Art has often judged the judges, pleaded revenge to the innocent and shown to the future what the past has suffered, so that it has never been forgotten. John Berger, 1985.1 In 1969 Kenneth Clark presented a 13-part television series… Continue Reading
I shall never forget that thunder-like speech, which startled and amazed not only me, a heretic who had accidently dropped in, but all the true believers. I am certain that no one had expected anything of the sort. It seemed… Continue Reading
Within weeks of Jeremy Corbyn’s election as Labour leader, news and media channels were dominated by charges of antisemitism levelled against his supporters, the National Union of Students and others for their opposition to the State of Israel. The furore… Continue Reading
The commission was chaired by Bob Geldof and headed by prime minister Tony Blair, chancellor of the exchequer Gordon Brown, and minister for international development Hilary Benn. It also included: Michel Camdessus, who as managing director of the IMF until… Continue Reading
Towards the end of the 1980s and early 1990s strikes, riots and demonstrations forced 19 one-party states in Africa to institutionalise a democratic opposition. But the headlong rush into neo-liberalism and continued structural adjustment policies somewhat de-֊legitimised the ‘birth of… Continue Reading
In June and July 1917, the then secretary of the Labour Party Arthur Henderson visited revolutionary Russia on behalf of Lloyd George’s coalition government. He returned extremely disturbed by what he had seen. The radicalism of the Russian working class… Continue Reading
“In passing across a narrow and unreliable bridge, a small but reliable prop may prove one’s salvation. But woe to him who clutches at a rotten prop that crumbles at a touch—for, in that case, a plunge into the abyss… Continue Reading
During the blisteringly hot summer of 1976 a group of Asian workers, predominantly women, walked out on strike at a small factory in north west London. Most were recently arrived migrants from Uganda, Tanzania and Kenya and were as unlikely… Continue Reading
The election of Donald J Trump as President of the United States of America has rightly been greeted with disgust by many around the world. After a lengthy election season in which the two main parties were led by two… Continue Reading
Abortion has rarely been out of the headlines in 2016. Women have been leading an unprecedented surge of resistance to attacks on already limited rights to access to abortion. Mass protests at both ends of Europe, on its western shores… Continue Reading