So what might “Zariya” – a composition by India’s foremost composer AR Rahman, which brings together a traditional chant by Nepalese Buddhist nun, Ani Choying, traditional lyrics sung by Jordanian Farah Siraj, and a Hindi chorus – tell us about globalisation? As an audio-visual cultural offering, readily available via social media, it is an exquisite […]
Introduction The post-1979 era of ‘opening and reform’ opened China’s economy to global capital. Since then the State has been managing this process to ensure its own political legitimacy and stability. As such it fuels a populist nationalism, embedded with anti-American and anti-Japanese feeling, and a neoconservative nostalgia for the past. Moreover, although Confucianism was […]
Introduction It doesn’t matter if the cat is black or white as long as it catches mice. Deng Xiaoping In the second of three articles overviewing a recent history of China, I review the era of Deng Xiaoping. That the successor to Mao Zedong as head of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) was to be both […]
What are privilege theory and intersectionality? And what’s the appeal? Privilege theorist Peggy McIntosh talks of white privilege as “an invisible weightless knapsack of special provisions, assurances, tools, maps, guides, codebooks, passports, visas, clothes, compass, emergency gear, and blank cheques”. The term privilege is seen to go beyond the concept of ‘economic class’ to enable […]
I. These are the rules A storm should leave in its wake stillness and clarity. Marxism to me works as a method of thinking and application; a body of ideas and a school of experience; a theory to apply to any given reality with an analytical rigour and honesty; and, a process of testing, modifying […]
Introduction During this and the following two articles, I will be overviewing a recent history of China. I begin with the Mao years, then move on to the era of Deng Xiaoping (known as ‘opening and reform’), and finish with the period of China’s global ascent. Knowledge of China’s past is crucial for understanding the […]
In their internal document “British Perspectives 1977” (cited in Crick, 1986, page 89), the Militant Tendency (forerunner to the Socialist Party) defined the feminist movement as “petty-bourgeois-dominated” and subject to “hysteria”. Cartoonist Alan Hardman’s depictions of Margaret Thatcher for the Militant’s publications reflected a deep-seated political problem with the organisation – their dismissal of feminism, […]
On building an honest history of the Left, the academics Diane Frost and Peter North’s book “Militant Liverpool: A City On The Edge” is an excellent insight of the forerunner to the Socialist Party, the Militant Tendency. Their book is a balanced and measured piece of research based on oral history testimonies from several of […]
Over the past months, the SWP has received much high-profile criticism for its kangaroo court dealing of allegations of rape by a leading party member. Curiously, there has been much less scrutiny of the response by the Socialist Party – formerly the Militant Tendency – to a complaint of domestic abuse made against one of their […]
Here is a podcast based on the lead-off that I gave at the Ideas for Freedom conference on the weekend of 22nd/23rd June 2013, I hope you find it of some political and intellectual use: (Image from Wikimedia Commons: December 22, students protest the rising violence against women, Raisina Hill/ Rajpath)
Anaemic On A Bike 