Co-editor @newint │ Interested in migration, protest, policing & more│Barcelona/London
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Articles by Bethany Rielly
From 1926 to 2026
On the morning of 3 May 1926, London’s East End woke to an unfamiliar sound: silence. The bustling industrial heart of the capital with its clanking docks, braying street markets and smoke-belching factories was still. For many East Enders, it was the first time they’d heard it so quiet. At 11.59pm the night before, Britain’s Trades Union Congress (TUC) called a general strike in support of locked-out miners, and across the country two million workers dutifully complied.
Merthyr rises once again
From the outside, The De Winton Hotel in the Welsh town of Tonypandy looks like any other village pub. Ownership has recently changed hands and the interior is brightly lit, with leafy green wallpaper and dozens of empty chairs. A small group of local drinkers eyes us warily as we enter and order three drinks and bags of crisps from the friendly woman behind the bar. We’re here to find out what remains of the pub that was linked to an anti-fascist confrontation in the village nearly a century ago.
A time of monsters
It was January 2017 and I’d just had my first brush with ‘the fash’. After hearing that a $20 million mansion in London’s affluent Belgravia was being squatted by anarchists, I’d decided to head over there with my notepad and pen. Left empty for years by its Russian oligarch owner, the five-story property was now being used to house the local homeless and host radical workshops. But I wasn’t the only one with the idea of visiting 102 Eaton Square that day.
Awdah Hathaleen’s murder must be the last
On Monday afternoon a WhatsApp message from Awdah pinged on my phone: ‘URGENT CALL: The settlers … tried to cut the main water pipe for the community. We need everyone who can make something to act, if you can reach people like the congress, courts, whatever, please do anything.’ A few hours later he was shot and killed by an Israeli settler. The news of his death hit me like a tonne of bricks.
‘The record-breaking killings of journalists in Gaza exceeds any imagination’
In May 2021, I sent Wafa a message checking in on her and her family. Gaza had just endured 11 days of relentless Israeli bombing, killing 232 people. ‘I hope you’re doing OK, and you’ve been able to get some rest after the ceasefire,’ I wrote. She quickly replied: ‘No rest. So many stories have to be told to the world.
The cop who spied on grief: Why did the British state secretly monitor Black families seeking justice?
Richard Adams still remembers the sound of heavy breathing and clicking noises on his telephone line in the months following the racist murder of his son Rolan. Other strange incidents, such as friends’ houses being broken into but nothing going missing, led the family to believe they were being watched. When concerns were raised with the authorities, they were made to feel stupid and paranoid.
The cop who spied on grief: Why did the British state secretly monitor Black families seeking justice?
Richard Adams still remembers the sound of heavy breathing and clicking noises on his telephone line in the months following the racist murder of his son Rolan. Other strange incidents, such as friends’ houses being broken into but nothing going missing, led the family to believe they were being watched. When concerns were raised with the authorities, they were made to feel stupid and paranoid.
How do we free abortion?
In a narrow street deep in Barcelona’s Raval district is a building with an inconspicuous oval hole in its facade. Above the wooden door is the faint lettering ‘Casa d’Infants Orfes’ (House of Orphaned Infants). From the Middle Ages up to the 19th century, women would place their newborn babies in the wooden hatch and rotate it, allowing the anonymous and safe delivery of the child to the orphanage.
How do we free abortion?
In a narrow street deep in Barcelona’s Raval district is a building with an inconspicuous oval hole in its facade. Above the wooden door is the faint lettering ‘Casa d’Infants Orfes’ (House of Orphaned Infants). From the Middle Ages up to the 19th century, women would place their newborn babies in the wooden hatch and rotate it, allowing the anonymous and safe delivery of the child to the orphanage.
'I now understand how genocides happen'
‘WCNSF = Wounded Child No Surviving Family. It’s a thing in Gaza.’ Ghassan Abu-Sittah’s social media post on 15 October made my blood run cold. It’s difficult to imagine the kind of destruction required to necessitate such a chilling acronym to become common.
Fertile Ground: Who's behind Ethiopia's anti-abortion movement?
in the shadows ‘It looks like nothing is happening, but they are strongly working under the surface,’ Abebe Shibru, MSI’s country director says from his office in the Bole area of Addis. Recently, he notes, opposition tactics have shifted. ‘Before, the anti-choice groups were targeting the public, they were more visible, shouting, demonstrating and telling people abortion is a sin,’ he says.
‘Gaza genocide exposes the naked face of imperialism’
‘In our thousands, in our millions, we are all Palestinians.’ This chant, echoed by millions across the world, has taken on a new meaning in the wake of Israel’s annihilation campaign in Gaza. The message sent by the united front formed between Global North countries – including many former colonial powers – in support of Israel as it commits genocide in the obliterated Strip has been received loud and clear by those on the frontlines of the climate crisis: ‘you’re next’.
British weapons corporations race to establish weapons factories in Ukraine
LONDON—British arms giants are reportedly discussing plans to set up shop in Ukraine. Chief executives are said to be meeting with their counterparts in Kiev to discuss starting joint ventures, according to reports in British newspaper The Telegraph. The weapons execs have traveled there with a view of setting up partnerships with Ukrainian companies that would manufacture weapons and military vehicles locally under license.
Climate activists deflate 40 SUV tires in wealthy Glasgow neighbourhood
Above Photo: A flat tyre. (Bernd Dittrich / Creative Commons). Glasgow, Scotland – Climate activists deflated the tires of 40 SUVs in a wealthy Glasgow neighborhoods today as part of an ongoing campaign to demand a ban on the “polluting” vehicles in cities. The activists, who are members of new campaign group Tyre Extinguishers, targeted the North Kelvinside area in the city’s West End in the early hours of Friday.
Protests Mark Third Anniversary Of Assange's Arrest
The third anniversary of the arrest and incarceration of Julian Assange at a maximum-security prison has sparked protests in London and the United States. Tomorrow marks three years since the Wikileaks founder was forcibly dragged from the Ecuadorian embassy, where he had sought asylum over the previous seven years. Vigils were due to be held yesterday at the embassy, Westminster magistrates’ court and Belmarsh prison, where he has been held for the past three years.
Black Refugee Lives Matter: U.N. urged to act on Ukraine border racism
Refugees, many of African and South Asian backgrounds, wait in a line to enter a bus after fleeing from Ukraine, near the border crossing in Medyka, Poland, March 1, 2022. | Markus Schreiber / AP An international coalition of renowned human rights lawyers has launched an urgent appeal to the United Nations to act over “abominable” racism at Ukraine’s borders.
‘This factory was killing our brothers and sisters in Palestine, we had to do something’
‘This factory was killing our brothers and sisters in Palestine, we had to do something’ Report 18 January 2022 Bethany Rielly speaks to the campaigners who risked jail time to drive weapons manufacturer, Elbit Systems, out of their town. Credit: Palestine Action Outside a red-brick factory in Oldham, a large town near Manchester in the north of England, a diverse crowd of people embrace, clap, cheer and shed tears of joy.
Britain and France sued over Channel deaths
A group of people are brought in to Dover, Kent, by Border Force officers, following a small boat incident in the Channel | Morning Star “Serious failings” in a search and rescue operation may have contributed to the deaths of 27 people in the Channel last month, an expert report filed as part of a legal challenge has claimed.
Progressive Israeli Jews condemn apartheid in new statement
A Palestinian youth peers thru the rubble of a building that collapsed after it was hit by Israeli airstrikes last May, in the Maghazi Refugee Camp, central Gaza Strip, July 12, 2021. | Adel Hana / AP Over 1,000 progressive Jewish Israelis have signed an open letter declaring themselves “Israelis Against Apartheid” and calling for decolonization of the region.
Anti-racist uprising spreads across Britain
Crowds demand justice for George Floyd and an end to inequality in their own country. | Morning Star Thousands of people across Britain demanded justice for George Floyd June 3 at mass protests and local gatherings and on their doorsteps.
One Happy Family: A respite from Moria
The main hall of One Happy Family Chefs, security guards, librarians, gardeners, interpreters, teachers, tailors, carpenters, bankers, barbers and builders are just some of the people you find at the One Happy Family (OHF) community centre. Everyone of them is also a refugee, but at OHF, this doesn’t define them. At the community centre, which is located on the outskirts of Mytilene, refugees run the show using their skills and knowledge to provide services to 800-1000 visitors every day.
Bank of England picks artist Turner to feature on new banknote
The Bank received nearly 30,000 nominations from the British public for the new note, due to be issued by 2020, to replace its current face, the 18th Century economist Adam Smith. The BoE chose Turner, who died in 1851, from a shortlist of visual artists which included filmmaker Chaplin, sculptor Barbara Hepworth, painter William Hogarth and designer Josiah Wedgwood. "Turner is perhaps the single most influential British artist of all time.
The unkindest cut? Shakespeare more popular abroad than in Britain
An actor performs during William Shakespeare's theatre play 'Hamlet' at the Jerusalem Centre for the Performing Arts in this file photograph dated December 11, 2008. A pyrotechnician lights a flaming depiction of William Shakespeare during a firework display at the Royal Shakespeare Company marking the 450th anniversary of Shakespeare's birth in Stratford-upon-Avon, in this file photograph dated April 23, 2014.
The unkindest cut? Shakespeare more popular abroad than in Britain
A Shakespeare First Folio discovered nearly 400 years after his death is displayed at Mount Stuart, Isle of Bute, Scotland, Britain April 7, 2016. The British Council, which commissioned the YouGov survey of 18,000 people from 15 countries, said the results showed that internationally Shakespeare is widely known, liked and understood. All the world's a stage, in fact.
The unkindest cut? Shakespeare more popular abroad than in Britain
A Shakespeare First Folio discovered nearly 400 years after his death is displayed at Mount Stuart, Isle of Bute, Scotland, Britain April 7, 2016. REUTERS/Russell Cheyne More LONDON (Reuters) - On the 400th anniversary of his death, Shakespeare is more popular abroad than in Britain, according to a survey published on Tuesday which also found he makes a significant contribution to the UK’s prosperity and influence.
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