THE NORWICH RADICAL – APRIL 2023 ISSUE
April 28, 2023Welcome to the April 2023 Issue of The Norwich Radical! As we announced in March, we’re changing how we do things around here. Going forward, you can expect new content from us in a multi-article issue once every two months. Our first priority at the Radical has always been to follow the needs and interests of our volunteers. This new model will allow us to continue producing the progressive, exciting analysis that we’re interested in as a collective, to a schedule that suits us!
THE AI PANIC IN EDUCATION
April 28, 2023by Howard Green
It’s no exaggeration to any person or any robot to claim that Artificial Intelligence has arrived. It has done so without its previous aura of mystification and impracticality. Now, with applications such as ChatGPT, it seems to be finally materialising into what technology like this can truly be, and allegedly, productive for all of those who use it.
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FIGHTING FOR TRANS RIGHTS IN A FAR-RIGHT NATION
April 28, 2023By a Norwich LGBTQ+ activist
CW: references to transphobic policy and rhetoric, neo-nazi ideology, far-right violence
Last August, The Norwich Radical published coverage of a drag queen storytime event at the Millennium Library. The event was targeted by far-right organisations, and defended by a much larger group of LGBTQ+ Norwich residents and allies. Since then, far-right protestors in smaller numbers have attempted to disrupt more LGBTQ+ community events in the city. Meanwhile, the government has continued to ramp up anti-trans rhetoric and policy, aided and abetted by the bile of the mainstream press and the complicity of so-called ‘gender critical’ figures in academia and popular culture. This is more than a ‘minority concern’. It is a large-scale civil rights struggle against an establishment more fascistic by the day.
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REFUGEES NOT WELCOME HERE: EUROPE’S SHAMEFUL RESPONSE TO UKRAINIAN ROMA
April 28, 2023by Jonathan Lee
CW: War, torture, police violence, racist violence
If only this show of force, power of democracy, and freedom to choose one’s own path applied equally to all peoples fleeing war. Refugees from darker-skinned parts of the word can only dream of such noble rhetoric coming from a European leader. The policies of Fortress Europe to repel people from conflict regions in South West Asia and North Africa are well documented. These people have not been greeted with emergency directives to ease their access to European job markets. Rather, like beggars at the door, they have found the gates of Europe firmly shut to them. More often than not, those gates have invariably been reinforced with barbed wire, and kept shut by attack dogs, tear gas, and lethal force. While white Ukrainian refugees have broadly been welcomed with open arms, those from outside the continent remain left behind, beyond the borders of the EU.
SACRILEGE: SPEAKING WITH THE FOUNDERS OF NORWICH’S GOTH NIGHT
April 28, 2023By Kasper Hassett
Norwich has a goth scene. That’s not always obvious – but go digging in the Underbelly of The Rumsey Wells on certain Saturdays and you might find yourself caught up with those who move on the city’s darkest dance floor.
Started by Alixandrea and Dvae in Cambridge, Sacrilege is a semi-regular club night showcasing a range of dark music from all eras. In recent years it has moved with them to Norwich, and is now gaining traction as a hub for the East Anglian alternative community to gather and enjoy goth music. I got in touch with Alix and Dvae to discuss Sacrilege, how it came to be and what may be in its future.
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HOW TO LOSE £30 MILLION: THE UEA CRISIS EXPLAINED
April 28, 2023By a frustrated member of UEA staff
The University of East Anglia is in crisis. £30 million or more in deficit. Hundreds of jobs under threat. Zero of the leaders who got us here willing to take accountability. It is not an exaggeration to say that this is an existential threat to the future of one of Norfolk’s most important institutions.
WHISKY AND BEARDS – SPOTLIGHT REVIEW
April 28, 2023by Carmina Masoliver
Whisky and Beards is a publishing house that works on a print-on-demand basis in order to ensure an equal relationship with each of its authors. Predominantly publishing poets from the local poetry scene in Thanet, Margate, I have chosen a pick of four of their publications, including writers hailing from York and Bristol.
KEIR, WHAT ARE YOU ACTUALLY DOING? AN ANALYSIS OF LABOUR AHEAD OF LOCAL ELECTIONS
April 27, 2023by Sunetra Senior
Labour has shown to lead by 20 full points in the first major political poll of 2023. That number has since jumped to 28 at the time of writing. This looks potentially promising ahead of the looming local elections. However, it has not been because of the leading power of Starmer but rather the lingering legacy of the corruptive Conservatives, including the habitual trademark ‘sleaze’. This is hard to shake off, even with a full head of gel and the snappiest suit from the most exclusive vault: the last few months saw the kempt PM, Sunak, come under pressure to sack, and not simply investigate, his cabinet member Zahawi, under fire from the HMRC for dodging tax and later controversially settling the issue with a payment of £1 million. Meanwhile, Dominic Raab joined Priti Patel in the hall of shame amid accusations of the favourite Tory pastime:serial bullying the junior staff. Such institutional indiscretion, of course, is but a microcosm of the national socio-economic devastation that continues to ravage the UK. An extension of the Tories’ self-serving tenet, widening social inequality, financial desperation of middle and low-income households, exploding xenophobia and the generally cowed demeanour of present-day Britain, are the direct social result.
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