Former UN special rapporteur says city development should ‘create landscapes for life, not landscapes for rent’

Professor Raquel Rolnik, a former UN special rapporteur, condemned the financialisation of housing provision in cities across the world, which she says is responsible for rising rents, increasing evictions and homelessness in many countries. Rolnik says neoliberal economic philosophy underpins this radical change in housing provision, which is failing to provide housing to those most […]

‘There are no co-ops in Moneyland’- author Oliver Bullough at the Co-op Congress in Manchester (pt.2)

The previous episode of this story outlined Oliver Bullough’s concept of Moneyland, which he reports on in his latest book and explained to the Co-operative Congress in Manchester. It describes a complex Steal-Hide-Spend system used by affluent people across the world, often in positions of power, who by corruption or other illegal activities steal huge […]

Manchester’s media co-operative takes wing: we need your help to make it soar

The Meteor media co-operative was launched on Thursday 4 July, a date we have adopted as Manchester’s media Independence Day. Manchester’s citizens and community organisations gathered at the Methodist Central Hall for an evening of performance, celebration and active discussion on the current state of our local media and how together, through a co-operative model of […]

A democratic media for Manchester

Traditional media is in crisis. A shrinking number of corporations control more and more of our media, as they try to survive the Digital Revolution destroying the advertising-based business model they relied on. Journalists are laid off and titles closed, as the media corporations protect their bottom line and shareholder pay-outs. This relentless attrition of […]

Food Poverty Action Plan aims to tackle hidden crisis in GM

The latest estimates are that 620,000 people in Greater Manchester are living in poverty, and struggle to put food on the table. Of those, around 200,000 are children experiencing food poverty. £30 billion per year has been cut from welfare budgets since 2010. By 2020, Local councils will have lost 60% of central government funding […]

Bus companies should be forced to provide a fleet that does not harm us

Pascale Robinson from The Better Buses for Greater Manchester campaign argues that re-regulating our bus services would improve our health, environment and economy. Better Buses are putting on a film and Q&A session at Bolton Socialist Club, Friday 22 March, 8 till 10pm. “The public ownership of rail, better control of bus services and investment […]