Heroes

Malala Yousafzai

Malala’s bravery in standing up for girls’ education is well-known, but it was rightly honoured in October with a Nobel Peace Prize. The 17-year-old is one of the prize’s youngest recipients and among just 46 women ever to receive it. Her advocacy on women’s issues doesn’t stop at education. In August she lambasted the pop music industry for portraying women “like objects” and spoke out against the practice of FGM in Britain.

Focus E15 mums

The Focus E15 campaign has revived direct action this year, with a relentless drive to save social housing in London. A group of young single mothers turfed out of their Stratford hostel by budget cuts, the women organised and fought back, occupying a tower block emptied for a developer’s benefit. Now they are fighting for other vulnerable locals, with one recent action securing a flat for a homeless mum. Bold and articulate, these women prove that you don’t ask for power — you just take it.

Ritzy workers

Workers at Brixton’s iconic cinema stood up to owners Picturehouse with a protracted campaign of 13 walkouts demanding the London living wage.

High-profile supporters such as director Ken Loach joined their picket lines in solidarity. Even after winning a 12 per cent pay rise the staunch Bectu members were threatened with redundancies — an announcement which was swiftly retracted and branded a “mix-up” by the Picturehouse’s hated head honchos. The Bectu campaign to win the living wage for all Picturehouse staff continues.

Morning Star Heroes

From the cyclists of Merseyside to the bowl-makers of Sheffield and many, many more, the Daily Miracle’s dedicated readers smashed our Summer of Heroes target and raised an astonishing £154,622, keeping your paper fighting fit for the battles ahead. Long live the people’s paper!

Miami Five

Free at last, the courage and heroism of these five anti-terror agents incarcerated for 16 years in the United States for trying to defend their homeland is an inspiration to us all.

Bob Crow & Tony Benn

The left was united in mourning this March when the two titans of socialism died within days of each other. RMT general secretary Bob Crow had been battling TfL plans to shut Tube ticket offices and axe hundreds of jobs when he suffered a heart attack aged just 52 years old. Veteran socialist and former MP Tony Benn passed away peacefully at home at the age of 88. Thousands lined the streets at their respective funerals — a mark of the esteem in which they were held.

Villains

Online misogynists

In May the so-called men’s rights community rushed to defend US killer Elliot Roger after he went on a “retribution” spree against women who rejected him. Just three months later female celebrities including actors Jennifer Lawrence and Kirsten Dunst had intimate private pictures stolen from their iCloud accounts and published online. Millions later pored over the images, perpetuating the sex crime against the hackers’ victims.

Richard Branson

Branson’s Virgin Rail Group has hoovered up more of the network this year, taking advantage of tendering chaos to claw back the East Coast franchise. RMT general secretary Mick Cash said the firm was able to “bully itself into a monopoly” over the service, so hold on for more inflation-busting fare rises in the future. Meanwhile another of Branson’s interests, the £2.8 billion profit-generating Virgin Media, was busy laying off 1,400 workers and outsourcing their jobs to India.

Penny Mordaunt

The hapless Fire Minister was driven from an official station opening by furious firefighters in November after they suffered a year of unmitigated attacks to their pensions and retirement. Mordaunt has refused to back down over Tory plans to make the heroic workers pay more and work longer for their pensions, only to get less when they retire.

Rev Paul Flowers

Dubbed the “crystal methodist,” the former Co-op Bank boss was convicted of possessing class A drugs in May after overseeing a £1.5 billion financial crisis at the bank the previous year. That scandal led to his indefinite suspension from the Methodist church.

It later transpired that while working as deputy head of Rochester social services, Flowers failed to act on information about a paedophile ring at a local school and dismissed allegations of child sex abuse perpetrated by the late Cyril Smith.

Robin Wales

The Labour Mayor of Newham was investigated for misconduct after storming off when mothers from the Focus E15 campaign confronted him about their housing plight.

A YouTube video of his tantrum was shared extensively when the women used the London borough’s family day to highlight his support for social cleansing. Their banner at a later protest summed it up perfectly: “Sheriff of Newham — Robin the poor!”

Ched Evans

Convicted rapist and former Sheffield United striker Evans was released from prison in October — just halfway through his five-year sentence — and immediately tried to return to his former club. He continues to protest his innocence despite the Court of Appeal upholding his conviction, and maintains a victim-blaming website which includes the bizarre claim: “At 3am in the morning, Ched was throwing chips to the seagulls — hardly a predator on the prowl.”

Michael Gove

The former education secretary was sacked in July, but still managed to cram some truly moronic policies into the first half of the year. In May he pulled from the school curriculum classic books including Of Mice and Men and To Kill a Mockingbird — works which expose the cruelty of capitalism, ableism and racism. He also cut the schools budget by £400 million in order to subsidise his abysmal pet project of free schools.

Uber

Cab-booking service Uber has been vilified all over the world this year, with black cab drivers bringing London to a standstill over the multinational’s perceived rule-breaking and unfair commercial advantage. Indian capital New Delhi banned the app after one of its drivers was accused of raping a passenger. Just two weeks later another driver was charged with rape in the US city of Boston, leading to calls for tighter vetting procedures. It also emerged that in 2012 the firm published (and then deleted) a blog post boasting that it used customers’ travel data to identify “rides of glory” — potential one-night stands.