THE ‘C’ WORD: COMMUNIST ERASURE IN LIBERATION ACTIVISM

Posted on March 27, 2021 by Norwich Radical in Perspectives and tagged activism, anarchism, Ash Sarkar, communism, featured, framing, identity, label, left, LGBTQIA+, liberation, marginalised, McCarthy, MLK, Piers Morgan, pride, radical, red scare, socialism.

by Kasper Hassett

From the first Red Scare in the US, terms like ‘communism’, ‘socialism’, and ‘anarchism’ have been subject to suspicion and scrutiny. Despite describing common views, they are considered subversive, chaotic and threatening, and cause others to be wary. Many of society’s role models, however, have been communists – especially those most associated with struggles against oppression, imperialism and bigotry. Forgetting this is no accident: when centrists and the right-wing express a shared sense of pride for achievements in activism, they place history under a rose-tinted lens, carefully side-stepping mention of their role in enforcing the barriers which required lifting in the first place.

MAKING HER SELF UP – FRIDA KAHLO AT THE V&A, LONDON

Posted on November 7, 2018 by Norwich Radical in Arts and tagged abortion, art, arts, capitalism, che guevara, communism, diego rivera, disability, featured, frida, Frida Kahlo, la casa azul, making her self up, miscarriage, painting, salma hayek, self portrait with monkeys, the broken column.

by Carmina Masoliver

Ever since I studied Frida Kahlo in class, I have been a fan. Self Portrait with Monkeys (1943) and The Broken Column (1944) always stood out in my mind from those years, the monkeys offering a protective symbolism, and the latter painting signifying a kind of strength through suffering. Like Kahlo, I enjoyed painting self-portraits, and I found it difficult to paint other faces with the same accuracy.

WHY ISN’T EVERYONE A SOCIALIST?

Posted on June 28, 2018 by Norwich Radical in Inter|national, Perspectives and tagged authoritarian, benefits, capitalism, communism, control, featured, feminism, hardworking, margaret thatcher, neoliberalism, politics, poverty, practice, praxis, Reagan, socialism, state, theory, Thomas Mann, wealth, welfare.

by Jonathan Lee

It’s a dirty word for many who don’t really understand what it means. People often broadly sweep Socialism into a single ideology, which is much maligned as an unworkable and authoritarian regime, seemingly unsuitable for the modern day, and unpopular amongst the electorate.

I’ll start out being optimistic, and assume that this ignorance of what Socialism is explains why some people discount it out of hand. Because the premise of Socialism is generally one that I have to believe most people should aspire to in some way. “Every human being should be a moderate Socialist,” Thomas Mann said.

Why? Because Socialism is a general set of social, political, and economic views that places people first. And what’s the point of having a democratic society, in which we the people place power in the hands of a select few to manage our lives, if not to make things generally better for people as a whole?Continue Reading

MARX AND MARKETS: LEARNING FROM CHINA’S 40 YEAR ECONOMIC REVOLUTION

Posted on February 11, 2018 by Norwich Radical in Inter|national and tagged Alibaba, Baidu, Bernie Sanders, china, communism, Cultural Revolution, Deng Xiapoing, economics, economy, featured, Huawei, human rights, illiberal, imposition, international, Labour, Mao Zedong, philosophy, power, socialism, Tence, theresa may, Tiananmen Square, uk, Xi Jinping.

by Justin Reynolds

Overshadowed by the perennial pain of Brexit negotiations and fresh flurries of speculation over her leadership, Theresa May’s trip to China earlier this month passed with little comment.

Democratic freedoms in Britain’s former colony Hong Kong were briefly discussed. A few business contracts were confirmed. And the shimmering outline of some future post-Brexit trade deal could at times be briefly discerned.

What was remarkable about the visit was scarcely noted:Continue Reading

BLAMING THE BEAR – THE 21st CENTURY RED SCARE

Posted on November 9, 2017 by Norwich Radical in Inter|national and tagged 100 years, 1918 Immigration Act, 1918 Sedition Act, 2016 US Presidential election, activists, Adam Ramsay, anarchists, anti migrant, arrest, Arthur Miller, Artie Shaw, berlin wall, bolshevik party, Brexit, burqa ban, capitalism, capitalist west, Catalonia, cold war, communism, communist east, Department of Justic, deportation, EU referendum, General Strikes, government, hammer and sickle, Hollywood, independence referendum, Leave Campaign, media, muslim ban, nuclear weapons, openDemocracy, Palmer Raids, People's Republic of China, political phenomena, prevent strategy, provisional government, public hysteria, putin, Quebec, red menace, red scare, Russia, russian revolution, sharia law, Soviet, spain, Stalin, state power, The Crucible, Truman, Trump, US Patriot Act, USA, USSR, W E B Du bois, wwii, xenophobia.

by Chris Jarvis

Tuesday November 7th marked 100 years since the Russian Revolution, when the Bolshevik Party overthrew the Provisional Government in Russia established in February of 1917. What followed was 84 years of Government by the Party in Russia, and what came to be known as the USSR, as well as a global struggle for ideological, economic, military, and imperial dominance between the “communist” east and capitalist west.

Throughout that period, a central plank of western political policy and rhetoric was the fear-inducing concept of the red menace and its attempts to wreak havoc upon the democratic states of Western Europe and North America. Erosion of civil liberties, aggressive policies on migration, and imperialist adventures through East Asia, Latin America, the Middle East and Africa were all justified with the visage of Joseph Stalin, conniving communists. and the hammer and sickle looming ominously as a backdrop.

Amongst the most brazen of these were the infamous ‘red scares’ – periods of government, media and public hysteria about the communist threat, primarily confined to the USA. Continue Reading

THE ROAD TO FULLY AUTOMATED LUXURY GAY SPACE COMMUNISM: PART 2

Posted on August 22, 2017 by Norwich Radical in Inter|national and tagged 3D printing, AI, automation, communism, FALGSC, future, luxury, M-Pesa, Maslow's hierarchy of needs, post-capitalism, RepRap, sci-fi, singularity, technology.

For part 1, click here.

Content warning: links contain references to white nationalism and Charlottesville.

By Zoe Harding

Unfortunately, I can’t provide a full road map to the future from our current Nazi-sodden economically unstable world of earthbound, cishet-dominated capitalism (at least, not in 600 words). If the 20th century taught us anything, it’s that traditional revolutions are messy, violent and frequently impossibly complex things, and, even if their intentions are good, they tend to make things worse rather than better. A violent uprising with the fat cats first against the wall is perhaps a good daydream while you’re stressed and trying to pay your rent on time, but in practice we’d get another Stalin.

As such, this article will be much more hypothetical, looking at the kind of technology necessary for a global, fully automated and luxurious communist society, and then looking at ways we might potentially create and distribute it.Continue Reading

THE ROAD TO FULLY AUTOMATED LUXURY GAY SPACE COMMUNISM: PART 1

Posted on August 10, 2017 by Norwich Radical in Inter|national and tagged arab spring, automation, basic income, capitalism, communism, culture, FALC, FALGSC, future, Ian M Banks, mechanisation, revolution, space, The Peripheral, UBI, unemployment, utopia, utopian, william gibson.

by Zoe Harding

Let’s leave the sordid world of Earth behind for a bit, and explore the potential of a concept that’s kind of easy to dismiss out of hand.

In his venerable Culture series, Iain M Banks describes a future society based around Minds, unimaginably super-intelligent AIs that control vast ships and space-going habitats, on which a massive collection of alternately hedonistic and depressed lesser-biological beings (assumed to be human, although it’s never made explicit) live pampered and comfortable lives. The Culture is semi-utopian, although, if it resembles any society, it resembles the US in its relations with other civilisations, The books frequently focus on both the skulduggery necessary to keep the civilisation running and the injustice of being born outside it. Nonetheless, it is a portrait of a society in which humans (probably) are protected, cared for and treated equally through advanced technology.

Because utopias aren’t easy or fun to write, few societies like the Culture have appeared in fiction before or since. There is one notable version, however, in the form of an oddly idealistic leftie meme: Fully Automated Luxury Gay Space Communism.Continue Reading

(PART 1) THE OTHER SIDE: A LOOK AT EUROPE

Posted on August 20, 2016 by Norwich Radical in Inter|national and tagged anti-war, appeasement, Brexit, Budapest, communism, Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia, displacement, Eastern Europe, education, employment, EU referendum, Europe, explore europe, healthcare, Hotel Jalta, immigration, Marriot Hotel, National Museum, Nazi, occupation, Poland, Prague, socialism, Stalin, Sudetenland, the other side of europe, travel, travel writing, umbrella tour, Vienna, Warsaw, Wenceslas Square, world war II.

by Zoe Harding

Well folks, these last few weeks your humble correspondent has been travelling around Eastern Europe on a hastily-booked last chance tour. I’m four cities in and thought I’d share a little of the mood on the street from Warsaw, Vienna, Prague and Budapest. Part one of this article looks at Warsaw and Prague.

MEANWHILE, SOME GOOD NEWS: PEACE IN COLOMBIA

Posted on June 26, 2016 by Norwich Radical in Inter|national and tagged anti-imperialist, cartels, ceasefire, civil war, Colombia, communism, drugs, FARC, guerrilla, Havana, international politics, Juan Manuel Santos, La Violencia, Marquetalia, Marxist, negotiations, Patriotic Union Party, peace, peace process, politics, revolution, socialism, trafficking, UN, united nations, UP.

by Zoe Harding

You know what? Everyone’s writing about how my racist Gran and 17,000,000 of her mates have screwed the UK over. Instead, let’s talk about something positive.

On June 23rd 2016, while the eyes of the world were decisively elsewhere, the Colombian President, Juan Manuel Santos emerged from negotiations in Havana with the left-wing FARC rebel group and announced a ceasefire. This ceasefire is the first major break in a fifty-year conflict which has claimed 200,000 lives and left Colombia a mess of drug trafficking and insurgencies. While the deal is nothing more than a ceasefire, it has been hailed by many Colombians as the first step in a peace process that’s been a long time coming.Continue Reading

THE LAST WORD

Posted on June 15, 2015 by Norwich Radical in Arts and tagged activism, artists, arts review, audience, banter, bloodlines, bodies, communism, creative, creative writing, E15, E15 mothers, festival, gender, gender politics, home, london, misogyny, music, poetry, politics, priviledge, protests, racism, review, roundhouse, song, spoken word, the last word festival, women, word, words, young artists.

by Carmina Masoliver

The Last Word Festival is a annual festival of spoken word events at The Roundhouse. The organisation supports young artists with their work, giving them a platform to showcase their work, as well as featuring well-established names in poetry, such as East Anglia’s own Luke Wright. The programme was full of acts happening in every crevice of the building, spilling out into bar, where Talking Doorsteps videos were available to listen to on headphones in seating booths. Read on to find more about some of what this year had to offer.

communism

THE ‘C’ WORD: COMMUNIST ERASURE IN LIBERATION ACTIVISM

by Kasper Hassett

MAKING HER SELF UP – FRIDA KAHLO AT THE V&A, LONDON

WHY ISN’T EVERYONE A SOCIALIST?

MARX AND MARKETS: LEARNING FROM CHINA’S 40 YEAR ECONOMIC REVOLUTION

BLAMING THE BEAR – THE 21st CENTURY RED SCARE

THE ROAD TO FULLY AUTOMATED LUXURY GAY SPACE COMMUNISM: PART 2

THE ROAD TO FULLY AUTOMATED LUXURY GAY SPACE COMMUNISM: PART 1

(PART 1) THE OTHER SIDE: A LOOK AT EUROPE

MEANWHILE, SOME GOOD NEWS: PEACE IN COLOMBIA

THE LAST WORD

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