Editorial

John Prescott has long been the laughing stock of British politics. Pompous, incoherent and serving no obviously useful function he is occasionally nominally in charge of running the British state

 

Civil liberties

Forest Gate fiasco: cops shoot first, lie later

250 police officers, many of them armed, raided a house in Forest Gate in East London, on 2nd June. Mohammed Abdul Kahar and his brother, Abdul Koyair, were arrested. One of them was shot. Both were held for a week and then released without charge. Others were seriously assaulted and arrested, to be released later without charge.

 

Environment

More than 350 people packed into the Campaign against Climate Change national conference on June 3 to discuss stepping up action against the devastation facing humanity unless we act now to reduce green house gas emissions. The conference brought together existing activists with those wanting to get involved. TERRY CONWAY reports.

 

LGBT Rights

George Bush’s recent pronouncements that he wants to amend the US constitution to enshrine marriage as something that can only take place between a man and a woman is not just a piece of homophobia dreamt up in his own brain.

 

Latin America

On no continent is neoliberalism so widely rejected as in Latin America, and nowhere has the resurgence of the Left been so powerful. The election of Evo Morales in Bolivia and the evolution of the Hugo Chávez government in Venezuela are hugely ideologically important.