“On 9 June, NHS England announced it plans to stop providing puberty blockers to young trans people who want them, unless they take part in a clinical trial. The decision came in a report setting out the future of healthcare provision for young trans people in the wake of NHS England closing Gids – the only gender clinic for under-18s in England and Wales – saying there’s ‘not enough evidence’ puberty blockers are safe or effective to continue prescribing them.
“This decision to take away young trans people’s bodily autonomy is situated in a global context of rapidly escalating transphobic moral panic and rising fascism. Indeed, rightwing groups lobby against trans healthcare and abortion access simultaneously, with hard-won rights for women and LGBTQ+ people being destroyed by conservative ideals of women as child-bearers and queer people as deviants …
“Making puberty blockers harder and less legal to access for the hundred or so young trans people each year who want to take them won’t stop them wanting and trying to get them. Criminalisation doesn’t work: sex work is criminalised in the UK, which just means women are forced to work in more risky and dangerous environments; abortion is criminalised, yet people who need an abortion will still procure one. This week, a 44-year-old mother of three, Carla Foster, was jailed for 28 months for having an abortion after the legal time limit – a tragic case highlighting why abortion, like sex work, must be decriminalised. Forcing people to go through illicit routes doesn’t stop them, or make them safer.”
“The progress brought by democracy and capitalism was supposed to give rise to yet more democracy. Checks and balances would put an end to corruption. An educated population would choose the ‘right’ leaders. And rather than campaigning based on outdated ideologies, those leaders would compete for votes by appealing to the ‘median voter’, bringing moderation to previously divided societies.
“Instead, corruption is on the rise, ideology is back, and people keep picking the ‘wrong’ leaders. Perhaps the creation of societies so stratified that the ruling class can barely comprehend the concerns of ordinary voters was not such a foolproof recipe for democracy after all …
“Despite the fact that it is blindingly obvious that capitalist democracies require some measures to reduce inequality while tackling climate breakdown, the progressive capitalist vision for the future stands no chance of being implemented.
“There’s only one conclusion left to draw—that capitalism and democracy were never really all that compatible to begin with.”
“On 1 June, around 100 officers from the Met’s territorial support group – the specialist unit tasked with dealing with terrorism and serious public disorder – descended on AWS, throwing the 29 people and their possessions out onto the street. In the video below, officers can be seeing shoving and attempting to detain a protester outside of the building. Though no arrests were made, a number of those present, as well as their video footage, testify to the violence of the police operation …
“The police argument [had been] forcefully rebutted in a response sent 12 days later by the Advisory Service for Squatters (ASS), an organisation that has provided squatters with expert legal advice since 1975. Seen by Novara Media, the ASS letter states that not only is the building clearly non-residential, but that under English and Welsh land law, the owners had forfeited any right to claim trespass by allowing the squatters to remain for so long …
“Now settled in a disused medical building around the corner, AWS’s new landlords – the NHS – are already pursuing emergency civil action to remove them. To Macdonald, it’s more of the same: ‘It feels increasingly like the working class community here is under attack.’
“Reflecting on the events of recent weeks, M sounds shattered but defiant. The eviction brought together the residents in ways she hadn’t anticipated; in videos such as the one below, residents and locals can be heard chanting at police ‘Whose streets? Our streets!’, ‘Shame on you’ and ‘Who do you protect? Who do you serve?’.
“The new Industrial Relations Act was introduced in 1971. It required unions to register officially as legal entities, allowed the government to impose cooling-off periods and compulsory ballots during disputes, and permitted unions and their members to be sued if they engaged in ‘unfair practices’, such as enforcing closed shops, picketing other workplaces, and participating in sympathy strikes. To enforce the laws, a new Industrial Relations Court was created, which had the power to fine and even imprison workers.
“The Act provoked the ire of the trade union movement, which recognised it as an instrument to drive down working-class wages and attack democratic rights. In response, the Trades Union Congress (TUC) mobilised one of the biggest public demonstrations to date. On 12 January 1971, some 170,000 people were estimated to have turned out in London for the ‘Kill the Bill’ demonstration, marching from Hyde Park to Trafalgar Square where leading trade unionists pledged to fight the legislation.
“Despite opposition from the Labour Party, the Act passed into law in March 1972. In an act of defiance, the TUC ordered its member unions against registering under the new laws on pain of expulsion. This was no small deal: it meant that many unions shouldered government fines and the smaller unions who obeyed the government were ejected from the TUC itself …
“The TUC escalated its action, calling for a nationwide General Strike on 31 July 1972, set to be the first since 1926. The government buckled and was forced into a humiliating climbdown; the official solicitor of the National Industrial Relations Court intervened, saying the legislation needed to be reinterpreted.”
“Activists are ‘shoplifting’ from supermarket shelves and dumping the proceeds straight into the stores’ food bank bins in a ‘redistributive action’ to protest the cost of living and the climate crisis.
“Xander Cloudsley, 29, a community food co-ordinator and member of This Is Rigged, the campaign group behind the actions, said: ‘In my job, I’ve seen the lived reality of the cost of living crisis […] while corporate giants like Tesco are boasting astonishing profits year in and year out. I’m taking action because this disparity is sickening and profoundly unfair.’
“The protest comes as food bank usage – already prevalent following austerity – has surged alongside spiralling inflation …
“The top three supermarkets – Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Asda – have taken advantage of increased food costs and doubled their profits to £3.32bn in 2021, up 97% on 2019. Unite’s general secretary Sharon Graham has called this ‘greedflation’ – something supermarket bosses deny …
“The group’s ‘Robin Hood’ supermarket action was inspired by British farmers who took milk off supermarket shelves in 2015 to protest the low prices they were getting paid for their produce, and by the French energy workers who send cheap electricity to schools, hospitals and working class communities.”