It's all happening: some things for the weekend

Here's a few bits and pieces I thought I'd cobble together and share with the expanding world of Luna17 readers (in the absence of anything resembling a proper blog post). First up: I love this picture, which I got via Facebook, of Die Linke MPs in the German Parliament protesting about the war in Afghanistan. An inspiring collective act. I'm also inspired by these photos of the Greek general strike, which come courtesy of the excellent photojournalist Guy Smallman.

Brendan Montague of The Sauce made his Comment is Free debut today, based partly on his own personal role in a news story - hopefully he'll be commissioned to write more. I've already flagged up Nina Power's superb article on consumer capitalism and women, in my weekly blog round-up, but it's so good I feel like giving it another mention.

Nina's speaking, alongside Lindsey German, at Housman's bookshop in London next Saturday. It's one of those events at the other end of the country I'd love to attend, but I was London-bound last weekend and am back there tomorrow (for Stop the War committee), so it's a trip too far!

A couple of small nuggets of good news in Tyneside this week. The BNP was 300 votes short of winning a by-election in Jarrow - they'd been tipped to win it and therefore gain their first councillor in the North East. Well done to all those campaigners who helped keep the fascists at bay. The new-ish Tyne and Wear Left Unity coalition played a vital role, and provide the second reason to be hopeful this week. I went to the Left Unity meeting and it was fascinating to hear Stephen Hall talk about his experiences in helping build Wigan People's Alliance, one of the success stories in bringing lefties together in meaningful activity.

Laurie Penny has a fairly personal, but in my view also politically interesting, post at Penny Red that I recommend reading. She writes eloquently about the tensions she's currently dealing with as a writer. Finally, there's a number of welcome endorsements for Clare Solomon at her election campaign blog - she's standing for ULU President, a high profile role in London's student movement (or it will be if Clare's elected!). Voting opens on Wednesday.