Novara

About Novara Media

Novara Media is an independent media organisation addressing the issues – from a crisis of capitalism to racism and climate change – that are set to define the 21st century. Within that context their goal is a simple one: to tell stories and provide analysis shaped by the political uncertainties of the age, elevating critical perspectives you’re unlikely to find elsewhere. Driven to build a new media for a different politics, Novara journalism is always politically committed; rather than seeking to moderate between two sides of a debate, their output actively intends to feed back into political action.

You keep up to date by following Novara on a range of social media platforms: Youtube, Facebook, and Twitter.

To meet the Novara team or email them, visit their about page

To Transform the World, the Left Must Look Beyond Elections

Luke Dukinfield - 11 September 2018

The World Transformed (TWT) is, in many ways, an initiative striving to answer some of the key questions and challenges confronting the left today. Taking place parallel to the Labour party conference, the creativity and vibrancy of this four-day-long festival of politics, arts and music is a profound break with the dispiriting orthodoxies of establishment politics.

The resurgence of the Labour party under Jeremy Corbyn has been a crucible for widespread, youth-led disillusionment with austerity and neoliberal dogma, animated by and consolidating the resistance movements sparked since the financial crash. Labour’s electoral successes have been underpinned by a return to the party’s socialist roots, harnessing the power of its vast membership base to pose a radical alternative to communities failed by business-as-usual. In order to formulate, execute and extend this vision of emancipation, the base must be empowered in and beyond elections through rigorous debate, grassroots organizing, and robust cultures of community-forming crystallised in institutions like TWT.... See more

Wonga Might Be Uniquely Unscrupulous, But the Whole Commercial Banking System is Out to Get Us

Grace Blakeley - 28 August 2018

This month, Wonga – the infamous payday lender – has found itself in financial difficulties. The trouble started when a clampdown on payday lending in 2013 brought some of the industry’s less scrupulous practices to light. Many payday lenders were accused of targeting vulnerable customers with extremely high interest rates, deceptive advertising, and aggressive debt collection practices.

In 2014, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) imposed limits on the amounts payday lenders were able to charge in interest, which has hit profits. But the real source of Wonga’s difficulties has been the dramatic hike in compensation claims from customers who took out loans before 2013. The increased scrutiny to which payday lenders were subjected led to a spike in cases brought against them by claims management companies.

Wonga’s fall from grace has been quite dramatic. In 2011, the company was making £45m in profits on revenues of £185m. Some estimated it was worth up to $1bn. When regulators finally caught up with the payday lenders the party stopped pretty quickly. In 2015, Wonga reported losses of £80m, followed by further losses of £66m in 2016. Today, it is worth just $30m.... See more

Labour’s Obligation to Peace Between Israel and Palestine Starts by Rejecting the IHRA Examples

Aaron Bastani - 17 August 2018

In 2016 the Labour party accepted the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism. This summer it went further, admitting word-for-word eight of the eleven examples alongside that definition, while adding to the other three in its new code of conduct. Those modifications led to swift condemnation, and with Jeremy Corbyn now hinting compromise, wholesale acceptance seems likely.

In truth only one of those examples is a stumbling block in any accommodation. This is the claim that stating Israel is a ‘racist endeavour’ denies Jews their right to self-determination and, as a result, is evidence of antisemitic bigotry.

The nature of the debate principally understands racism as an issue of rhetoric, with limits to free speech necessary to safeguard a minority. It’s unsurprising, then, that the response from those opposed to the IHRA examples view them as limiting justified criticism of Israel’s actions....

Wildfires and Tower Block Blazes Aren’t Freak Accidents – These Are the Fires of Austerity

Alex King - 1 August 2018

The day after wildfires tore along Athens’ east coast, I was stuck in a traffic jam. We were sitting in the seaside town of Mati, the epicentre of the inferno, where at least 91 people are known to have died. Some trees were still smouldering. Many of the houses were blackened shells, others looked like they had been hit by cruise missiles.

Many stuck in the jam were ordinary people; Greeks who had loaded up their cars with supplies and driven out to help. They were motivated not only by a heartfelt empathy for those chased from their homes by fire but, most tragically, by a lack of faith in a hollowed-out, austerity-ravaged state to meet victims’ basic needs in the disaster’s aftermath.

As grief has turned to anger, the parallels with last summer’s Grenfell Tower fire which claimed 71 lives are becoming increasingly apparent. The more we learn, the more we realise these are not freak accidents: the unacceptable death tolls in both the Athens seaside town and the Kensington tower block are a direct result of neoliberal government policies; a withered state that abandoned its people and left them to burn. These are the fires of austerity. And, as always, the charred remains are those of people like us.... See more

 

---