Natasha Walter

Unspeakable cruelty.

Photo of Zack Polanski. Text: Natasha Walter: why young women are flocking to the Greens

‘It feels good – and quite strange – to think I could vote for what I believe in…’

@natashawalter.bsky.social reports on why young women are flocking to @greenparty.org.uk, won over by @zackpolanski.bsky.social’s stance on topics such as Palestine, refugee rights and economic injustice 🌱

I know things are dark in the US right now, but I'm shocked to see what Mark Bray is going through.
If you are too, there is a crowd funder here for him and his family.

Big jump for the Greens, now just 2 points behind Labour.
I wrote for @thenerve.news about why young women like the Green Party.
They spoke to me about protest, about inequality, about nature.
Can the Greens drive even further and win over more women?
www.thenerve.news/p/natasha-wa...

Natasha Walter: Why young women are going Green As politics becomes increasingly xenophobic, the Greta Thunberg generation is flocking to join a party with both a strong stance on Gaza and refugee rights

Why are young women flocking to the Greens?
When I asked them, they spoke to me about poverty, about protest - and, yes, about nature.
It all adds up to a fierce longing for change - which I share.

Glad to write about @greenparty.org.uk for @thenerve.news
www.thenerve.news/p/natasha-wa...

I’m fortunate enough to see the impact of the work WRW does every day.

Donations not only provide the needed financial support to carry out our work, but send a powerful message to the refugee women we support that there is compassion, kindness and solidarity out there! 🥰

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Join us as we remember, reckon, and stand together in our struggle to resist the ongoing Nakba and fight for freedom, justice and equality for all between the river and the sea.

The Nerve Fearless, independent journalism covering culture, politics and tech.

This is great, isn't it? www.thenerve.news

This Wednesday, another chance to get offline and connect with women who aren’t falling for far right lies…

Farage vows to scrap indefinite leave to remain, placing thousands at risk of deportation Reform UK plans to force non-citizens to apply for visas with high salary thresholds and no access to NHS services

Thousands of Londoners have indefinite leave to remain.

They have legal rights and are our friends, neighbours and colleagues, contributing hugely to our city.

Threatening to deport people living and working here legally is unacceptable.

The UN inquiry report that finds Israel is committing genocide contains more than 90 references to women.
Including women being targeted, reproductive healthcare destroyed, sexualised violence.
Feminists, if you haven’t yet spoken, do so now.

Israel has committed genocide in Gaza, UN commission of inquiry says The panel finds that four of the five genocidal acts defined under international law have been carried out against Palestinians during the war.

One day, everyone will have been against this…
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Instagram account connected to Gilroy shooter pushed staple of white supremacist internet forums

Anti-Semitic open letter posted online under name of Chabad synagogue shooting suspect

Pittsburgh synagogue shooting suspect threatened Jewish groups, pushed migrant caravan conspiracies

New Zealand mosque shooting: Attacker's apparent manifesto probed

These are right-wing terror events I covered just from 2017 to 2023. It's not even close to comprehensive. The government's trying to erase this history.

to dare right now to build the alternative to capitalism and patriarchy.
So my advice is this:
Take your anguish away from the computer, off the screen, and go talk about it with other women in your community, your streets, your city. Because we won't heal online, that's for sure.

Because I spent Sunday at a community centre in north London with the most diverse crowd imaginable commemorating Jina Mahsa Amini. Afghan women, Iranian women, Turkish women, Syrian women, plus British women, all shouting Jin Jiyan Azadi and talking about how feminism needs

OK, the far right march was heartbreaking, it was horrible.
But this is why I don't feel hopeless today.
1. Because I joined the Women against the Far Right group on the counter protest, and there were all these amazing women who had showed up, inc black women & young women & disabled women.
2.

1) pic of Melissa and Mark Hortman 2) pic of Melissa Hortman and dog Gilbert

Remembering MN house speaker Melissa Hortman, her husband Mark and their beloved dog Gilbert. Murdered in June at their home by a rightwing Trump-voting evangelist, who also shot another MN lawmaker and his wife at THEIR home, 9 and 8 times, respectively (miraculously, they survived).

thank you - yes I agree Nicola

Ten years ago a picture of drowned child shocked us - today we are blinded by hate Ten years ago, the image of the lifeless body of two-year-old Alan Kurdi washed up on the shores of Turkey broke our hearts. It also broke open a surge of empathy which we should remember today, write...

I wrote about the 10th anniversary of the tragic death of Aylan Kurdi for @the-independent.com
We saw an outpouring of empathy for refugees in those years.
Now, we are seeing a rise in hate.
We need to hold on to shared humanity in an ever more divided world.
www.independent.co.uk/news/world/a...

Very glad that all the people I voted for in @greenparty.org.uk leadership election won.
✅ @zackpolanski.bsky.social for leader
✅ @rachelmillward.bsky.social and @mothinali.bsky.social for deputy
Let’s hope they bring energy and determination to the fight for a greener & more equal country 💚

Good to see women speaking out on this.
Harder borders and more deportations will not make women and girls safer.
We need resources going into justice, support for survivors and education.

Excellent point Natasha! My mom took me on the march that led to that demo. I was nine. Quite honestly, it helped shape my life. Those ban-the-bomb marches didn’t get bombs banned, but I don’t think limits on nuclear weapons testing and nuclear arms control treaties would have happened without them.

My book Before the Light Fades has
masses of detail

Lots of people are saying that today marks the largest mass arrest in Britain.
Not quite. Back on 17 Sept 1961, my mum helped organise this demo where over 1000 were arrested for sitting down in Trafalgar Square.
If we don’t want today’s resistance to be forgotten, let’s not forget yesterday’s.

No, over 1000 people were arrested on 17 September 1961 for sitting down against nuclear weapons in Trafalgar Square.

I know it’s such a great coincidence! I just picked the longest good book I could think of that I could find a CD for (this was back in 1999).
Even weirder is that the link I posted has just been labelled ‘adult content’ by the moderator here. Most bizarre.

That’s interesting! I agree we are just seeing the tip of the iceberg. I found your piece so fascinating and I was also amused because I gave my dear suffering friend a tape of War and Peace to listen to in those dark days.

Don’t call it morning sickness: ‘At times in my pregnancy I wondered if this was death coming for me’ The long read: The Victorians called it ‘pernicious vomiting of pregnancy’, but modern medicine has offered no end to the torture of hyperemesis gravidarum – until now

Fascinating by @abistephenson.bsky.social on the horror of hyperemesis. One of my dearest friends had this and really had to fight for appropriate care. I've always been struck by the fact that it was the probable cause of Charlotte Bronte's untimely death. www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle...

A betrayal of the victims of the Holocaust A view from Israel

This impassioned article by Orit Kamir, reproduced by Robert Reich, explores the utter betrayal of moral values that we are currently witnessing. 'Every person, as a human being, has absolute and inviolable value... all the more so for children.' robertreich.substack.com/p/a-betrayal...

We geolocated the view out of the window as Jeremy Bowen's team filmed packages falling from a plane over Gaza yesterday. They were dropped into a "dangerous combat zone", which Palestinians are warned not to enter because it would put their lives at risk. www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cd...