This morning, I knelt handcuffed and gagged outside the European Court of Human Rights, alongside a picture of Rashadat Akhundov, a 29 year-old Azerbaijani activist with the N!DA civic movement who has been detained since March. Akhundov was initially arrested on politically motivated charges of weapon possession, but now faces more serious charges of inciting…
When did voluntary action become a ‘sector’? When did groups working to achieve social change start to have their own ‘Chief Executives’? When did ‘a seat at the table’ come to trump ‘an ear to the ground’? The professionalisation of social change has come with many costs: out-of-touch services, campaigns that can’t move beyond addressing…
Algeria visit by UK trade envoy raises concerns ahead of London arms fair Civil society raises concerns with FCO over arms and human rights A coalition of human rights NGOs have written to Baroness Warsi at the FCO in advance of the visit of trade envoy Lord Risby to Algeria, raising concerns about potential arms…
US tour dates, militarising the Delta, Frack-free UK & more 4 September 2013 Dear All, We always think that August is going to be a “lull” month in Platform but somehow it never quite happens! In this newsletter you’ll find info on a fracking petition we’re pushing as a part of a civil society coalition, new research…
Mika Minio-Paluello, Anna Galkina and James Marriott are heading to North America as part of a tour over September and October to promote The Oil Road – Journeys from the Caspian to the City of London. You can find more info about their confirmed speaking dates in Virginia, the Bay Area, New Orleans, Baltimore and…
Jane Trowell reflects on 30 years of Platform’s history in the September 2013 issue of CIWEM’s ‘The Environment’ magazine. Download the article as a pdf here, or browse online below.
NB This blog post was part of an internet hoax instigated by Greenpeace and The Yes Men. You can read more about it here. Check out this ‘video news release’ from the giant Russian energy company Gazprom, celebrating its new partnership with Shell to drill for oil in the Arctic. The bear in the film…
Artist Conrad Atkinson writes about the life of performance artist Monica Ross. My friend the performance artist Monica Ross died on the 14 June 2013; the very day on which her performance Anniversary—an act of memory reached its 60th and concluding Act at the 23rd session of the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva,…
It’s been a season of archiving action at Platform! We’re been sweatily rummaging about our storage unit, ferreting through 30 years-worth of materials as the lovely people from the Bishopsgate Institute library are going to be sifting through it all and making it more accessible as part of their collections on London history, labour and socialist…