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‘After I met DWP secretary James Purnell, he went home and resigned. If only I could do the same thing again’
Richard House talks to disability rights activist LINDA BURNIP about her campaigning, her achievements and giving evidence to the UN
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NICK WRIGHT considers how the isolation of Israel and a new film on the controversial Italian communist leader are creating new reference points for Italy’s left
CARLOS MARTINEZ says Cuba’s achievements in the face of a criminal blockade are startling, but the island’s future if the United States succeeds in crushing it looks bleak
AMNON BROWNFIELD STEIN reports that far-right MPs who mobbed the event organised by Hadash may have helped raise awareness of the brutality of the Israeli right
Born on this day in 1931, the heroic revolutionary faces a dangerous new wave of White House aggression. We must treat his birthday as a rallying cry to resist the illegal siege of Cuba, writes ROGER McKENZIE
RAMZY BAROUD decries the rats of Gaza, the rodent and human type. Both abound as profiteering from tragedy reaches obscene levels
Richard House (RH): Linda, DPAC is legendary for the direct and fearless campaigning you do for this most just of causes. Can you tell us first about your own background and how DPAC came into existence?
Linda Burnip (LB): I come originally from the north-east and have spent much of my life campaigning for rights and change either in my early years as a Nupe shop steward in a very militant union branch or later against Thatcher’s Tory cuts to health services and education attacks, through neoliberal Labour Party changes to Local Housing Allowance, which were the original bedroom tax cuts and latterly since 2010 campaigning to reverse the savage cuts imposed on disabled people by the Tories and Lib Dems.
If only I could do the same to all DWP secretaries of state as I did to James Purnell, I’d be happy. After we met he went home and resigned. I’m hoping to meet Esther McVey in the very near future.
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