Johnson, Cummings and the spectacle of scandal
May 24th: We’ve finally gotten to the end of a road which has been decades in the making, in which politicians have slowly realised something that the direct action left has known for a very long time — noise is not a threat.Sorry to go all class war on you but fucking hell, class war!: Rupture Zine Lockdown Special is here
May 20th: Our friends from Rupture Zine: a publication on squats, social centres, art, activism and free parties; have produced an online lockdown special and it is full of joys.
On Crimean Tatar remembrance day, Russia is using Covid-19 as a weapon
May 18th: Banned from wearing the most basic PPE in public, detained on false counter-extremism charges, threatened with evictions, and prevented from accessing healthcare: the latest tactics by Russian occupying forces to repress and threaten Crimean Tatars.
Protesters gather at Secretary of State for Justice home demanding prisons are emptied in the midst of COVID-19 pandemic
May 14th: On Monday morning, a protest took place on the doorstep of the home of the Secretary of State for Justice, Robert Buckland in Wroughton, Borough of Swindon.
Germany: Seasonal workers force farm bosses to pay up
May 21st: Creditors who had taken over the Spargel Ritter asparagus farm in Bornheim, Bonn, thought they could get away without paying what they owed to low-waged workers, but a solid campaign organised with the FAU syndicalist union soon disabused them of that notion.
Notes from the US
May 14th: Freedom’s long-running US correspondent Louis Further does his monthly roundup of some of the lesser-known stories that have emerged over the last few weeks.
Greece: crowd gathers in Athens to protest new environmental legislation
May 7th: Thousands gathered in Athens last Monday (04.05), to protest the new anti-environmental bill, which the ruling right-wing New Democracy party made everything in its power to prepare and pass during the pandemic, with the hope of avoiding social turmoil.
A chronology of pogroms in Lesvos
May 19th: The situation on the island of Lesvos was escalating towards the freezing of all transfers of refugees to the inland, after a government decision around September 2019, while in January 2020 a new law (4636/2019) regarding the political asylum and reception conditions was put into force, changing the essence of who is entitled to a
Virtual Panopticon: Prison video calls and family support during the pandemic and beyond
May 18th: The following text was kindly contributed to Freedom by Lisa Selby @bluebaglife (follow them on Instagram and Twitter), UK Prison Wives and the UK Prison Support Group.
Interview: Alessio Kolioulis on Colin Ward’s The Child in the City and its French translation
May 13th: A French language translation of Colin Ward’s classic The Child in the City was published in March this year by Etrerotopia France – L’enfant dans la ville translated by Léa Nicolas-Teboul.
Beet & Two Veg: Grow Your Own Emancipation
May 22nd: Looking at some of the mainstream vegan publications and some of the more high profile social media superstars, you would be forgiven for thinking that veganism was a trend invented by wealthy white hipsters in the noughties which is all about weight loss, quinoa and Faux Foie Gras.
Individual sociopaths and corporate hypocrites
May 20th: Police are questioning a 57-year-old man accused of spitting on two members of staff at London Victoria train station while shouting that he had the coronavirus.
Herd immunity: a strategy for mass death
May 18th: Swedish authorities have not officially adopted “herd immunity” (which most scientists believe is achieved when more than 60 percent of the population has had the virus!).