OpenDemocracy

About openDemocracy

openDemocracy is an independent global media platform publishing up to 60 articles a week and attracting over 8 million visits per year.

Through reporting and analysis of social and political issues, openDemocracy seeks to educate citizens to challenge power and encourage democratic debate across the world. With human rights as our central guiding focus, and open-mindedness as our method, we ask tough questions about freedom, justice and democracy.

openDemocracy aim to help those fighting for their rights gain the agency to make their case and to inspire action.

Radical democracy and municipal movements

Jeremy Gilbert, Rahel Sophia Süß, and Alessio Kolioulis - 22 September 2018

Can politics in cities and in Corbyn’s Labour Party come together to facilitate potent collectivities through an explicit commitment to radical democracy? Jeremy Gilbert in conversation.

engagée “Radical Cities”(eRC): In the last two decades, western democracies have been witnessing a steady rise of anti-democratic trends and disappointment with politics. Faced with these challenges, contemporary democracies appear vulnerable and unable to defend themselves. At the same time, a radical change is taking place. Movements in cities around the world – through platforms and transnational networks – are experimenting with new forms of democratic practices and political institutions. This reminds us that the radical history of the last two centuries brought about new theoretical toolboxes which activists have used to overturn and change those concepts that undermine key political notions. To what extent do current political movements challenge traditional notions of democracy, power, and social change?... See more

The councils trying to use Grenfell as an excuse to clear estates

Becka Hudson - 20 September 2018

Since a fire killed 72 people in London's Grenfell Tower, councils have been using safety concerns to try to move people out of housing estates.

It seemed, at least for a time after the Grenfell fire, that social housing was atop the political agenda. Housing was centred at party conferences, discussed in reams of media, and organisations from across the political spectrum issued announcements, green papers, and reports on the topic. Many argued that Grenfell must signal a turning point in how the UK houses people. Amidst this discussion, we were introduced to the fire’s likely causes. There were those named individuals, from councillors to contractors, and then there were its systemic roots. A deeply embedded ‘culture’ of neglect and dispossession: the ignoring of tenants, the arbitrary revocation of crucial safety law, and widespread social cleansing of blocks, estates and entire neighbourhoods under the guise of ‘regeneration’... See more

Why the public debt should be treated as an asset

John Weeks - 20 September 2018

The 20th century American comedian Rodney Dangerfield had a catchphrase: “I don’t get no respect”. The public debt is the Rodney Dangerfield of government finances. It is a long term benefit treated as perennial problem.

When we change our perspective on of the nature, size and ownership of the UK public debt we can see that it poses no threat to economic stability. Its size is modest and its burden on taxpayers is minor. If we treat the national debt as an asset, we can use it as a means to end austerity....

Fairness, respect and community should be the driving forces behind immigration policy

Charlotte Threipland - 18 September 2018

Leading immigration campaigners call on UK government to take values-based approach to immigration post-Brexit

The publication of the Migration Advisory Committee’s (MAC) final report, establishing the UK’s immigration labour needs after Brexit, is welcome. For Britain to have a successful immigration and asylum system, we need a clearly defined objective.

However, economic labour needs are only half the picture. If we are to take the opportunity to create a new immigration system which works for everyone we must base our approach on values which reflect who we are as a country and why we run things as we do. Values like fairness, respect and community.... See more

There is an alternative to neoliberalism – in Britain and beyond

Laurie Macfarlane - 18 September 2018

Laurie Macfarlane introduces 'New Thinking for the British Economy' – openDemocracy's new eBook outlining a new economic agenda for Britain....

Parliament watchdog probes Rees-Mogg’s hard Brexit lobby group over “other sources of funding”

James Cusick, Jenna Corderoy, and Peter Geoghegan - 13 September 2018

Emails released by UK parliamentary standards watchdog reveal a ‘second’ bank account held by the powerful ERG group of Tory MPs, as they pressure May to abandon Chequers.

The UK parliamentary standards watchdog is probing the financial affairs of a group of Tory ultra-Brexiteers, led by Jacob Rees-Mogg and former Brexit Minister Steve Baker, openDemocracy can reveal today.

The European Research Group (ERG) has dominated news headlines this week, with reports of plots to oust prime minister Theresa May if she does not abandon her Chequers plan, and putting forward heavily criticised proposals for the Irish border.

In June, the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA) wrote to the ERG seeking clarification about how it uses taxpayer money – and other unknown “sources of funding”. IPSA was reacting to concerns about public money being misused to support the ERG’s high-profile political campaign for a hard-line, uncompromised Brexit.

The ERG has received ‘research funds’ (paid out of MPs’ expense claims, and therefore ultimately funded by the taxpayer) from the offices of key current and former cabinet ministers such as Michael Gove, Sajid Javid, Andrea Leadsom, Penny Mordaunt, Chris Grayling, David Gauke and David Davis. The group uses one bank account to lodge the funds received from IPSA for parliamentary ‘research’ services.... See more

“Britons never will be slaves”: the rise of nationalism and ‘modern slavery’

Elizabeth A. Faulkner - 11 September 2018

Right wing voices are using the spectre of ‘enslaved’ Britons to prop up their xenophobic and nationalistic appeals.

This summer the British government publicly expressed concerns that holidaymakers heading to Majorca might end up trapped in ‘modern slavery’. In response to this perceived threat, the UK Border Force launched a week-long awareness raising operation on labour exploitation which The Sun described, in its typical style, as “MAGA Slave Hell”.

The most interesting feature of this case is the specific focus on Britons as potential victims. It is a marked departure from the established convention of focusing upon ‘outsiders’ as both the victims and the perpetrators, such as foreign nationals working in nail bars and other foreign nationals forcing them to do so. Take, for example, the Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority’s (GLAA) 'Strategy for Protecting Vulnerable and Exploited Workers 2018-2021'. Or the 'Spot the signs' guide by the GLAA, which uses leading statements such as “unfamiliar with the local language” or “be distrustful of authorities” as identifying features of slavery .... See more

Why positive thinking won’t get you out of poverty

Farwa Sial and Carolina Alves - 11 September 2018

To say that poor people don’t have enough hope, tenacity and aspiration is to deny their agency as well as the size of the structural odds they face.

In a recent article in the New York Times, the development economist Seema Jayachandran discusses three studies that used Randomised Controlled Trials (or RCTs) to understand the benefits of enhancing the self-worth of poor people. Despite wide differences in context, all the cases explore the viability of ‘modest interventions’ to ‘instill hope’ in marginalised communities, concluding that ‘remarkable improvements’ in the quest for poverty reduction are possible.

One of the studies from Uganda, for example, argues that “a role model can have significant effects on students’ educational attainment,” so the suggestion for policy-makers might be “to place more emphasis on motivation and inspiration through example.” Another case study of sex workers in Kolkata Brothels argues that “psychological barriers impede such disadvantaged groups from breaking the vicious circle and achieving better outcomes in life,” so small but effective changes that address these psychological constraints can alleviate the effects of poverty and social exclusion... See more

Platform parties vs plutocrat PR: welcome to the future of UK politics

Adam Ramsay - 10 September 2018

Deserted by members, right-wing parties serve the rich, while people have flocked to centre and left alternatives, only to be smeared as "dogs" and "Trots".

The SNP has more members than the Conservatives. Labour is the biggest it’s been since the Sixties. The Lib Dems recruited nearly 20,000 people over 2017 and are the biggest they’ve been in 20 years, and the Greens have around twice as many members as UKIP.

These figures, published by the House of Commons library last week, tell an important story about the future of our politics.... See more

Northern Ireland: the border is coming?

Luke Butterly - 7 September 2018

Earlier this year, the wording in a Home Office recruitment campaign sparked a small controversy. As part of a drive to recruit an additional 1000 border force officers post-Brexit, the 21 jobs advertised in Belfast were only open to those with a British passport – “due to the sensitive nature of the work, require special allegiance to the Crown”.

In the north of Ireland, a painstakingly-crafted peace agreement allows citizens to identify as Irish, British or both – and are entitled to hold both or either passport. With less than half the population identifying primarily or solely as British, many would be excluded.

The ‘British only’ only aspect of the job adverts also echoed the decades of institutional discrimination that the Catholic minority had faced in terms of employment, where government ministers openly invited employers to discriminate.... See more

 

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