eco shenanigans

A s a Marylander living in London who has been an active participant in the student and anti-cuts protest movements, I was thrilled to come across the news yesterday that “ US Uncut ” groups are sprouting up around the country. UK Uncut was born when a group of seasoned activists met in a pub in North London in October to discuss government cuts to public services and the emerging student protest movement. To them, it was clear that a crackdown on tax avoidance by corporations and wealthy individuals would negate the need for spending cuts and undermine the Coalition government’s argument that these cuts are “necessary”. The target in mind was Vodafone , the largest mobile phone company in Europe. A report on the British whistleblower site Private Eye had indicated that the HMRC (the British version of the IRS) had cut their tax bill from $9.7 billion to just under $2 billion, and that this decision had been guided by government officials. This information came out at the sam...

I know exactly what you’re thinking. Well I don’t know, but I can guess. “WTF? You’re expecting me, the highly intelligent reader, to buy into a bunch of bollocks linking climate change to the Coalition cuts and to the tuition fee rise? Haven’t we heard enough about climate change already? And anyway, what has it got to do with education?” It’s a great question. Thank you for asking these questions, fictionalized reader created for literary purposes. What I’m going to do in this blog post is discuss the links between the two movements and to evaluate the Climate Justice movement and its relevance to the biggest youth movement in Britain of my generation. The student occupation at UCL is, in many ways, a mini Climate Camp, with consensus-based decision making and several working groups to keep the site running (media, security, outreach, kitchens, process, etc.). As one girl put it, the only difference is that the students at UCL don't have to use compost toilets. And I ...

Just discovered this... I went off on a tangent and never finished it, but I suppose there are a few good points in there. This was originally written on 10 November 2010. By now, you've probably read and heard a lot about the student rally/protest/riot that happened on Wednesday. In the midst of all the stereotypes regurgitated by the media there has been a lot of quality writing on the subject. This blog entry is an attempt to compile some of the best examples I've seen so far with my own observations of the event and its significance. But first of all, why did I go in the first place? As a foreign student, I have to pay international fees and education cuts don't affect me directly. And I certainly wasn't the only foreigner to attend. I spent the day with a core group of seven people, including myself. We consisted of two Brits, two Italians, one German and two Americans. At times we were joined by a group of three or four more Germans. So why should foreign st...