Poverty

Poverty

• Decade of austerity: 10 reasons to get the Tories out

  

  Tory PM Boris Johnson cannot be allowed to pretend that ten years of Tory rule are nothing to do with him, argues Alex Snowdon 

• Suicide rates at 20 year high: an indictment of Tory austerity

  

  Rising suicide rates show the monumental human cost of Tory austerity and why we urgently need to get them out of power, argues Mona Kamal

• The social cost of austerity is detrimental to us all

  

  A new report shows austerity is strangling the UK economy and impoverishing working people, writes John Rees

• Peabody: moral lepers in Charityland

  

  Join the workers' alternative to the Housing Association Awards gala dinner on May Day, urges Richard Allday

• Knife crime and youth violence: poverty, powerlessness and a way ahead

  

  A commission has found that austerity has played a central role in creating the conditions for the spike in knife crime around the country, reports Kiri Tunks

• 12 reasons to protest on Saturday for a General Election Now

  

  The Tories have fashioned a Britain of destitution and booming social injustice. We need to mobilise to force a general election, writes William Hendy

• France's streets flooded with protest three days before Christmas

  

  The Yellow Vests outwitted Macron's repressive state forces to stage a surprise mobilisation in Paris and storm towns and roundabouts across France, reports Susan Ram

• Counterfire's books of the year - part one

  

  We asked a few leading campaigners and performers from the left what books have inspired them over the last twelve months

• The People's Assembly launch the Britain is Broken campaign

  

  Austerity has failed but it continues to wreak havoc for millions of people. Shabbir Lakha reports from the launch of a new campaign to end austerity

• Food banks gone, rough sleeping gone: this is what the end of austerity should look like

  

  Austerity has fundamentally reshaped our society and continues to intensify inequality.  It must be ended and those responsible must be held to account, insists Counterfire

• Universal Credit: the cruellest cut

  

  The Tory government's welfare reform programme ruins lives and must be scrapped, argues Steph Pike

• We must stop Universal Credit now: it's already wrecking lives

  

  The government has pushed the full roll-out of Universal Credit further down the road, but we must stop it altogether, argues John Rees

• The Palestinians deserve better than this – weekly briefing

  

  Any concessions on anti-imperialism will not only weaken Jeremy Corbyn but the whole of the radical left, argues Lindsey German

• Why summer holidays are a time of dread and not joy for many families

  

  We are not a poor society, and should not be failing our children like this, argues Kelly Grahan

• Don’t look here, look there: the one percent, inequality and Jeremy Corbyn - weekly briefing

  

  The rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer isn’t a fact of life; it’s a set of politics that we can change, argues Lindsey German 

• We’ve seen the largest rise in poverty since Thatcher: resistance is a necessity

  

  The latest figures on living standards tell us austerity’s class warfare is more dangerous than ever. Mass struggle is an urgent requirement, argues John Clarke

• The rise of president ‘AMLO’: Mexico’s left turn?

  

  The landslide triumph of anti-establishment figure Andrés Manuel López Obrador has emerged from a disastrous social and economic crisis for Mexico’s ruling order and traditional party, opening up a new era of possibility for the left, argues Sean Ledwith

• Why was Marielle Franco assassinated?

  

  The campaigner became a target after standing up for the rights of Rio’s poor communities

• Tales of Two Americas: Stories of Inequality in a Divided Nation - book review

  

  A new collection of writing about poverty in the US shows that America is broken, but the answer is to join in the struggles on the streets, argues Elaine Graham-Leigh.

• Kensington and Chelsea: a tale of two boroughs

  

  Doctor, activist and local resident Mona Kamal describes the genesis of a tragedy

• Can neuroscience change our minds?

  

  Steven and Hilary Rose debunk the ideologically loaded claims of reductionist neuroscience in a short but clear book, finds Elaine Graham-Leigh

• Hunger Pains: Life inside Foodbank Britain

  

  Austerity policies targeting the benefits system have created enormous suffering, as a study of the rise of foodbanks shows, finds Ellen Graubart

• I, Daniel Blake: the tragic ramifications of austerity

  

  Tom Griffiths reviews Ken Loach's new film, which gives viewers a glimpse into the heartbreaking realities of austerity Britain

• Latin America: reformism hits the rocks

  

  As the economic downturn hits Latin America, Dan Morgan considers the impact on progressive developments and looks ahead to the role of political organisations

• Cutting student bursaries only makes the NHS crisis worse

  

  Danielle Tiplady takes a look at how the Tories' policies are destroying the NHS

• Housing for need not for greed

  

  Social housing is no longer an option for all but a handful, writes Alastair Stephens

• A Diet of Austerity: the war on weight

  

  How the working class is blamed for the world’s ills: The final extract from Elaine Graham-Leigh's new book, A Diet of Austerity: Class Food and Climate Change

• A Diet of Austerity: blaming the poor

  

  In this extract from her new book Elaine Graham-Leigh argues that food production and consumption is now a mainstream explanation for climate change - and part of shifting blame onto the poor