Raging against Putin's war machine

In Russia and occupied Ukraine, many thousands of civilians have been jailed or forcibly disappeared for speaking out against the invasion. The numbers reflect a crackdown on dissent worse than at any point since the 1950s. My article in Jacobin.

Dave Temple, mineworker and militant

Dave Temple, who died on 13 September aged 81, was a lifelong militant in the labour movement. He worked as an electrician at Murton colliery, county Durham, and played a leading part in the mineworkers’ union for several decades. We worked closely together for much of that time, and Dave’s family asked me to write part of the eulogy read out at his funeral on 7 October by the celebrant, Nichola Reeder. With the family's agreement, I published it here.

Technological transition, the ideology of capital

My review, on People & Nature, of More, More and More: an all-consuming history of energy, by Jean-Baptiste Fressoz

Voices Against Putin's War: protesters' defiant speeches in Russian courts

I edited, and helped to translate, this collection of speeches, made in court by anti-war protesters in Russia, most of whom are now serving long jail sentences imposed by the Kremlin dictatorship. Published in October 2025 by Resistance Books. All the thanks are to the brave people whose words are featured, who have made such great sacrifices to call on their fellow citizens to resist the Putin regime's horrific onslaught on Ukraine. More about it here on People & Nature and here on Posle.Media.

Climate change is an injustice multiplier

My review, in the Ecologist, of Climate Injustice: Why We Need to Fight Global Inequality to Combat Climate Change, by Friederike Otto  

Ukraine: the ups and downs of workplace organising

My review of Oleg Dubrovsky's memoir of his activism among industrial workers in Dnipr, Ukraine, on the Commons.com.ua web site

Rooftop solar can be torn out of capital's hands

It has the potential to support co-operative, municipal and other forms of community ownership and control. The Ecologist, 7 May

Rooftop solar: glints of light in the darkening climate crisis

A global overview of rooftop solar. China has the biggest fleet; most of it is owned by corporations; in the rich world household ownership is widespread. Nevertheless, I argue, it has potential as a weapon for social justice and action on climate change. On People & Nature, 24 April.

The Silvertown tunnel is now open - and it is a terrible backward step for clean air in London

My comments in the London Evening Standard, on the day the Silvertown tunnel opened. I was involved in a years-long campaign to try to stop it, and we still call for it to be turned over to non-motor-vehicle uses, e.g. public transport and active travel

Support Ukrainian resistance, not monstrous rearmament plans

Abandon Ukraine, or cut public services to pay billions for arms spending, is a "typical neoliberal false choice". My talk at a Solidarity with Ukraine event in Brussels on 26 March, published by Labour Hub

Pakistan's rush for rooftop solar brings dreams and nightmares

Steep increases in fossil fuel prices, and a glut of cheap Chinese-made solar panels, produced a rush for solar panels by businessses and better-off households in 2023-24. That has exacerbated electricity companies' money problems, but the heaviest burden is borne by poor households who can not afford panels. My comments on People & Nature, 7 February. 

Labour embraces Saudi Arabia's dystopian energy transition

The UK's Labour government is helping Saudi Arabia dress up its criminal fossil fuel expansion drive in "green" colours. On People & Nature.