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Mark Thomas
Arts, Books, Culture
Grievable and ungrievable lives
Nathaniel Mehr reviews Judith Butler’s Frames of War: When is Life Grievable?
Playing the Great Game
The Tricycle Theatre’s production of The Great Game – 12 plays on the history and contemporary realities of the struggle for control over Afghanistan – brings to the fore what will be one of the central political issues in the coming years. Co-director Indhu Rubasingham reflects on the project
It was 40 years ago today, John and Yoko taught the world to play
John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s ‘Bed-In’ at the Amsterdam Hilton in 1969 was only a part of their broad-ranging commitment to peace campaigning. Colin Robinson looks back at one of the most famous – and media-savvy – protests of all time
Free as in freedom
Nick Buxton explores the political edge of the digital piracy and ‘free culture’ movements
The message is not the medium
Radical poetry just sloganises, argues BRIGG57. Good poetry is about much more than its politics
A tale of three Michaels
Until his murder conviction and hanging in Trinidad in 1975, Michael X was one of the best-known figures of 1960s radicalism. Michael Horovitz reviews a new account of the life of this self-styled black Muslim revolutionary
Viva Siva
A Sivanandan remains an important figure in the politics of race and class, maintaining his long-held insistence that only in the symbiosis of the two struggles can a genuinely radical politics be found. By Arun Kundnani
Which eight books would you take to the ends of the world with you?
Aki Nawaz on god delusions, the Qur’an and fighting the National Front
Map obsessive Roger Lloyd Pack reckons he could ‘probably walk away with the Mastermind prize with Tintin as my subject’
Jill Robinson picks wild swans, joy and animal emotion
Tracy Quan mixes love, lust and Biblical studies
Newsnight’s Paul Mason on red virgins, vines and wrath
‘You’re not in the Rough Guide, you’re in the Fucking Rough Guide’ Jo Brand finds room for her mum among the Dickens
Peter Tatchell plumps for some Wilde with his de Beauvoir
Comedian Mark Thomas mixes Rushdie and Brecht with the Bible
Other blogs we’re reading this week
How Peter Cranie could stop the fuhrer
Esther Rantzen and the rise of V-sign politics
MPs expenses - West Ham’s guilty secret
Red Pepper Forums
What people have been saying in the Red Pepper discussion forums
Latest
Euro Elections - Vote Green to Stop the BNP
Referendum on PR at the General Election
Honduras: A coup with no future
If Obama’s government wants to send a powerful message about the sincerity behind the US rhetoric on liberty, democracy, and respect for the rule of law, it needs to accompany words with actions says Victor Figueroa-Clark and Pablo Navarrete
An Irishman in Honduras
James Wilde describes the current situation on the ground in Tegucigalpa
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365 days
4 July
‘Ev’rybody’s talking about
Bagism, Madism, Dragism, Shagism, Ragism, Tagism
This-ism, that-ism
ism ism ism
All we are saying is give peace a chance’ [...] More
Agony Subcomandauntie
Help, advice and political correction from the woman who knows it all
Festival/Rally for a Change
6.30pm, 9 July, Methodist Central Hall, London
London and the global economic crisis
11 July 2009 10am-4:30pm (registration from 9am)
Hamilton House, Mabledon Place, London WC1
Casino crash
Critical radical thinking on the financial crisis
Iraq Occupation Focus
Campaigning to end the occupation of Iraq
Julie Christie, actress
Latest Issue
Don’t miss the new Red Pepper
June/July issue out now
In our latest issue, out now, we focus on the policing and policing the police in modern Britain. Clare Coatman explains how ‘Sousveillance’ turns the cameras on those who normally do the surveillance. In From Orgreave to the City, Rhian Jones says police brutality is nothing new and Steve Powell from the Football Supporters’ Federation calls foul on police action against fans and the low down on Stop and search under the Terrorism Act
Our essay examines Feelbad Britain and the future of the left with Pat Devine and David Purdy arguing that the left’s lack of a positive project allowed neoliberalism to triumph in the 1980s. Alex Nunns and Siobhan McGuirk respond.
In the Afghanistan dossier, Mohammad Asif looks at the roots of the Pashtun resistance and Jane Shallice offers a guide to the role competing imperial powers have played in its past. Other international coverage includes After the handshake, Grace Livingstone asks how far do Barack Obama’s policies point to a real change in US/Latin American relations? In the light of the Euro-elections, Leigh Phillips asks who pulls the strings in Europe. Plus an interview with Swedish MEP Carl Schlyter.
In the new Green Pepper section Larry Elliott reviews Paul Mason’s new book Meltdown, Oscar Reyes says investing our hopes in green growth or new technological fixes will not avert the climate crisis. And Davy Jones talks to Caroline Lucas about the fate and future of the green new deal.
In our culture section, The Great Game theatre production brings Afghanistan to the fore as one of the central political issues in the coming years. Co-director Indhu Rubasingham reflects on the project. Laurie Penny reviews Ireland’s Hidden Diaspora, Irish women’s struggle for reproductive freedom.
See our full contents list here
April/May issue
Editorial: Beyond the usual fragments
Red Pepper reports on what’s happening to our public care system and reveals the stealthy replacement of our integrated patient-centred service through bit by bit privatisation. Health care analyst Colin Leys writes on declining standards of care at every level and a GP blows the whistle on how commercial pressures in local practices are resulting in deteriorating patient care. Hilary Wainwright reports on Newcastle’s alternative to privatisation and Tom Walker on the campaign to save our council housing.
Ben Lear looks ahead to a year of protest following the G20 this April and Hilary Wainwright urges the left and centre left to reach out beyond their traditional boundaries. David Harvey argues that the financial crisis could lead to a strengthening of the capitalist system. Other must reads include Oscar Reyes on the effect of the economic crisis for the climate and Andy Bowman reporting on the campaign to keep the BNP out of its target seats in the European Parliament elections. We also have a special focus on Gaza and Sri Lanka.
In our culture section Michael Horovitz reviews a new biography of Michael X, the self-styled black Muslim revolutionary, while Arun Kundnani looks at the life and work of Sivandan. In Free as in freedom, Nick Buxton explores the political edge of the digital piracy and ‘free culture’ movements.
PLUS Mike Marqusee, in his new column Contending for the living, finds hope for a new internationalism in the actions of the South African dockworkers and their allies.
Start your subscription with our current issue for just £20 and get our last three back issues, absolutely free
Red hot
Support the Iranian people, oppose Tehran’s clerical fascism
Peter Tatchell says solidarity with the Iranian freedom struggle is non-negotiable
Women of the revolution
Thirty years after the toppling of the Shah in Iran, Azar Sheibani looks at how Iranian women have defied the reign of misogynist terror
While the financial crisis has knocked the wind out of the international community and the British government’s environmental passion, one group is going from strength to strength, Sam Mohun Himmelweit reports
If the collapse of capitalism can’t improve the left’s chances, what will? Leigh Phillips surveys the political landscape after the European elections
Larry Elliott reviews Paul Mason’s new book Meltdown and urges the left to seek solutions to the climate and energy crisis simultaneously with the financial crisis
In this Red Pepper essay, Pat Devine and David Purdy suggest strategic thoughts for the future of the left, drawing from their analysis of what they see as the left’s lack in the past of a positive project for social change
Alex Nunns responds arguing that the old, failed internal combustion engine of politics is not the way forward and we need a new vehicle
A revitalised left has many paths and needs to consider what it wants before it can determine how to achieve it, says Siobhan McGuirk
Police brutality during public disturbances is nothing new. Rhian Jones sketches the recent history, highlighting what is distinctive about the situation today
Steve Powell from the Football Supporters’ Federation calls foul on the abuse of police powers
Just watch TV, read a paper or open any book about Africa by a western writer or journalist and tribalism will slap you in the face, says Keith Somerville
Helen Yaffe explores impact of Che Guevara as an economist and politician
Davy Jones talked to Caroline Lucas about the fate and future of the Green New Deal
Mike Marqusee on the great revolutionary who declared that ‘my country is the world and my religion is to do good’
Hicham Yezza was cleared of all charges after his arrest for ‘terrorism’ – but now faces deportation anyway. Andy Bowman spoke to two of his close friends about the case
Educate, agitate, occupy!
Kate Ferguson visits the occupied Visteon factory in Enfield, north London
Problems
Prophet of doom
Dissident economist Harry Shutt was arguing that capitalism was heading for a fall long before the current crisis. Interview by Mat Little
It’s a credit crunch
Economist Graham Turner argues that in the current financial turmoil, the omens are not encouraging for remedying the inherent flaws that will tip us into debt deflation
The world after Keynes
Keynes is back in fashion, but his policies did not give to the state – at all levels – the leading role in investment that is now necessary, argues Stuart Holland
What kind of crisis?
Hugo Radice delves through the layers of the financial crisis and lays out the challenges that any adequate alternatives have to meet
Solutions
A Green New Deal
Jim Jepps and Rupert Read say the UK needs a ‘Green New Deal’
Green jobs to beat recession
Jean Lambert on the need for more green jobs for a new green economy
Credit where credit’s due
Credit unions are more than ever the essential financial alternatives to traditional banks for the poor, says Mick Mcateer
Jim Stanford on The global financial crisis - and some socialist solutions
Wanted: alternative banking system
What would a genuine people’s bank be like? Sargon Nissan of the New Economics Foundation looks at local, international and historical experience to find answers
PLUS When activists and intellectuals of the movements for global justice met in Beijing, they proposed a set of practical alternatives to the current economic crisis.
Read the ‘Beijing Declaration’ and join the discussion seeking feasible alternatives to capitalism
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