local government

A response to the article 'Only Doing Your Job?' on campaigns against the Job Seekers Allowance, which appeared in issue 22 of Subversion.

The debate (which is picked up in subsequent articles in this issue) is especially concerned with the role of workers in benefits offices.

These events were not an aberration from democracy, because simply the USA were never democratic in the first place. They weren’t democratic when they had slaves, they certainly weren’t democratic when the segregation laws were in place, the separation of normal citizens and Others due to the color of their skin, and of course, they remained un-democratic when the Jim Crow laws withdrew and the ugly systemic racism was swept under the rag.

An essay written in 2018 and updated in 2020 during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in New York and prior to the June 2020 uprisings. Explores the death of a woman named 'Kathy' through the eyes of a frontline social worker. Originally published on the website of Hard Crackers.

The state and capital always attack the freedom of the social base, steal its labor and resources. In recent years we have experienced one of the most violent attacks through the massive impoverishment of people who are already oppressed and exploited.
On the other hand, there has been widespread social resistance and solidarity. People have created a variety of self-organized spaces such as housing infrastructure, social medical centers, community kitchens, open parks and public spaces which are just some of the main examples.