: LESSONS IN COMMUNITY ORGANISING

CRIMINALISING TRESPASS, PART THREE: SUFFOCATING SPACES OF RESISTANCE

ACORN NORWICH – THE UNION TAKING ON DODGY LANDLORDS

THE FUTURE OF NORWICH MUSIC

JUSTICE FOR CLEANERS AT KING’S COLLEGE LONDON

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