We Need To Talk About The Politics Of Climate ExpertsBy Ian SinclairMorning Star16 May 2022 It is widely understood the very powerful forces of climate change denial have delayed action to address the climate crisis, and thus are responsible for a huge amount of suffering and deaths attributable to climate breakdown. Less appreciated is the […]
Book review: Burnt: Fighting for Climate Justice by Chris Saltmarshby Ian SinclairPeace NewsApril-May 2022 Though he doesn’t mention it in this book, I imagine activist Chris Saltmarsh is a big fan of the Chico Mendes quote that often appears on Twitter: ‘Environmentalism Without Class Struggle is Just Gardening.’ For Saltmarsh, ‘the root cause of climate […]
Foreign policy conducted on the sly: Britain and the repressive Gulf monarchiesby Ian SinclairMorning Star29 March 2022 In 1917, after listening to an account of fighting on the Western Front, Prime Minister Lloyd George is reported to have said “If people really knew [the truth], the war would be stopped tomorrow. But of course they […]
Book review. Civil Resistance: What Everyone Needs to Know by Erica Chenowethby Ian SinclairPeace NewsFebruary-March 2022 Nonviolent resistance campaigns have been twice as successful as violent campaigns in achieving their objectives. That was the conclusion of Erica Chenoweth and Maria Stephan’s Why Civil Resistance Works: The Strategic Logic of Nonviolent Conflict, making it a seminal book […]
“The climate crisis is a crisis of capitalism”: Chris Saltmarsh interviewby Ian SinclairMorning Star11 March 2022 Published at the end of last year, Burnt: Fighting for Climate Justice is the first book from Chris Saltmarsh, socialist climate campaigner and the co-founder of Labour for a Green New Deal. With top climate scientist James Hansen recently […]
How do we stop the UK enabling the bloodbath in Yemen?by Ian SinclairMorning Star16 February 2022 As we approach the seventh anniversary of the beginning of Saudi Arabia’s ongoing military intervention and blockade in Yemen, the horror continues. By the end of 2021 the United Nations Development Programme estimated 377,000 people had been killed in […]
Book review. Veteranhood: Rage and Hope in British Ex-Military Life by Joe Glentonby Ian SinclairMorning Star31 December 2021 A wide-ranging memoir-polemic, Joe Glenton sees his new book is an attempt “to address the commonly held idea that we vets are all irredeemably right-wing.” Glenton, who served in Afghanistan with the British Army’s Royal Logistical Corps […]
Shell’s U-turn on Cambo oil field: the importance of protest and public opinionby Ian Sinclair6 December 2021 After a number of high profile actions by the campaign to stop Cambo oil field against Shell, the Scottish government, at city financiers and at COP26, and no doubt a ton of other activism by a broad range […]
Why the UK Left is wrong to be so dismissive of non-violent struggleby Ian SinclairOpen Democracy20 November 2021 Non-violence is under attack. Many influential figures on the Left in the UK dismiss, misrepresent or ignore the concept of non-violent struggle, also known as civil resistance. Indeed, two books have recently been published that explicitly criticise […]
Book review. Roads, Runways and Resistance: From The Newbury Bypass to Extinction Rebellion by Steve Meliaby Ian SinclairPeace NewsOctober-November 2021 Steve Melia has taken a topic that could be dully technical and written a book that is both interesting and infused with a sense of urgency in terms of the climate crisis. Underpinned with 50 […]
