Freedom News

Italy: On conditions in Mammagialla Prison

A prisoner at the jail in Viterbo, north-west of Rome, whistleblows on laughable “protections” which were put in place at the heavily overcrowded facility when a 50-year-old officer tested positive for Covid-19. On March 25th news arrived about a screw on duty at the prison of Mammagialla resulting positive to the coronavirus. The news was

Food, poverty, mutual aid: Reflections from Birmingham solidarity kitchen

According to a recent report by The Food Foundation, 1.5 million people have reported going an entire day without food due to poverty during the coronavirus crisis. This is as sickening as it is unsurprising. Ten years of brutal austerity had already left millions living pay-check to pay-check before the shuttering of the economy. Now,

This week in Class War Daily

It’s been another busy week for Class War Daily: the world’s only daily anarchist newspaper (we think; please feel free to alert us to any others). Here’s a quick round-up of what they’ve been covering. Monday 20th April The Daily led with an open letter to UK Secretary of State for Health and Social Care,

Tug of class war: Agamben vs Zizek on the impact of Covid-19

Panos Theodoropoulos analyses a war of words which has broken out between two well-known political philosophers over the nature of State reactions to Covid-19 and the possibilities for liberatory politics, while trying to find a constructive synthesis of their key points. Turning Marx on his head, I want to focus on interpreting the recent conjuncture in terms

The fragility of the system

The Covid-19 pandemic has sparked widespread economic difficulty and societal issues, forcing States across the globe to act in accordance. With stock markets crashing, and state intervention rising, many observers praise the States of the world in their handling of the crisis. I have personally seen more people on social media than ever before comment

Government quietly introduces new lockdown restrictions

At 11am yesterday (Wednesday 22.04.20), the government quietly tightened lockdown restrictions across England. The Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2020 amends the previous statutory instrument (SI. 2020/350) that forms the legal basis for lockdown measures, most notably the restrictions on freedom of movement. As I have detailed previously in these pages, the legal

Syndicalist unions and Covid-era resistance: A CIT roundup

The anarcho-syndicalist international, founded in 2018, looks at workplace struggle in its branches worldwide and calls for the building of new forms of solidarity amid the lockdowns. With the corona crisis, the world has suddenly entered a new phase of intense class struggle. This is impressively documented by a map of (for the most part) wildcat strikes

Dealing with 420 under lockdown

Thanks to the immutable cultural significance of the number 420*, the 20th of April has become certified official International Weed Day and it’s landed right in the middle of lockdown.