From Little Things Big Things Grow

Vincent Lingiari was an Aboriginal rights activist in Australia. This beautiful song tells the story of his struggle to reclaim the land of his people.

Gather round people ill tell you a story
An eight year long story of power and pride
British Lord Vestey and Vincent Lingiari
Were opposite men on opposite sides

Vestey was fat with money and muscle
Beef was his business, broad was his door
Vincent was lean and spoke very little
He had no bank balance, hard dirt was his floor

From little things big things grow
From little things big things grow

The Political Scene – The Grim Reality

This edition of the New Yorker podcast on US politics is pretty grim listening. Some take-away points from me.

• The power of money in politics – if it gets lobbied for, it gets in.
• The Tea Party is the right-wing of the Republican Party rebranded, allowing it to evade all the horrors of the right-wing legacy.
• The Republicans are managing to criticise the effects of a crisis they created.
• The Republicans are once again setting the political agenda (as they have since Reagan) – after a two-year blip where Obama’s administration was lining up the issues.
• The left is too afraid of a fight. We need to draw battle lines, otherwise we lose the battle.

Link Loving 13.03.11

• Tom’s Dispatch works out the real U.S. national security budget and the numbers really are crazy.
• How to be happy.
• Many farmers in the Global South can double food production within a decade by shifting to ecological agriculture from use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides, says UN report.
• Damian Carrington gives us an insight inside the Defra bunker.
• Dave Cullen on where now for direct action on climate change?
• New low for winter Arctic sea ice cover – tied with levels in 2005. Carbon Brief.
• Dominic Basulto on how women are changing the web.
• New report on the impacts of climate change on disadvantaged UK coastal communities. Climate Justice in the UK people.
• Data visualisation of the day – rate of passport ownership in the US.
• Craig Newmark, founder of Craigslist, explains what his new project is all about. It’s called Craigconnects.

Committing Seppukoo – Facebook Suicide

So you want to leave Facebook?

I’m staying put, but do like the way they have re-interpreted how friendships can be measured.

A Business Revolution

The Coop’s launch of their new CSR plan had the promising title ‘Join The Revolution‘. With characteristic northern gutsy-ness, the launch traced the 47 bold commitments made by the group on everything from clean energy, fairtrade and youth empowerment to the humble origins of the Coop in 1844, as they do in this TV ad.

But I think the Coop are under-selling what they’re doing. This is more than just a corporate responsibility program – this is a new (or very old) model of how business can be done.

A highlight of the evening had to be Jonathon Porritt taking the stage and giving a (no-doubt unvetted) speech about the need to end capitalism. Always a good conversation starter.

Link Loving 12.03.11

• After the massive success for indigenous rights and environmental protection stopping a massive dam in Brazil, is Ethiopia next? Peter Moszynski.
• John Tierney on how some economists say it’s possible that improved energy efficiency can paradoxically lead to more greenhouse emissions.
• Kellog’s CSR – upload a picture of your breakfast, and they’ll donate a breakfast to a child who might go without.
• Devinder Sharma questions whether India’s GDP growth rate is as good as some economists are saying.
• Meet the three generations of feminists who launched a revolution of their own in the middle of Tahrir Square.
• If you’re at university next year, you should apply to this Tar Sands youth exchange.
• The full Paxman/Chomsky interview.
• Very large companies pay lower rates of corporation tax than smaller businesses, according to research by Oxford University. Financial Times.
• Great Economist interview with Lucy Walker on her new documentary about art/waste/Brazil.

Tell Us What You’re For

This piece by George Monbiot is a gem. In it he suggests some practical policies that those coming to the big March for the Alternative on March 26th might like to get behind.

This paragraph stood out for me particularly –

We need to redress the balance between cuts and tax rises (currently 3:1), as fairly as possible. That means starting with the UK’s most regressive form of taxation: national insurance. This levy is so unfair that it’s hard to understand why it hasn’t received more attention. On earnings of up to £844 a week, you currently pay 11% national insurance. On earnings beyond that point, you pay 1%. We should raise the national insurance rate for higher earnings from 1% to 15%. This would help to address a wider injustice: the poorest 10% of UK households pay proportionately more tax (direct and indirect) than the richest 10%.

A campaign on national insurance contributions? Talk about popular! Taking on the Treasury? Talk about strategic…

Sell Or Not – Channel 4 Takes The Bait

I may or may not have recently bought the book ‘Winning Arguments‘. It profiles the rhetorical tools to use to undermine opposing positions, an example of which we have here.

‘Sell Or Not’, an online game on the Channel 4 website to accompany the Dispatches programme broadcast on Monday, gives players various options of what they’d want to cut. It asks whether you’d rather cut Gibralter or the Armed Forces? A uranium mine or the Bank of England sports center? NHS or the Royal Mint?

It totally accepts the premise that cuts are necessary, and opens up the idea of auctioning off entirely novel national assets, not as yet discussed in the public domain.

This is highly political stuff. Has Channel 4 taken the narrative put out by Conservative spin doctors as fact, or is there someone at Channel 4 who is quite keen on destroying public services and the British state?

Link Loving 11.03.11

• John Horn on the power of playing war games – but only if we get the design right.
• Launch of new think-tank, The Centre For London, housed within Demos.
• Conversations with computers.
• Government will help pay to train 1,000 apprentices to insulate homes as part of its green deal energy plan.
• Bill McKibben, Phil Radford, Becky Tarbotton get behind US direct climate action. In a big way.
• 10:10 have a nice map of case studies who took part in saving carbon last year.
• Margaret Wheatley’s new book is out this month. *Joy*
• Al Jazeera’s ‘region in termoil’ dashboard. How news should be done on new media.
• Caroline Lucas may just have convinced me the other way on HS2.
• 10 great guerrilla marketing campaigns.
• Phil Boucher on when protestors go to far.

Young People On The Cuts

Neat short video from Demos/The Cooperative accompanying this report.

Particularly striking was one of the final points made by Ashley, where he says something along the lines of – ‘it wasn’t my spending and borrowing that got us into this mess, and I’ll be stuck with this problem for a long time. I want to just get on with it.’

Young people want to make things work. It’s the responsibility of societal institutions to allow them to do that.