Book review: ‘From Anger to Apathy’ by Mark Garnett
How did Britain get from the decade of punk rock, the Angry Brigade, the three-day week, Bennism, Grunwick, and the Winter of Discontent to these cursed times of Celebrity Big Brother, the lowest level of industrial militancy since records begun, the smallest electoral turnouts since universal suffrage, LINO government (Labour in Name Only), and the [...]
Two new links
It is commonplace to remark that the British left is way behind the British right when it comes to making use of the internet as a tool for getting its political message across. Even so, Trots seem to be well ahead of anarchist groupings and individuals in this respect. Typical bloody vanguardists! I am a [...]
Brendan Barber: undercover firebrand
It was once my lot – as an impoverished freelance journalist doing a one-day shift for a trade union journal – to produce a 500-word story summarising the contents of a speech by Brendan Barber, at that time deputy general secretary of the Trades Union Congress. That’s him, pictured left. Yet even with the following [...]
After Benazir Bhutto: where now for Pakistan?
Pakistan is likely to survive the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, and the contingent murder of at least 20 other people – pictured left – at least in the short run. Analysts I have spoken to this afternoon are predicting civil unrest, primarily in Karachi, and the probable imposition of a curfew. But they believe that [...]
None of Morphy Richards’ business
Star ‘useful’ present this Christmas was undoubtedly a brand new decent quality black and silver pop-up toaster. This was something I actually wanted, having lived an existentially crippled toasterless existence for many months since the demise of a £6.99 cheapo number from Woolies. My 2008 breakfast times will be revolutionised accordingly. The downside is that [...]
Pornography and advertising: spot the difference?
The radical left is divided in its attitudes to pornography, as it is to so much else. The debate essentially polarises people into one of two mutually exclusive positions. Some feminist opinion sees the commodification of sexuality as undesirable, considering it intrinsically degrading to all women, especially participants, and to those men who view it. [...]
More perspectives on Jacob Zuma
Jacob Zuma has been confirmed as the leader of the African National Congress, and so seems set to become president of South Africa in 2009. Given that he enjoys majority support of the South African Communist Party and the main union federation Cosatu, this will be seen by some sections of the left as unalloyed [...]
Nick Clegg: is liberalism too much to expect from the Lib Dems?
The so-called centre ground is the most overcrowded stretch of real estate in British politics. It is – as I’ve argued before – in truth really the centre-right, and must rank somewhere about seven or eight on a scale from democratic socialism to Thatcherite Conservatism, but let that pass. With both New Labour and the [...]
SWP: Central Committee climbs down on Khansaheb donation
The latest edition of the Socialist Workers’ Party bulletin Party Notes includes what must be history’s only recorded instance of a Central Committee climbdown. It relates to the story of an illegal foreign donation from Dubai-based Khansaheb Civil Engineering to Respect the Unity Coalition, which at the instigation of national secretary John Rees, subsequently found [...]
Political cover versions of 2007
Alright, pop pickers? Not ‘arf! It’s been a poptastic year for politicians doing rock, blues and jazz cover versions, and – as a special treat for fortysomething readers who used to listen to Alan ‘Fluff’ Freeman, pictured left – Dave’s Part is proud to bring you this exclusive 2007 Top Ten: (1) [You're my] Brownite [...]
