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Recent content by Hilary Wainwright

Osborne's airbrushed co-op policy

For all the Tories' fine talk of empowered workers, their plans would only undermine the public sector's democratic rebirth.

Rocking the system

A campaign is mounting for the remutualisation of Northern Rock, the bank whose collapse heralded the financial crisis. A community-owned bank would serve wider social needs, rather than private profits.

Charter for Innovation, Creativity and Access to Knowledge launched

An international coalition has launched Charter for Innovation, Creativity and Access to Knowledge as a response to the recent agreement of the European Commission on the “protection” of Internet access, brought under the pressure of the lobbies of the culture industry.

A real green deal

35 years ago, workers at the Lucas Aerospace company formulated an ‘alternative corporate plan’ to convert military production to socially useful and environmentally desirable purposes. What are the lessons for greening the world economy today?

Now to complete the democratic revolution

The current anger in Britain over MPs' misuse of public money is more than outrage at the pathetic greed of public representatives. It is a fury over a deep-seated failure of public control of public money, that should now be the basis of a movement to complete the unfinished struggle for popular sovereignty

Key to economic recovery lies in unlocking workers' creativity

The future of our public services will be as central to the next election as the future of the economy. The experience of Newcastle City Council shows that most political party leaders are wrong when they believe the solution lies in further competition and outsourcing.

Public spending, public control

Local experiments in public reform are more democratic and cost-effective than the government's centralised bailouts

There is an alternative

Socialism's all the rage. "We Are All Socialists Now," Newsweek declares. As the right wing tells it, we're already living in the USSA. But what do self-identified socialists (and their progressive friends) have to say about the global economic crisis?

Public service reform … but not as we know it!

The need for convincing alternatives to market-led politics is urgent, especially as the government continues to defer to the financial markets rather than to challenge them.

Parallel worlds
UK Foreign secretary David Miliband has described the ‘war on terror’ as a ‘mistake’. So why doesn’t he apply to same logic to Israel’s war on Gaza?
If not capitalism, what?
This moment of collapse of banks and their total dependence on public authorities is the moment to turn them into public utilities.
A place for the left
The pull of national and local identities away from Westminster is a vital clue to understanding and preparing for the unravelling of New Labour
Facing the problems, learning the lessons

Everywhere – from Brazil to Britain, from Barcelona to Berlin – the reality behind the language of ‘participation’ is contested, complex and contradictory. To encourage and support participatory democracy, a political party has to lead processes of experimentation, critical reflection and challenge, through which people are able to educate themselves to become subjects and therefore knowing actors.

Reaping what they have sown
While the radical left are in no position to say ’I told you so’, reviving public service values and practices is the only way to renew the Labour Party

The collapse of Labour ’s vote in these local elections is about something more than New Labour ’s Daily Mail electoral tactics and the stay-at-home revolt of Labour’s traditional supporters. Though this continues to be a factor – reinforced by the 10 per cent tax ’mistake’. But there’s something deeper going on and it’s less easy to reverse.

A left guide to the Italian election

A defeated Left tries to recompose
In Italy, the whole left spectrum from communists to greens has lost political representation in the space of one election. What are the lessons that can be learnt from this defeat and how can the left rise again, asks Paolo Gerbaudo

Berlusconi's victory, the disastrous results for the rainbow left - 'a new party born old' - and the increased number of no-voters in this election present new yet anticipated challenges for the radical left in Italy.

A rough guide to the Italian political crisis
Italians have often led the way in creating a European left but now they face a crisis at home that could mean the return of Silvio Berlusconi. Hilary Wainwright talks to some of them as they prepare for the April elections

The creation of a Europe-wide left has proved to be a much stickier process than I imagined in 2002 when I stood in Florence and watched the 60,000-strong demonstration of the first European Social Forum being greeted by local residents.

Rethinking political parties
The membership and influence of political parties is declining throughout the western world, and most quickly in Britain. Hilary Wainwright examines the role of the party in transformative politics and asks how the left might reimagine this crucial instrument of political change

The need for radical social change is pressing and the desire for it widespread. Traditionally, political parties have been the means of giving shape, leadership and coherence to such desires. But in present circumstances they are simply not up to the task.

The commons, the state and transformative politics
Hilary Wainwright examines how new technology and new forms of organisation are coming together to transform the left and labour movements, political representation and democracy.

The resistance to the G8 in Rostok in June this year had a particularly varied and energetic character. A massive international demonstration converging from all quarters of the town. Camps, communal kitchens and alternative forums. Clowns and samba bands. Confrontations with the police.

Democracy diary
Any Respect left?

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