Essays & Interviews
‘Decolonisation Isn’t Just a Buzzword’: An Interview with the University of Birmingham Liberated Zone
In this interview, Alfie Hancox sits down with Alma of the University of Birmingham Palestine solidarity encampment to discuss how the camp began, developed internally, and now their desire to engage with the radical tradition of the university, including the legacy of Stuart Hall, to take their anti-colonial and anti-racist activism into the wider city.
Sunderland and Middlesbrough Race Riots and Anti-Fascist Resistance
Describing their personal experience of the riots in Sunderland and Middlesbrough, Sophia Alderson affirms that, although the demonstrations in Newcastle and other cities were inspiring and a much needed salve for the immediate threat of fascism on the streets, the left must organise wherever the fascist threat materialises and not abandon communities to fascism.
Forty years on from the Bradford 12
In this wide-ranging interview with Ebb Magazine to mark 40 years since the acquittal of the Bradford 12, Tariq Mehmood, co-founder of the United Black Youth League, discusses how Black Power in Britain presented an insurgent challenge both to state racism, and to the failings of the organised left on questions of race, immigration and imperialism.
Starmer and Siege Social Democracy
Keir Starmer’s response to the cost-of-living crisis by doubling down on Labour’s appeals to 'law and order', attempting to outflank the Conservative Party from the right, demonstrates the relevance of Stuart Hall’s underutilised concept of social democracy 'adapted for siege conditions'.
British Communism’s Patriotic Disease
Left-wing patriotism in Britain carries the shameful legacy of the Second International’s self-destruction, and even a progressive patriotism presents a paternalistic narrative in which workers of colour are the ‘good immigrants’ who helped rebuild the nation rather than resisted colonialism.
This is Not an Aberration
Contrary to the racist notion that it should not lower itself to the standards of its enemies, it must be stated plainly that the US is in fact the global expert on assassinations, crushing internal dissent, and mass violence.
Social Democracy and its Discontents: Race and Class in the Fallout of the UK General Election
An insidious narrative surrounding the election result is that Corbyn and the Labour left erred by subordinating ‘authentic’ class issues to identity politics and diversity. One thing is certain: socialists must confront racism head on, and foster working-class unity in all its diversity.
Why the US Tent Cities are Concentration Camps for Children
For centuries, children have been used as pawns by governments seeking to control their parents or their leaders. And children have been forcibly relocated in the United States before. Under slavery they were separated from their parents to extort labor and build wealth, while Native American children were taken from their families for re-schooling and to foster the expropriation of land.