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Beyond the Ballots

Red Pepper #245 Autumn 2024

As elections dominate 2024, our latest issue digs deeper into movements agitating for change in India, France and El Salvador – for better and for worse.

We hear from grassroots organisers inspiring alternative politics and economies in the USA, and the UK, while writers from Ukraine, Sudan and Gaza call for international left action against Imperial violence – and against ‘campist’ positions.

Plus an essay on AI, neoliberalisation and the crisis in HE, the future of UK arts and culture, books reviews, regulars and more.

The front cover of Issue 245, titled Beyond the Ballots. The illustration shows a ballot box with ballots turning into colourful butterflies as they seem to emerge from the slot

In this issue

Beyond the Ballots

An illustration of a ballot box with ballots turning into colourful butterflies as they seem to emerge from the slot
  • Labour after the landslide

    Hilary Wainwright reflects on the 2024 UK election: new parties rising, cracks in Labour’s electoral machine and potential future strategies for the left

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  • French politics: right questions, wrong answers

    The French left is as responsible as President Macron and the right for the rise of the National Rally, argues Yasser Louati

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  • Grassroots India rising

    Zoya Hasan explains how civil and political society collaboration shaped India’s 2024 election – and the hope it provides for democracy

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  • The tech bro president ruling by force

    Hilary Goodfriend explains how El Salvador’s populist leader has retained power – and the implications of Nayib Bukele’s rise for neighbouring countries

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In this issue

Essay

An illustration of a hand writing out binary code on a paper with a pen, with a robotic hand controlling the pen from above
  • Machine unlearning: AI, neoliberalism and universities in crisis

    Could Artificial Intelligence render the university obsolete? Katy Hayward explores what is lost when human thought is made subordinate to…

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In this issue

Imperialism Today

A photo of two men in suit and tie – Vladimir Putin and Bashar al-Assad – together lighting white candles from a red candle that sits in the middle of a round platform
  • Ukraine must win

    Assessing the Russo-Ukraine war from a progressive perspective means recognising the fascist, imperialist nature of the Russian invader, writes Yuliya Yurchenko

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  • Palestine must be free, with the law on it side

    An interview with Ahmed Abofoul of human rights organisation Al- Haq on the need for international rights and legal mechanisms to stop the genocide in…

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  • Sudan’s lost revolution

    The hopes of the grassroots, citizens’ revolution have given way to the brutality and violence of rentier elites in Sudan, writes Raga Makawi

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In this issue

Culture

A montage of photos showing: a child kicking a football inside a closed space; a prtest rally with signs reading: No Staff, No Art; a small child wearing a VR headset with the words ‘let create museums of the future’ super imposed; a signer on stage reaching out towards the crowd
  • The state of the arts

    Danielle Child examines the key issues facing the arts under Labour, following 14 years of Conservative government, austerity programmes, Brexit and a global pandemic

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  • How the crackdown on squatting cramped British creativity

    Ella Benson Easton explores how housing shapes the arts – and the impact of laws and funding cuts subtly killing alternative cultures

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  • Space, cash and grassroots futures

    The government alone won’t support culture, argues Matt Turtle. In discontented Britain, community connection, creative ingenuity and staying power are key

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