Are the EU’s attempts to promote human rights in Russia capable of going beyond mere rhetoric, asks Eleanor Bindman? Or does the EU’s policy simply pay lip-service to its stated human rights ideals while allowing the Union to pursue other policy objectives which it sees as more important? Part 1
Instead of rejecting the Conservatives' Big Society outright, the left should endorse its values but argue that the state has an important role to play in fostering them.
Markha Valenta opens up a new openDemocracy space - Inter Alia - for the discussion of politics, religion and culture
Today, we see that the rules of western European racism are shifting. On the one hand, they are becoming less racialist; on the other hand they are seeking to become official. How should we Europeans understand this, and how should we respond? In the first of her Inter Alia columns, Markha Valenta
How will the left respond to the clear challenge of the Conservatives' Big Society project? In the latest in our series, Rachael Maskell, of Unite, argues that the Big Society idea is simply a smoke-screen for the privatisation of public services.
Why do we always seem to be at war? Is it because our physical and psychological distance from the carnage helps to sustain our self-belief as a peaceful people?
How will the left respond to the clear challenge of the Conservatives' Big Society project? Tessa Jowell MP, former Minister for Culture, Media and Sport, gives her view.
A new private members' bill aims to reverse the onerous restrictions on trade unions in the UK.
How will the left respond to the clear challenge of the Conservatives' Big Society project? Matthew Taylor, chief executive of the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA), gives his view.
How will the left respond to the clear challenge of the Conservatives' Big Society project? Will Straw, editor of Left Foot Forward, argues that social enterprise works best in partnership with the state, and cannot be expected to replace it.
The bureaucratic state of the mid-20th century ran its useful course, and the attempt to return to a mythical nineteenth century market state failed us. Sociologist Zygmunt Bauman helps us to think our way beyond both
The "Big Society" idea is a phony PR invention dreamt up by people with little experience in civil society. Government cuts will destroy the culture of volunteering that Labour helped create.
