Volume Two -> A. Campaigns for Social and Economic Justice -> A.8. Resistance since Financial Crisis of 2008
Mason, Paul Why Its Kicking Off Everywhere: The New Global Revolutions, London, Verso, 2012 , pp. 237

Wide-ranging exploration, by BBC economics journalist, of campaigns round the world since 2008, including the Arab uprisings of 2011, but mainly focused on resistance to economic policies and including accounts of protest in UK, USA and Greece. Discusses economic and social causes of unrest and role of new communications.

Fillmore-Patrick, Hannah The Iceland Experiment (2009-2013): A Participatory Approach to Constitutional Reform, issue New Series 02, 2013 , pp. -20

Examines the financial collapse and the popular protests in ‘the Kitchenware Revolution’ (which included banging pots and pans), which led to widespread popular involvement in changing the constitution to prevent a future financial collapse and betrayal of trust.

Hilary, John The Poverty of Capitalism: Economic Meltdown and the Struggle for What Comes Next, London, Pluto Press, 2013 , pp. 240

Analysis by War on Want director of how neoliberal elite is using the 2008 crisis to entrench its own power and impose neoliberal policies on Greece, Spain, Portugal and Ireland. The book ends with a sketch of the growing worldwide struggle against neoliberalism and suggesting how alternatives might be strengthened.

Hosseini, Sayed Alternative Globalizations: An Integrative Approach to Studying Dissident Knowledge in the Global Justice Movement, London and New York, Routledge, 2010 , pp. 288

Discusses whether growing popular opposition to neoliberalism, especially since 2008, can develop coherent alternative ideologies.

Jackson, Ross Occupy World Street: A Global Roadmap of Radical Economic and Political Reform, Vermont VT, Chelsea Green Publishing, 2012 , pp. 336

The chair of the Danish-based Gaia Trust advocates return to smaller decentralised communities with a more sustainable life style.

Mirowski, Philip Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste: How Neoliberalism Survived the Financial Meltdown, London, Verso, 2014 , pp. 384

Economic historian’s caustic analysis of self-validating nature of neoliberal thought among economists and politicians and suggested bases for an alternative analysis of economic crisis and future possibilities.

Sitrin, Marina; Azzellini, Dario They Can’t Represent Us! Reinventing Democracy from Greece to Occupy, London, Verso, 2014 , pp. 192

Combines history of direct democracy from classical Greece to the Indignados, drawing on interviews with activists in contemporary movements, including Occupy, that are based on forms of participatory democracy and reject liberal parliamentary democracy.

Websites recommended

Alternative Globalizations: An Integrative Approach to Studying Dissident Knowledge in the Global Justice Movement London and New York Routledge, 2010

Discusses whether growing popular opposition to neoliberalism, especially since 2008, can develop coherent alternative ideologies.

Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste: How Neoliberalism Survived the Financial Meltdown London Verso, 2014

Economic historian’s caustic analysis of self-validating nature of neoliberal thought among economists and politicians and suggested bases for an alternative analysis of economic crisis and future possibilities.

Occupy World Street: A Global Roadmap of Radical Economic and Political Reform Vermont VT Chelsea Green Publishing, 2012

The chair of the Danish-based Gaia Trust advocates return to smaller decentralised communities with a more sustainable life style.

The Iceland Experiment (2009-2013): A Participatory Approach to Constitutional Reform (http://dpc.djikic.com/uimages/pdf/dpc%20policy%20note%202_%20the%20iceland%20exp...) , 2013

Examines the financial collapse and the popular protests in ‘the Kitchenware Revolution’ (which included banging pots and pans), which led to widespread popular involvement in changing the constitution to prevent a future financial collapse and betrayal of trust.

The Poverty of Capitalism: Economic Meltdown and the Struggle for What Comes Next London Pluto Press, 2013

Analysis by War on Want director of how neoliberal elite is using the 2008 crisis to entrench its own power and impose neoliberal policies on Greece, Spain, Portugal and Ireland. The book ends with a sketch of the growing worldwide struggle against neoliberalism and suggesting how alternatives might be strengthened.

They Can’t Represent Us! Reinventing Democracy from Greece to Occupy London Verso, 2014

Combines history of direct democracy from classical Greece to the Indignados, drawing on interviews with activists in contemporary movements, including Occupy, that are based on forms of participatory democracy and reject liberal parliamentary democracy.

Why Its Kicking Off Everywhere: The New Global Revolutions London Verso, 2012

Wide-ranging exploration, by BBC economics journalist, of campaigns round the world since 2008, including the Arab uprisings of 2011, but mainly focused on resistance to economic policies and including accounts of protest in UK, USA and Greece. Discusses economic and social causes of unrest and role of new communications.

The financial crisis of 2008 had a disastrous effect on the scale of national debt in Spain and Greece, leading to governments accepting bailouts from the European Bank and IMF in return for stringent austerity programmes cutting jobs and welfare, and privatization of public facilities. Widespread public resistance to austerity measures was launched on 15 May, 2011 in Spain, where the Real Democracy Now! campaign organized marches in cities and an impromptu protest camp was set up in the Puerta del Sol in Madrid. Thousands more came to the camp and it lasted 78 days; other camps were set up in towns and cities round the country, and the 15M movement (named after the date of the first protest) was launched. Within the broad resistance to the austerity programmes other initiatives have developed: for example to tackle the social crisis of mass evictions in Spain of people defaulting on their mortgages (the Platform of People Affected by Mortgage (PAH). The multiple crises of food and welfare in Greece have prompted numerous solidarity networks.

The political position in Greece has been particularly unstable, with widespread public anger about the corruption and incompetence of politicians, and demonstrations have quite often become violent. The growth of the Golden Dawn extreme right anti-immigrant party has also been an ominous sign. On the left Syriza, a new radical coalition of small parties, emerged as the party close to popular protest and strongly opposed to the austerity programmes. Syriza was elected in January 2015 with a mandate to renegotiate the terms of continuing IMF/EU financial aid to avoid even harsher austerity measures. Crisis point was reached in June/July 2015. Syriza called a snap referendum on the bail out terms on 5 July, and 61 per cent supported the government in voting ‘No’.

Despite this referendum win, the government led by Alexis Tsipras (faced with financial bankruptcy and unwilling and unprepared to abandon the euro) accepted the unmodified harsh EU bailout terms in July 2015.  Although opposed by some Syriza members, Tsipras won parliamentary support for his policy, and went on to win (with a reduced majority) the election he called in September 2015.  Continuing leftist opposition to the EU terms was dramatized by a 24 hour general strike on 12 November, 2015. Portugal received a large EU/IMF loan in 2011. The victory of a centre-right coalition in elections ensured that the government pressed ahead with austerity measures, leading to high unemployment and widespread privatization. Public sector workers went on strike in protest, but there was not a major popular movement comparable to the Indignados in Spain and Greece.

The linking of privatization measures to austerity programmes has also prompted specific campaigns, for example against water privatization in Greece and a Portuguese strike by postal workers in November 2013 against privatization of the postal service. In addition to protest there have been positive local and democratic alternatives arising from the crisis, such as the neighbourhood assemblies in Spain and imaginative experiments in Greece, for example to bypass use of money through local exchange schemes. All these issues are briefly covered in the references below, although some of these are fairly brief articles from journals sympathetic to the Indignados, such as the UK-based Red Pepper, New Internationalist and Peace News; and the Progressive in the USA.

Carrión, María Spaniards Take On the Banks, issue Nov, , 03/11/2012 pp. smaller than 0

Examines campaign against the banks’ ruthless treatment of those unable to pay mortgages and other campaigns such as defiance by doctors and health care workers of law requiring them to refuse treatment to immigrants.

Castaneda, Ernesto The Indignados of Spain: A Precedent to Occupy Wall Street, Vol. 11, issue 3-4, 2012 , pp. 309-319

Builds on participant observation in Barcelona in summer of 2011.

Clark, Howard No More Mortgage Suicides! Spain’s Social Movements Struggle for Housing Justice, issue 2552-2553 (Dec-Jan), , pp. smaller than 0

On the vigorous campaign to support mortgage defaulters and the wider 15M movement.

Dhaliwal, Puneet Public Squares and Resistance: The Politics of Space in the Indignados Movement, Vol. 4, issue 1 (May), 2012 , pp. 251-273

Fominaya, Cristina Debunking Spontaneity: Spain’s 15-M/Indignados as Autonomous Movement, Vol. 14, issue 2, 2015 , pp. 142-163

Argues emergence of movement not ‘new’ and ‘spontaneous’ but product of evolution of a collective identity and culture stressing deliberative democracy since the 1980s.
See also her blog on the OpenDemocracy website: ‘Spain is Different: Podemos and 15-M’ on the rise of the leftist but non-ideological Podemos party in the European Parliamentary elections of June 2014, and influence of 15-M movement on the nature of the new party.

Lamarca, Melissa Sparks from the Spanish Crucible: Resisting evictions Spanish style, issue April, , 01/04/2013 pp. smaller than 0

On the Platform for Mortgage Affected People (PAH) set up in February2009 to campaign about the hundreds of thousands of foreclosures and evictions of people unable to keep up mortgages on their homes, and often faced with a huge debt to the banks even after eviction. The group organized mass resistance to evictions, occupied foreclosed flats and houses to provide shelter for those made homeless, and to lobby Parliament to end evictions, promote affordable rents and changes to the mortgage law.

Garcia, Ter A Year of Small Victories for the Spanish Foreclosure Movement, , 08/12/2011 pp. smaller than 0

Survey of first year of PAH.

Gerbaudo, Paolo Los Indignados, issue Aug/Sept, , , pp. 33-35

On launch of movement by Real Democracy Now! on 15 May 2011 with marches and protest camp in Madrid, its spread across Spain and to Greece.

Hancox, Dan The Village Against the World, London, Verso, 2013 , pp. 252

(Successor to ebook Dan Hancox, Utopia and the Valley of Tears, 2012 , pp. 76 , on same topic.)
Discusses the small village, Marinaleda, in southern Spain that has battled for decades with the state and capitalist policies, but gained international attention in 2012 when its mayor (and farmers union leader) organized the filling of ten shopping trolleys, refused to pay, and distributed them to the poor from a military base and mansion of a local large landowner.

Katerini, Tonia Organising to Survive, issue Dec/Jan, , , pp. 43-45

Examines scale of crisis created in Greece by austerity programme and the growing movement Solidarity for All (promoted by the left coalition Syriza) creating support networks supplying food, health, education, cultural activity and legal advice, and setting up informal exchanges of goods and services.

Prentoulis, Marina; Thomassen, Lasse The Legacy of the Indignados, , 03/08/2013 pp. smaller than 0

Discusses impact two years later of Spanish and Greek movements: their new form of political activism and extended definition of politics.

Reyes, Oscar Rooted in the Neighbourhood, issue Oct/Nov, , , pp. 36-37

Comments on decline in the neighbourhood assemblies that arose in 2011, but argues widespread willingness to take part in local initiatives survives, and is (for example) strengthening the campaign against eviction of those unable to pay their mortgage.

Romanos, Eduardo Evictions, Petitions and Escraches: Contentious Housing in Austerity Spain, Vol. 13, issue 2, 2013 , pp. 296-302

Examines different types of action used by movement against evictions and how a range of people drawn into movement.

Revolt and Crisis in Greece: Between a Present Yet to Pass and a Future Still to Come, ed. Vradis, Antonis; Dalakoglu, Dimitris, Edinburgh and London, A.K. Press and Occupied London, 2011 , pp. 378

Wide range of contributors, including David Graeber, on economic meltdown in Greece and popular responses to government’s extreme austerity programme.

Ovenden, Keith Syriza: Inside a Labyrinth, London, Pluto Press, 2015 , pp. 181

Analyzes the rise of Syriza (formed in 2004) within its broader political context, and comments on the problems faced after its victory in the polls and the developments up to early 2015. Chapter 3 'Their Austerity and Our Resistance' focuses on popular resistance by students, strikes by workers, occupations of the squares, environmental struggle, opposition to racism and the major struggle sparked in 2013 by efforts to maintain the national broadcasting and television networks, leading to work place occupations across the country.'

Websites recommended

Debunking Spontaneity: Spain’s 15-M/Indignados as Autonomous Movement (http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/14742837.2014.945075?needAccess=true) , 2015

Argues emergence of movement not ‘new’ and ‘spontaneous’ but product of evolution of a collective identity and culture stressing deliberative democracy since the 1980s.
See also her blog on the OpenDemocracy website: ‘Spain is Different: Podemos and 15-M’ on the rise of the leftist but non-ideological Podemos party in the European Parliamentary elections of June 2014, and influence of 15-M movement on the nature of the new party.

Evictions, Petitions and Escraches: Contentious Housing in Austerity Spain (http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/14742837.2013.830567?needAccess=true) , 2013

Examines different types of action used by movement against evictions and how a range of people drawn into movement.

Los Indignados , 2011

On launch of movement by Real Democracy Now! on 15 May 2011 with marches and protest camp in Madrid, its spread across Spain and to Greece.

Organising to Survive , 2013

Examines scale of crisis created in Greece by austerity programme and the growing movement Solidarity for All (promoted by the left coalition Syriza) creating support networks supplying food, health, education, cultural activity and legal advice, and setting up informal exchanges of goods and services.

Revolt and Crisis in Greece: Between a Present Yet to Pass and a Future Still to Come Edinburgh and London A.K. Press and Occupied London, 2011

Wide range of contributors, including David Graeber, on economic meltdown in Greece and popular responses to government’s extreme austerity programme.

Rooted in the Neighbourhood , 2012

Comments on decline in the neighbourhood assemblies that arose in 2011, but argues widespread willingness to take part in local initiatives survives, and is (for example) strengthening the campaign against eviction of those unable to pay their mortgage.

Spaniards Take On the Banks (http://www.progressive.org/news/2012/11/179323/spaniards-take-banks) , 2012

Examines campaign against the banks’ ruthless treatment of those unable to pay mortgages and other campaigns such as defiance by doctors and health care workers of law requiring them to refuse treatment to immigrants.

Sparks from the Spanish Crucible: Resisting evictions Spanish style (https://newint.org/features/2013/04/01/sparks-from-the-spanish-crucible/) , 2013

On the Platform for Mortgage Affected People (PAH) set up in February2009 to campaign about the hundreds of thousands of foreclosures and evictions of people unable to keep up mortgages on their homes, and often faced with a huge debt to the banks even after eviction. The group organized mass resistance to evictions, occupied foreclosed flats and houses to provide shelter for those made homeless, and to lobby Parliament to end evictions, promote affordable rents and changes to the mortgage law.

Syriza: Inside a Labyrinth London Pluto Press, 2015

Analyzes the rise of Syriza (formed in 2004) within its broader political context, and comments on the problems faced after its victory in the polls and the developments up to early 2015. Chapter 3 'Their Austerity and Our Resistance' focuses on popular resistance by students, strikes by workers, occupations of the squares, environmental struggle, opposition to racism and the major struggle sparked in 2013 by efforts to maintain the national broadcasting and television networks, leading to work place occupations across the country.'

The Legacy of the Indignados (https://www.opendemocracy.net/can-europe-make-it/marina-prentoulis-lasse-thomass...) , 2013

Discusses impact two years later of Spanish and Greek movements: their new form of political activism and extended definition of politics.

The Village Against the World London Verso, 2013

(Successor to ebook Dan Hancox, Utopia and the Valley of Tears, 2012 , pp. 76 , on same topic.)
Discusses the small village, Marinaleda, in southern Spain that has battled for decades with the state and capitalist policies, but gained international attention in 2012 when its mayor (and farmers union leader) organized the filling of ten shopping trolleys, refused to pay, and distributed them to the poor from a military base and mansion of a local large landowner.

The Occupy movement in the USA was launched on September 17, 2011, when a march on Wall Street developed into the occupation of Zuccotti Park nearby. Support for the ‘Occupy Wall Street’ protest camp increased, especially after the police arrested 700 people for blocking Brooklyn Bridge two weeks later, and spread to other parts of New York City and many other cities in the USA. The movement was characterised by lively debates about the injustices of the economic and financial system, coined the slogan ‘we are the 99%’ (opposed to the inordinate wealth and power of the 1%) and initiated various blockades, for example of the New York Stock Exchange. After two months police closed down the Zuccotti Park encampment, making 200 arrests, and several other cities did the same. By March 2012 there had been 6,700 arrests in 112 cities. The energy generated by the movement spread into related activities – as in Spain some activists engaged with the mortgage crisis, occupied foreclosed homes and undertook dramatic protests at courts and auctions of seized houses and apartments.

Occupy activists also turned to foreign policy issues and other social causes. In the radical environment of Oakland (an ethnically diverse working class city, where the unionised workers at the port are unusually militant, and the students at the nearby Berkeley campus have a tradition of activism) the Occupy movement gained strong support and called a general strike in November 2011. It also became the radical wing of the wider US movement, but by mid-2012 was in danger of alienating local support, particularly through its provocative demonstrations against the city police.

The early achievements of the Occupy movement were to influence the terms of national debate (polls suggested strong public sympathy for the basic message of economic injustice), demonstrate a participatory democracy in action and to have an international impact. The euphoria generated by the movement generated an immediate literature, referenced below. The longer term implications of the movement, as economic conditions begin to improve in the USA, are more uncertain.

The Occupy Handbook, ed. Byrne, Janet, New York, Back Bay Books, 2012 , pp. 560

Includes discussion of why the 1% have such a dominant economic position.

Calhoun, Craig Occupy Wall Street in Perspective, Vol. 64, issue 1, 2013 , pp. 26-38

Argues Occupy Wall Street was ‘less an organized effective movement’ than a dramatic performance.

Chomsky, Noam Occupy, London and New York, Penguin Books and Zucotti Park Books, 2012 , pp. 120

This book comprises five sections:

  1. Chomsky’s Howard Zinn Memorial Lecture given to Occupy Boston in Oct.2011;
  2. an interview with a student in Jan 2012;
  3. a question and answer session with ‘InterOccupy’;
  4. a question and answer session partly on foreign policy; and
  5. Chomsky’s brief appreciation of the life and work of radical historian Howard Zinn.

There is a short introductory note by the editor, Greg Ruggiero.

Gitlin, Todd Occupy Nation, the Roots: The Spirit and the Promise of Occupy Wall Street, New York, Harper Collins, 2012 , pp. 320

Book by former radical student leader in the 1960s, providing a portrait of the movement.

Graeber, David The Democracy Project: A History, a Crisis, a Movement, London, Allen Lane, 2013 , pp. 352

Reflections on Occupy Wall Street movement and its beginning in the occupation of Zucotti Park, September 2011, from standpoint of an anarchist theorist.

Healey, Josh Whose Streets? Our Streets!, issue Apr/May, , , pp. 41-43

Examines Occupy Oakland, its potential and downside.

Occupy!, ed. Social Movement Studies, , Vol. 11, issue 3-4, 2012 , pp. 279-485

This issue has several articles on Occupy. See:

Content overview: http://tandfonline.com/toc/csms20/11/3-4?nav=tocList

Occupy!: Scenes from Occupied America, ed. Blumenkranz, Carla; Gessen, Keith; Greif, Mark; Leonard, Sarah; Resnick, Sarah; Saval, Nikil; Schmitt, Eli; Taylor, Astra, New York and London, Verso, 2012 , pp. 224

Collection of brief accounts of events at Zuccotti Park encampment and initial assessments by writers from leftist New York media, plus extracts from speeches of visiting intellectuals and activists – Judith Butler, Slavoj Zizek, Angela Davis and Rebecca Solnit.

This Changes Everything: Occupy Wall Street and the 99% Movement, ed. Van Gelder, Sarah, Bainbridge Isle WA, Yes! Magazine, 2012 , pp. 96

Contributors include Naomi Klein, David Korten, Ralph Nader and Rebecca Solnit.

Writers for the 99%, Occupying Wall Street: The Inside Story of an Action that Changed America, Chicago IL, Haymarket Books, 2012 , pp. 217

(Initially published by OR Books New York on print-on-demand and ebook basis.)
Detailed account of daily life at the camp by figures on the left.

White, Micah The End of Protest: A New Playbook for Revolution, 2016 , pp. 336

This is a book examining what strategy protesters should adopt and critical of some common leftist assumptions, but is based on the author's role in the Occupy movement. He discusses Occupy at length, outlining its origins and reflecting on the tactic of occupation, and the movement's failure to adopt additional approaches and develop a movement capable of  promoting wider social change.

Websites recommended

Occupy London and New York Penguin Books and Zucotti Park Books, 2012

This book comprises five sections:

  1. Chomsky’s Howard Zinn Memorial Lecture given to Occupy Boston in Oct.2011;
  2. an interview with a student in Jan 2012;
  3. a question and answer session with ‘InterOccupy’;
  4. a question and answer session partly on foreign policy; and
  5. Chomsky’s brief appreciation of the life and work of radical historian Howard Zinn.

There is a short introductory note by the editor, Greg Ruggiero.

Occupy Nation, the Roots: The Spirit and the Promise of Occupy Wall Street New York Harper Collins, 2012

Book by former radical student leader in the 1960s, providing a portrait of the movement.

Occupy Wall Street in Perspective (http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/49102/1/Calhoun_Occupy_Wall_Street_2013.pdf) , 2013

Argues Occupy Wall Street was ‘less an organized effective movement’ than a dramatic performance.

Occupy!: Scenes from Occupied America New York and London Verso, 2012

Collection of brief accounts of events at Zuccotti Park encampment and initial assessments by writers from leftist New York media, plus extracts from speeches of visiting intellectuals and activists – Judith Butler, Slavoj Zizek, Angela Davis and Rebecca Solnit.

Occupying Wall Street: The Inside Story of an Action that Changed America Chicago IL Haymarket Books, 2012

(Initially published by OR Books New York on print-on-demand and ebook basis.)
Detailed account of daily life at the camp by figures on the left.

The Democracy Project: A History, a Crisis, a Movement London Allen Lane, 2013

Reflections on Occupy Wall Street movement and its beginning in the occupation of Zucotti Park, September 2011, from standpoint of an anarchist theorist.

The End of Protest: A New Playbook for Revolution , 2016

This is a book examining what strategy protesters should adopt and critical of some common leftist assumptions, but is based on the author's role in the Occupy movement. He discusses Occupy at length, outlining its origins and reflecting on the tactic of occupation, and the movement's failure to adopt additional approaches and develop a movement capable of  promoting wider social change.

The Occupy Handbook New York Back Bay Books, 2012

Includes discussion of why the 1% have such a dominant economic position.

This Changes Everything: Occupy Wall Street and the 99% Movement Bainbridge Isle WA Yes! Magazine, 2012

Contributors include Naomi Klein, David Korten, Ralph Nader and Rebecca Solnit.

Whose Streets? Our Streets! (http://www.redpepper.org.uk/occupy-oakland-whose-streets-our-streets/) , 2012

Examines Occupy Oakland, its potential and downside.

In Britain the campaigning group UK Uncut was launched in October 2010 to use direct action against tax avoidance by large corporations and to oppose austerity cuts to public services. It dramatized its demands with a number of sit-ins in stores and a sit-down at Westminster Bridge, London to oppose the Health and Social Care Bill going through parliament. It inspired US Uncut and Portugal Uncut.

In early 2011 the TUC initiated a series of protests against austerity – notably the ‘March for the Alternative’ mobilizing about 500,000 in London on 26 March 2011. UK Uncut protesters took part, occupying Fortnum and Mason and blockading Boots. Many were arrested – they were easier targets for the police than the Black Bloc anarchists who were smashing up shops. Subsequently there was strong pressure from MPs and other public figures for charges against the nonviolent Uncut activists to be dropped.

The Occupy movement was launched in London in October 2011: protesters tried to occupy the financial centre of the City, but finally established their camp the precinct of St Paul’s cathedral, where it highlighted the moral ambiguity of the Church of England participating in an unjust financial system. Three more camps were set up in London: in Finsbury Square just north of the City, in disused offices owned by UBS and in the (disused) Old Street Magistrates Court. The high profile St Paul’s camp was not dismantled by police until the end of February 2012 (Guardian, 29 Feb. 2012, pp. 1-2, 30 and 32). Occupy London then turned to other forms of campaigning.

Although protests did not alter the Conservative-Liberal Coalition austerity policies, the government was more responsive on the issue of tax – the Treasury announced changes to UK rules on legal tax avoidance on 6 December 2010, and the Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee has pursued this and related issues vigorously. There has been a real shift in public debate, with much greater awareness of the need to justify bankers’ rewards – shareholders at Barclays annual meeting in 2011 criticised ‘obscene bonuses’, criticism of tax avoidance by large companies and protests (including by churches) against exploitation of the poor by loan companies and the misery created by some welfare reforms. Local credit unions and food banks have been constructive responses. Exploitation of workers by offering ‘zero hours contracts’ (i.e. no guarantee of a minimum number of paid hours’ work a week) became an issue in 2013 – McDonald’s was identified as the biggest such employer, admitting that 90% of its workforce was on these contracts.

Fight Back! A Reader on the Winter of Protest, ed. Hancox, Dan, OpenDemocracy, 2011 , pp. 340

Covers both student protests in late 2010 ( e.g against high tuition fees) and wider demonstrations against cuts. Edited by young protesters, but includes essay by Anthony Barnett, founder of openDemocracy reflecting on potential significance of new activism.

Websites recommended

Fight Back! A Reader on the Winter of Protest (https://www.opendemocracy.net/files/fight-back.pdf) OpenDemocracy, 2011

Covers both student protests in late 2010 ( e.g against high tuition fees) and wider demonstrations against cuts. Edited by young protesters, but includes essay by Anthony Barnett, founder of openDemocracy reflecting on potential significance of new activism.