[I interviewed Jacques Rancière a little while ago. The whole thing will be up on ephemera at some point soon, but in the meantime, I thought some of you might like what he has to say about the internet. I know I did. Thanks to Jon Melling for the transcription].

[at this point I asked Rancière about the relationship between the book as he describes it in The Ignorant Schoolmaster and the internet]

’...So with the internet of course the question is different, but I think certainly it makes sense how many...

Far right would-be terrorists are, despite their best efforts, failing to make the news in any serious way. Take the recent ricin plot, which was a) far more serious than the bogus one and b) motivated by neo-Nazi ideology (although the BBC mysteriously failed to mention this). I don’t want to bore you with all that stuff about "imagine the media reaction if this was a Muslim". However, imagine the media reaction if this was a Muslim. Imagine the government reaction. These aspiring mass killers are...

Have a look at the current edition of Indieoma, which includes an exclusive tribute by Roberto Saviano (who wrote Gomorrah) to Miriam Makeba the civil rights activist and singer who died whilst performing in support of Saviano in Napoli in 2008 (there’s a Miriam Makeba tribute concert taking place in Rome on Sunday).

They also have Lorenzo Marsili giving an interview on race relations and free speech in Berlusconi’s Italy, and loads else besides.

Five victims of the Holy Land Foundation witch hunt, including Ghassan Elhashi (left) and Shukri abu Baker (right) sentenced to 65 years in jail in a modern U.S. witch trial. More on Democracy Now.

Social workers are under increasing pressure, with two thirds reporting an increase in workload over the last six months. According to a new report commissioned by the Local Government Association, child protection workers are averaging 14 cases at a time. Some of them, surveyed for the report by Loughborough University researchers, said they are devoting up to three quarters of their time on paperwork. There is a widespread perception that this distracts from the ‘frontline’ work of engaging with...

The government has imposed a massive visa fee increase for visas for vulnerable relatives hoping to move to Britain - way above the costs paid by multimillionaire international football stars.

The cost of a visa for an adult dependent will leap almost 300 percent frrom £585 to £1,680 from April 6 this year - and immigration minister Phil Woolas has confirmed this is way above the actual administrative costs of the application.


Dr Evan Harris, who is member of the Joint Committee on Human Rights,...

London Mayor Boris Johnson has responded to the Rape Crisis campaign - which included direct action at City Hall - and will now meet his promise to support victims of sexual violence in the capital.
Three new Rape Crisis Centres will now finally open this year to offer vital support and advice to thousands of vulnerable women, the mayors office has confirmed.

I have been sent this lengthy document titled Delegitimization of Israel: "Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions". I’m posting the whole thing here but, be warned, I said it’s lengthy and it has been suggested that it could be a double bluff intended more for the eyes of BDS advocates than BDS opponents. One of my correspondents also thought it read like a "protocols" type forgery.

It was emailed to me and at the time of writing I could only find one source for it on the internet though it could now be...

Last Monday, the Supreme Court declined to review a case brought on behalf of seven men in Guantánamo whose release into the United States was ordered by a US judge 17 months ago. The men in question are Uighurs, Muslims from China’s Xinjiang province, and the ruling ordering them to be rehoused in the US was made in October 2008 by Judge Ricardo Urbina. In light of the Supreme Court’s June 2008 ruling, in Boumediene v. Bush, granting the Guantánamo prisoners habeas corpus rights, the government...

What connects these three things? The answer is Stieg Larsson’s novel ‘The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo’, which I read a little while back. The film version opens in UK cinemas this Friday, so it feels like an opportune time to post a few brief comments on the original novel.

The opening volume in Larsson’s Millennium trilogy (Millennium is the name of the business magazine of which co-protagonist Mikael Blomkvist is a publisher) covers a huge amount of ground, thematically and in sheer plot detail, across...

Ady Cousins has posted videos of Saturday’s talks by Lindsey German and Nina Power about twenty first century feminism: ‘Around 100 people packed into every space in Housmans bookshop London to hear Nina Power and Lindsey German launch the Manifesto for 21st Century Feminism. Speeches and analysis from Nina and Lindsey were followed by an intelligent and informed discussion. Future meetings around the manifesto are planned.’

This blog’s tagline is a great visionary statement - inspiring and hopeful - from Arundhati Roy. I’m thrilled to discover I’m not its only fan. Someone has realised it would look great on a shirt and - hey presto! - this new creation from Philosophy Football, who have this to say:

Philosophy Football launches their ‘women of dissent T-shirt range featuring Angela Davis, La Pasionaria, Emma Goldman and Colombian political prisoner, Liliany Obando. And fronting the range the feminised version of ‘another...

Mark Tyers has written a very good report of yesterday’s 200-strong Newcastle rally in support of striking civil servants. It appears at Counterfire, as part of the site’s coverage of the dispute.

“Today is a day born in struggle”- Martin Levy, local UCU leader, in reference to international women’s day.

A sun soaked Greys Monument welcomed the two-hundred or so civil servants and their supporters who had made the trip from their freezing cold morning picket lines for the Public and Commercial Services...

Bankers forced to cope with bonuses in their low millions have a new way to save money - free tickets to see Michael Moore’s latest film Capitalism: A Love Story.

The first 50 bankers who arrive for the screening of the documentary at the Prince Charles cinema in London from March 12 and produce a wage slip as proof will be allowed in without having to pay.

A spokesperson for the cinema said: Hopefully Michael will teach these bankers something about the error of  their ways? Hopefully they will learn that...

If you are a student at a London university and are eligible to vote in the ULU 2010 elections, I strongly recommend you vote for Clare Solomon. Clare is one of the most brilliant people I have ever met, and she manages to do frankly inhuman levels of political work - she was key in the SOAS student occupations last year and is involved in the Students not Suspects campaign against immigration rules, among many other all good things. Vote here.

Also - not that this should matter - she has great hair....