Michael Calderbank

Michael Calderbank Red Pepper co-editor and parliamentary researcher for trade unions. @Calderbank

Local elections: 5 reasons to be cheerful

Media got you down about the local election results? Michael Calderbank finds the bright spots

Where did it all go wrong, Morrissey?

He was once a radical icon, but now he's a mouthpiece for racism and nationalism. Time to get off stage, writes Michael Calderbank

Labour’s NEC has started to empower party members – but we still have a mountain to climb

The crunch executive meeting ahead of Labour conference agreed some welcome changes, writes Michael Calderbank, but there is still much further to go

Labour’s new hopes: Meet the new left MPs

Michael Calderbank profiles Jeremy Corbyn's new supporters in parliament

How progressive is the ‘progressive alliance’?

We need an anti-austerity alliance, not a vaguely progressive alliance, argues Michael Calderbank

After Corbyn’s victory: time for a new kind of politics

Jeremy Corbyn and his supporters now face the huge task of opening up the Labour Party and putting members genuinely in control. How can they do it? Michael Calderbank gives some ideas

Fast food workers stand up for themselves and #McStrike – we’re loving it!
McDonald's workers are striking for the first time ever in Britain, reports Michael Calderbank

PLP committee elections: it seems like most Labour backbenchers still haven’t learned their lesson
Corbyn is riding high in the polls - so he can face down the secret malcontents among Labour MPs, writes Michael Calderbank

Corbyn supporters surge in Labour’s internal elections
A big rise in left nominations from constituency Labour parties suggests Corbynites are getting better organised, reports Michael Calderbank

The media wants to demoralise Corbyn’s supporters – don’t let them succeed
Michael Calderbank looks at the results of yesterday's local elections

Confronting Brexit
Paul O’Connell and Michael Calderbank consider the conditions that led to the Brexit vote, and how the left in Britain should respond

A better Brexit
The left should not tail-end the establishment Bremoaners, argues Michael Calderbank

How likely is a Labour Party split?
Michael Calderbank asks whether Labour's warring factions can ever be brought back together in a united party

Awakening from a nightmare: hope in an Out vote
Michael Calderbank forsees a bright future for the left in the event of an Out vote in the referendum

Video debate: The EU referendum – should the left vote in or out?
Marina Prentoulis and Luke Cooper (for in) debate Hannah Sell and Michael Calderbank (for out) in this episode of The Wedge, produced in collaboration with Red Pepper

Local elections in England: Reasons to be cheerful
Labour's results are better than you'd know from the pre-prepared despair by the media and some internal critics, writes Michael Calderbank

Hope Without Optimism
Hope Without Optimism, by Terry Eagleton, reviewed by Michael Calderbank

Going into Labour
You’ve joined the Labour Party – now how can you make your voice heard in its structures? Let Michael Calderbank guide you

Kill the Tory Trade Union Bill!
Michael Calderbank calls on Red Pepper readers to attend the 14 September protest to #killthebill

How Labour lost the 1992 election: an alternative to the ‘official wisdom’
Michael Calderbank revisits Defeat from the Jaws of Victory, by Mike Marqusee and Richard Heffernan, first published 1992

Editorial: Triumph over disaster
Whatever the outcome of the Jeremy Corbyn campaign, it has shown that anti-austerity arguments have a wide resonance, writes Michael Calderbank

It’s Corbynmania! Thousands rally for Jeremy Corbyn
Michael Calderbank reports from the central London rally for Jeremy Corbyn

Jeremy Corbyn for leader! Write to your MP
Michael Calderbank asks you to help get Jeremy onto the ballot paper for Labour leader

‘Don’t mourn, organise’ – OK, but how?
The left must re-think its strategy and methods of organisation after the election, writes Michael Calderbank – not just throw ourselves back into the same schemes that aren't working

Editorial: Reinventing politics
Not even the most favourable electoral outcome is likely to deliver what is needed, writes Michael Calderbank

Editorial: Unshrinking the offer
Michael Calderbank says the ambition and imagination that fuelled 1970s radicalism needs to be reclaimed and renewed, not rejected

The Failed Experiment
The Failed Experiment, by Andrew Fisher, reviewed by Michael Calderbank

Shelagh Delaney and the drama of everyday life
Michael Calderbank reconsiders the context of Salford playwright Shelagh Delaney’s breakthrough as the National Theatre stages a revival of her debut A Taste of Honey

Marx’s Concept of the Alternative to Capitalism
Marx’s Concept of the Alternative to Capitalism, by Peter Hudis, reviewed by Michael Calderbank

Editorial: Winter chill, political spring
A two-year price freeze on energy bills, while welcome, is hardly sufficient, writes Michael Calderbank

Resisting fascism is not a crime
Defend Savas Michael-Matsas and Constantinos Moutzouris

After Woolwich – Stand together against the politics of hate
Michael Calderbank says nothing excuses the Woolwich killing - but the hands of our political classes are no less besmirched with blood

Furthering the fightback
The question of what new political formation is possible or necessary must always begin from the daily experience and needs of working class communities, writes Michael Calderbank

We can’t wish a new left party into existence
Michael Calderbank offers an alternative view of Ken Loach’s appeal to discuss a new party

Scouse: a class accent
Michael Calderbank speaks to Tony Crowley, author of Scouse: A Social and Cultural History

Labour and the cuts: beyond the ‘dented shield’
The scale of coalition cuts means the very future of local public services is in jeopardy. Michael Calderbank asks whether Labour councillors can do more than offer verbal protest and practical acquiescence