new authoritarianism

German authorities conduct series of raids to investigate climate activists

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/w/german-police-conduct-series-of-raids-to-investigate-climate-activists

Police officers carry a cardboard box to a vehicle during a raid in Berlin, Germany, Wednesday, May 24, 2023.

GERMAN authorities raided 15 properties across the country and seized assets in an investigation into the financing of protests by the Last Generation climate activist group, prosecutors said today.

Munich prosecutors said they were investigating seven people on suspicion of forming or supporting a criminal organisation.

They launched the inquiry following numerous criminal complaints they received since mid-2022.

Members of Last Generation have repeatedly blocked roads across Germany in an effort to press the government to take more drastic action against climate change.

In recent weeks, they have brought the traffic to a halt on an almost daily basis in Berlin, glueing themselves to busy intersections and highways.

Over the past year, they have also targeted various artworks and exhibits.

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/w/german-police-conduct-series-of-raids-to-investigate-climate-activists

Continue ReadingGerman authorities conduct series of raids to investigate climate activists

Mick Lynch: ‘Democracy in this country is in a lot of trouble’

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https://leftfootforward.org/2023/05/mick-lynch-interview-democracy-in-this-country-is-in-a-lot-of-trouble/

Standing in a sunny Parliament Square surrounded by a colourful mix of trade union flags, Mick Lynch spoke to LFF about the troubling state of democracy in Britain.

The RMT general secretary was a speaker at the emergency protest organised ahead of the final Parliament vote on the anti-strike legislation, Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Bill.

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For Lynch, the anti-strike legislation comes under a broader attempt by the Tory government to clamp down on any kind of opposition, warning that a threat to trade union power is a threat to democracy.

“The government has got an attitude towards anything they don’t agree with, any kind of dissent. It could be politically or more broadly socially, where if they don’t agree with people, they try to ban them,” said Lynch.

“We got these police bills and these counter-demonstration bills where people will be stopped from demonstrating or protesting.

“We saw that during the coronation, one of the most passive pieces of civil disobedience if you like, was banned in effect and people were put in jail for the day.

“They’re trying to clamp down on any dissent, and I think that’s a very troubling state, and it’s time for the British people to wake up to that and see that if trade unions, which are an organic part of life and grow in every society, if they’re not allowed to function properly, democracy in this country is in a lot of trouble.

“We’ve got to make sure that people are out opposing that and we’ve got to make sure that people understand the issues.

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https://leftfootforward.org/2023/05/mick-lynch-interview-democracy-in-this-country-is-in-a-lot-of-trouble/

Continue ReadingMick Lynch: ‘Democracy in this country is in a lot of trouble’

Anti-strike law: Paul Nowak perfectly dismantles bill ahead of Parliament vote

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https://leftfootforward.org/2023/05/anti-strike-law-paul-nowak-perfectly-dismantles-bill-ahead-of-parliament-vote/

The legislation is an attempt to ‘drive a wedge between working people’

General Secretary of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) Paul Nowak took to the airwaves this morning to speak out about the anti-strikes bill which will be voted on by MPs this evening.

He slammed media accusations of union ‘scare tactics’ by laying out the reality of the Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Bill which could see workers lose their job for taking strike action.

As media presenters sought to play down the implications of the bill, Nowak said threatening workers with the sack was ‘untenable’ and that the real reason it was being put through was to ‘demonise trade unions’ and ‘drive a wedge between working people’.

“There is no public appetite at all to see nurses, paramedics, teachers, railway [ workers …] sacked for exercising what most people will think as a fundamental British liberty, the right to strike,” Nowak said on Sky News.

“To remove it would put the UK as a real international outlier.”

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https://leftfootforward.org/2023/05/anti-strike-law-paul-nowak-perfectly-dismantles-bill-ahead-of-parliament-vote/

Continue ReadingAnti-strike law: Paul Nowak perfectly dismantles bill ahead of Parliament vote

No landslide in sight for ‘Blairism on steroids’

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/f/no-landslide-sight-blairism-steroids

The local election results show no political vision is emerging to capture hearts and minds – Labour is simply waiting for the other parties to become even less appealing, writes ANDREW MURRAY

Image of Keir Starmer sucking up to the rich and powerful at the World Economic Forum, Davos
Image of Keir Starmer sucking up to the rich and powerful at the World Economic Forum, Davos

WEAK and boring. Correct — it’s Keir Starmer we’re discussing.

Thus the choices of a representative cross-section of voters asked by a polling company to sum up the Labour leader in a word.

Untrustworthy leaps out of the word cloud too.

It can all be rendered in a number as well. The one that counts is 35. That is the percentage of the electorate intending to vote Labour at the next general election, according to extrapolations from the local election results.

It is an astonishing figure. It is just 7 per cent ahead of the Tories, dramatically less than the score recorded in various opinion polls over the last year, which gave Labour leads of up to 30 per cent.

It is also, note carefully, just 3 per cent up on Labour’s score in the 2019 election, and 5 per cent less than a Jeremy Corbyn-led Labour secured in 2017.

On these projections, there will be no Labour landslide at the next election, and perhaps not even an overall majority in the House of Commons.

All this after 13 years of austerity, authoritarianism, a cruelly bungled pandemic, Boris Johnson and Liz Truss, and the dystopian prospect of “national conservatism” a la Braverman next on the menu.

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/f/no-landslide-sight-blairism-steroids

Continue ReadingNo landslide in sight for ‘Blairism on steroids’