Capitalism’s toxic nightmare
Arnolds Field was once earmarked to become a community woodland. Today, it is better known as “Rainham Volcano”, a nickname born from the spontaneous fires that erupt from deep within the illegally buried rubbish.
These fires have triggered hundreds of emergency responses and exposed residents to dangerous pollutants like arsenic, lead, and carcinogenic chemicals. The site is owned by Jerry O’Donovan, and over the past two decades, it has been used for illegal waste dumping and criminal activity.
Rainham ranks among the capital’s most deprived areas, where every fire season cloaks the community in black smoke, bringing chest pains, nausea, and relentless coughing. Meanwhile, Jerry O’Donovan resides comfortably in Upminster, the affluent part of Havering.
Havering Council has repeatedly deflected responsibility citing the limitations of dealing with privately owned land. But the truth is that the council, like many across the UK, is financially struggling, and received an £88m bailout from the government earlier this year
The community has suffered long enough! Bring Arnolds Field under common ownership, ensure a proper clean-up, transform the site into the community woodland it was always meant to be.
It’s time to reclaim the commons! Make Arnolds Field a symbol of rejuvenation, not ruin.
Rab, Harrow
A tale of two Londons
I had the displeasure of reading an article by Chris Blackhurst in the latest edition of The London Standard, “We need to do more to make the rich feel at home in London (yes, really)”.
The average reader will have probably picked up a free copy on the tube, after a long day of suffering in order to boost the profits of the rich.
In the article, Blackhurst points out that theatre plays and the city skyline are thanks to the generosity of bosses and bankers, endowing their heaps of hoarded gold for us lucky proles to marvel at. The piece ends by calling for tax cuts for the rich.
I must be living in a different London. In North London, I’m watching the private housing sector drive up rent and pricing out local communities. The queue at the local streetside food bank has grown considerably over the last couple of years.
Theatres are in crisis. A recent report estimates 40 percent of theatres will face closure if they don’t get adequate funding. There is a £500m funding shortfall across the industry.
London is nothing more than a playground for the rich and a living hell for the poor. It’s about time we made the rich feel unwelcome, in London and across the world (yes, really).
Reema Malhotra, Wood Green
Council house death traps
A horrifying new article published by the BBC has revealed that in the last six years 13 children have died from falling out of windows in temporary and rented council house accommodation.
This is coupled with a report from Manchester children’s hospital that has seen a rise in admissions of children with trauma injuries linked to falling out of windows with 14 being recorded this spring.
These deaths and injuries are well connected to the disastrous state of British council homes, which are being neglected and ignored by the council which is leading to houses becoming death traps.
Already there was the death of Awabb Ishak who died of exposure to mould that was completely neglected by the council. Reports from tenants about the issues have ranged from windows falling out of their positions and lack of working safety locks and mechanisms that protect children who are living in high rise flats.
Concerns about safety will often just be ignored by councils with the housing watchdog finding 34 cases of complaints which were not dealt with properly, half of these were issues involving dangerous windows and children’s safety.
This however is simply the tip of the iceberg, it has been reported that there are 525,000 council houses in the UK that fail to meet safety standards, with around half of these having a category 1 safety issue which is the highest risk. None of this should come as a shock when we see the state of councils in Britain.
Years of austerity which is being ramped by the Labour government. Starmer looking to curry favour with the ruling class is faithfully fulfilling their desires of balancing the books through the annihilation of our public services with housing being no exception.
This will undoubtedly lead to more completely unnecessary deaths, it is therefore imperative that we fight for defence of these services, for housing to be brought fully under workers control!
Eric Potter, Norwich
Snitches get riches?
Iceland supermarkets have announced a new scheme to reward customers for reporting shoplifting in their stores. Would-be snitches will be rewarded £1 to their loyalty cards for blowing the whistle on anyone attempting to steal.
This comes after the chain reported a loss of £20m last year just to shoplifting.
This scheme will no doubt affect the tens of thousands of parents who have had to resort to stealing baby formula and nappies – two of the most shoplifted items in the UK – in the face of the most extreme cost of living crisis in memory.
The company’s execs say that shoplifting is impacting not only their bottom line, but their ability to pay their employees! This is the most rank hypocrisy! In reality, they are looking to offload the costs of vying for a greater market share amongst the big monopolies onto their customers.
The fact that companies like Iceland consistently fail to provide their staff even the minimum living wage is not down to petty thefts, it is a symptom of a system in crisis, a system that cannot provide the most basic level of sustenance to its people.
100,000 tonnes of edible food is thrown out by UK supermarkets each year, to the tune of around £1bn worth! Meanwhile, a record 1 in 7 Brits face hunger and hardship. This glaring contradiction comes directly from the anarchy of the capitalist system.
No, the solution can only be found in the nationalisation of these billion-dollar supermarket chains as part of a planned economy, under the control of the workers. Only then can we eliminate the waste, poverty, and hunger that push regular people to crime just to survive.
Fern O’Hare, Leeds Arts University
Young people don’t need to hustle, they need revolution!
A growing number of young people face the harsh reality of life under capitalism: unemployment, insecure jobs, temporary contracts, gig work, or long periods without work. A stable, permanent position in your mid-20s is increasingly rare.
Surveys show about a third of people under 35 in the UK have less than £1,000 in savings, with many having none at all. Rising rents, stagnant wages, and inflation consume income before saving is possible.
All too often, the system individualises blame: ‘Not trying hard enough,’; ‘lazy,’ ‘just hustle more.’ In reality, these struggles are structural, rooted in housing costs, wage stagnation, austerity cuts, precarious contracts, and weakening workers organisations.
Young people aren’t just poor – they are structurally positioned to accumulate debt and vulnerability, what the Fairness Foundation calls “negative wealth”.
As of early 2025, around 1.57 million Britons were actively looking for work, with nearly 11 million economically inactive. Among 25-34 year-olds, 12.4 percent were inactive, and 14.1 percent of 16-24 year-olds were unemployed .
Add to this rising prices and tax hikes by this Labour government who try to prevent collapse for the wealthy, the system places collapse on workers.
The psychological weight produced by capitalism’s crisis-ridden nature, and its inability to resolve fundamental contradictions, is becoming harder for young workers to bear.
Yet this strain hardens consciousness: anger, frustration, and betrayal become permanent companions, many more are reflecting on the impossibility of escaping this trap alone.
Samuel Meikle, Manchester
