Info, news & debate

The ‘democracy problem’

ttip-reading-room

Read this German MP’s account of the TTIP reading room and decide what you think about TTIP ‘transparency’

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So, you all know about TTIP? Here’s a link if you don’t, plus see the posts to the right. It’s a proposed ‘trade deal’ that is designed to give more of our economy to the corporate sector. It’s supposed to be ‘transparent’, but of course it’s completely secret.

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NHS Chief Executive was a founder member of an organisation lobbying for health to be included in TTIP

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Just allow a few seconds for that to sink in. Simon Stevens was Vice President of UnitedHealth Group, the largest health insurer in the US. He was in charge of global expansion of their business. Now he’s Chief Executive of the NHS.

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boyle-gandhi

Review of ‘Drinking Molotov Cocktails with Gandhi’ by Mark Boyle – part 2: the role of violence

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This is the second article generated from Mark Boyle’s book Drinking Molotov Cocktails with Gandhi. The first was about the ineffectiveness of reformism when faced with corporate capitalism – ‘The Machine’ as he calls it.

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howtodoit

Introducing the ‘How to do it’ conference on how to change the system from grassroots, London, April 9-10

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There are many ideas out there on how to change the world – but very few include a strategy for implementing those ideas. Implementation is key. I had a conversation the other day with Roger Hallam, who used to be involved with Radical Routes, has lived in various communities and now

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obama

US bans pipeline, TransCanada sues US taxpayers for $15 billion. How TTIP will transfer wealth from taxpayers to corporations

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Investor-state dispute settlements (ISDS) have been around for over fifty years. Originally meant to protect investors from losses due to government actions – what may have seemed a good idea at the time has spiralled out of control

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rural-manifesto

Live from the Real Farming Conference: why genetically-engineered food is about politics not science

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I’m at the Real Farming Conference in Oxford, and I’m writing this as a session on GM food is taking place. I’m sorry to have missed it, but I fell into a conversation until it was too late to join the session. However, I know someone who attended that session, and she’ll hopefully write a

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rural-manifesto

Live from the Real Farming Conference: Equality in the Countryside – a rural manifesto

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I’m blogging from the Real Farming Conference in Oxford, in Oxford Town Hall. This is the seventh annual conference, set up as a counter to the corporate farming conference running at the university in Oxford. I wasn’t expecting such a huge affair – 850 attendees, with some fantastic sessions.

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boyle-gandhi

Review of ‘Drinking Molotov Cocktails with Gandhi’ by Mark Boyle – part 1: reformism and the Transition movement

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This was a very challenging and thought-provoking read. Mark lived without money for three years, and wrote the Moneyless Manifesto, published in 2012. This is his latest book about the corporate ‘Machine’ and appropriate responses to it.

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richest1percent

How has the 2008 financial crash affected the wealth of the rich and the poor, and what can we do about it?

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Have we all suffered equally since the crash of 2008? Have we all shared in the austerity? Well, no – the gap between the rich and the poor is widening in the UK, the US and in fact, in the OECD. In the US, Robert Reich reports that 95% of economic gains since 2009 have

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