Mike Marqusee

Dare to fail, dare to win December 2012
Only by accepting that we may fail will we take the risks that may lead to a better world, argues Mike Marqusee

The second revolution: 1792 December 2012
The year 1792 saw demands for social democracy and equality create a revolutionary impulse felt far beyond France, writes Mike Marqusee

Politics, our missing link September 2012
A movement without an electoral intervention is doomed to lose out, argues Mike Marqusee

A critical perspective on the Olympic enterprise August 2012
Mike Marqusee argues that the ceaseless injunction to consume, cheer and celebrate the Olympics has made the enjoyment of competitive sport something it is not and never should be – mandatory

Olympics: The Games turned upside down July 2012
The famous clenched-fists image of Tommie Smith and John Carlos protesting against black oppression at the 1968 Olympics is worth revisiting as London 2012 presents us with a regime of licensed private dictatorship, writes Mike Marqusee

Beyond church and state April 2012
‘Religion’ and ‘secularism’ are not mutually exclusive categories, writes Mike Marqusee. Secularists need to focus more on the shared, public realm that has been eviscerated by neoliberalism

Broader horizons April 2012
Mike Marqusee asks: are the emerging forms of resistance up to the challenge?

Streets of the imagination October 2011
At the front of the crowd in the ‘Gordon riots’ of 1780, William Blake would have seen much that he recognised in the events of this summer, writes Mike Marqusee

This is what Swazi democracy looks like September 2011
Protest is escalating in Africa's last absolute monarchy reports Mike Marqusee

The bedrock of autonomy August 2011
A life beyond illness rests on a delicate and complex web, writes Mike Marqusee

Let’s talk utopia July 2011
It’s utopian thinking, not grim pragmatism, that best informs and inspires the struggle for a better society, argues Mike Marqusee

Palestine’s wandering poet April 2011
Mike Marqusee on Mahmoud Darwish, the poet of the Palestinian people

A vicarious potency April 2011
In the case of Libya, liberal interventionists ignore the history of imperialism and the realities of power, writes Mike Marqusee

Biblical justice February 2011
The bible’s social vision isn’t as simple as many think – this contradictory book can be as radical as it is repressive, writes Mike Marqusee

Spreading the pain November 2010
Patients need health workers to take action on their behalf, says Mike Marqusee

An idealist and a sceptic September 2010
In his best work, director John Ford depicted a complex world through the lens of an understated but powerful critique says Mike Marqusee

Small country, big struggle August 2010
Mike Marqusee has just returned from a visit with trade unionists and democracy activists in Swaziland

No turning back August 2010
To respond effectively to the coming onslaught, we will have to engage with a deep crisis of working class confidence. To do so requires not only vigorous, unapologetic counter-propaganda, but collective action

A living gallery of resistance July 2010
Against the Wall: The Art of Resistance in Palestine by William Parry (Pluto), reviewed by Mike Marqusee

Fighting a protean force June 2010
Pretending that it's not racism that motivates the BNP vote, or that we can defeat the BNP simply by proposing a left alternative, is to misunderstand the nature of racism in Britain today

The left lacuna May 2010
Before even a vote is cast, the left's failure in the coming election is an established fact. Elections aren't everything, but they do matter and we should start working now to ensure that there is a meaningful left alternative at the one after next, writes Mike Marqusee

Anything but background music January 2010
It's often said that flamenco is not political because it dwells exclusively on the individual. That seems to imply a narrow definition of both the political and the personal, writes Mike Marqusee

Busting the straitjacket January 2010
Rolling back the new 'common sense' of spending cuts may seem like a difficult job, but it's not impossible, says Mike Marqusee

The politics of cancer November 2009
Mike Marqusee argues that the 'war on cancer' is a misplaced metaphor for what is as much a political as a medical issue

The other India October 2009
Mike Marqusee reviews Listening to Grasshoppers: Field Notes on Democracy by Arundhati Roy

Tom Paine, restless democrat June 2009
This June marks the bicentenary of the death of a man who was buried in obscurity but whose ideas are today claimed by everyone from anarchists to neoliberals. Mike Marqusee celebrates the life, work and ideas of the great revolutionary who declared that 'my country is the world and my religion is to do good'

Contending for the living May 2009
In the first of a new regular column for Red Pepper, Mike Marqusee finds hope for a new internationalism in the actions of South African dockworkers and their allies

No redemption March 2009
Mike Marqusee talks to 'Red Riding' quartet author David Peace about 'GB84', his dark novel on the 1984 miners' strike

The US and Israel February 2009
Behind Israel stands the richest and most powerful nation on earth. Without material support from the US, the onslaught on Gaza would not be possible, writes Mike Marqusee

Who’s afraid of the Indian Premier League? June 2008
Mike Marqusee on why it's just not cricket anymore

1968 The mysterious chemistry of social change April 2008
The last thing the legacy of 1968 needs is nostalgic commemoration, writes Mike Marqusee. Even as it was happening, it was being packaged for consumption. Nor should we celebrate it in the name of some abstract spirit of resistance. It was a year of contradictions and confusions, many of which continue to confront anyone who wants to take part in a movement for radical change

Anti-semitism and the Israel lobby April 2008
In this extract from his book, If I Am Not for Myself: Journey of an Anti-Zionist Jew, Mike Marqusee says that no one should be deterred from criticising the Israel lobby by charges of anti-semitism

The Tet Offensive 40 years on February 2008
The end of January 2008 marked the 40th anniversary of an event that astonished the world, changed the course of history, and remains pregnant with lessons for today. In the early hours of 31 January 1968, soldiers of the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam and the Army of North Vietnam launched what came to be known as the Tet Offensive (it coincided with Tet Nguyen Dan, the lunar new year) against the US occupiers and their puppet government, writes Mike Marqusee

Veiled threats November 2006
Multiculturalism has been getting the blame for the alleged lack of integration of minority groups into British society. It isn't beyond criticism, but neither is it the main cause of social division. That's down to racism and economic inequality, writes Mike Marqusee

An empire in denial October 2005
Mike Marqusee looks at the long history of US politicians' denial of their country's imperial reach

Telling a different story October 2005
Kim Longinotto was one of this year's Cannes film festival prizewinners for her documentary about African women using the law to establish their rights. She talked to Mike Marqusee about making films that are on the side of those who stand up to tradition and authority

Attacking the outside agitators September 2005
Throughout the 1960s, volunteers who joined the struggle for African-American civil rights in the US southland were denounced as 'outside agitators.' The white establishment accused them of stirring up the local blacks, who of course would otherwise have remained content with their lot.

Rocking for revolution November 2004
Steve Earle is the foremost political songwriter in the US today, and his new album an unapologetic intervention in the presidential election.

The lessons of Abu Ghraib June 2004
The images of occupying troops torturing and abusing Iraqi detainees are a challenge to every British and US citizen. These horrors are being perpetrated in our name, and unless we act to stop them we are culpable. But to stop them, we have to understand them, along with the other horrors taking place in Iraq: the collective punishment of Falluja; the shooting of civilians; the raids by US and British troops on Iraqi homes; the detention of thousands of Iraqis without charge or trial; the slow progress in restoring basic services.

The Politics of Bob Dylan November 2003
The protest songs for which Bob Dylan is most famous were written in a 20-month burst in the early 1960s. Within a year Dylan had turned his back on them - not in renunciation of politics, argues Mike Marqusee, but to pursue a deeper kind of radicalism