POLITICS & CULTURE – THE AMIEL & MELBURN SEMINAR 2017

Posted on June 29, 2017 by Norwich Radical in Arts, Inter|national and tagged 7 Days, academia, access, activism, alpha male, alt-right, alternative media, Annie Kelly, anti-feminism, art, Athina Karatzogianni, Barry Amiel & Norman Melburn Trust, Chardine Taylor-Stone, class, corruption, critique, culture, culture war, curricula, digital culture, direct action, disillusionment, economics, education, fake news, far right, fascism, feminism, feminist allies, future generations, GE17, higher education, history, holding power to account, ideology, inequality, inheritance, Jo Littler, Judies, knowledge, language, mainstream media, male psyche, marxism, media representation, meritocracy, Michael Rustin, Milo Yiannopolous, Mod, Mod women, modernity, music, neo nazi, neoliberalism, peer-pressure, politics, Politics & Culture Seminar, politics of difference, progress, progress narrative, progressive media, public education, punk, Punk women, representation, Rhian E Jones, right wing, Rosalind Delmar, Roshi Naidoo, Skinhead, Skinhead women, social exclusion, social media, social mobility, socialism, society, strike action, subcultures, talent, Teddy Girls, tenant strike, trust, universities, working class movement, young people, Zahra Dalilah.

by Gunnar Eigener and Rowan Gavin

CW: mentions misogyny, anti-feminism, neo-nazism

Earlier this month, a writer and an editor from the Radical took part in the Amiel & Melburn Trust’s annual residential seminar. The Trust’s aims are “to advance public education, learning and knowledge in all aspects of the philosophy of Marxism, the history of socialism, and the working-class movement’. This year, the topic of the seminar was ‘Politics & Culture’, and the various intertwinings and intersections thereof. What follows are thoughts and reactions about the seminar from our contributors.

TIME TO FUCKING STAND

Posted on December 6, 2016 by Norwich Radical in Inter|national and tagged 2016, alt-right, authoritarian states, bigotry, capitalism, Cathy Newman, daily mail, DAPL, dread, dreams, Erdogan, Europe, facts, fake news, fascism, fear, fight back, First Nations, future, get ready, Golden Dawn, hate crimes, homophobia, humans, individualism, Italy referendum, Junot Diaz, Kashmir, KKK, Lind Tirado, Marine Le Pen, Modi, Movimento 5 Stelle, mysogny, neo nazi, neoliberalism, North Dakota, Orban, Pakistan, politics, putin, racism, radical hope, refugee camp, resist, Roland Martin, sarah kendzior, Snoopers Charter, standards, taking a stand, Teen Vogue, transphobia, Trevor Noah, US, violence, white nationalism, write.

by Alex Valente

Content warning: mentions racism, xenophobia, bigotry, homophobia, transphobia, misogyny, and the general mess that is 2016.

And so the world has suddenly changed, again, seemingly even louder than before. For a lot of people who claim to be interested in following politics, nationally or internationally, the events of the past month can feel like a shock. We’ve all trying to find someone to blame, someone to accuse, someone to stand in front of us as we look in a mirror, and global media has been having a field-day of think-pieces on the issue. But quite frankly, who cares?

We fucked up. We’ve been doing so for a long time. We’ve been doing so with every time we didn’t speak up, stand up, stand in the way of neoliberalism, aggressive capitalism, individualism and their opening the gates to full-on, fully backed racism, xenophobia, bigotry, homophobia, transphobia, misogyny and so many other horrors that not even patriarchy-mythologised Pandora could be blamed for them all.Continue Reading

PUNK AND ERASURE: 40 YEARS LATER

Posted on May 22, 2016 by Norwich Radical in Arts, Music That Matters and tagged 7 Year Bitch, anarchism, anniversary, arts, Babes in Toyland, Bad Brains, Black Flag, Blink-182, Blood & Honour, British music, Buzzcocks, celebration, crass, culture, dead kennedys, DIY, earasure, female artists, female musicians, Ford Dagenham, Ghost Town, Goldfinger, Green Day, grunge, history, Iggy Pop, IWD, John Lydon, L7, Less Than JAke, LGBT+, Madness, Malcolm McLaren, male-centric, Minor Threat, music, music that matters, neo nazi, New Found Glory, New Rose, NWA, Patti Smith, politics, punk, punk rock, Ramones, Rancid, RAR, refused, retrospective, revisionism, riot grrrl, Robert Smith, rock against racism, Roxanne Shante, Run DMC, salt n pepa, Sex Pistols, Sham 69, Sid Vicious, Siouxsie Sioux, Ska, The Beat, The Bodysnatchers, The Clash, The Offspring, The Selecter, Young Marble Giants, zine.

by Chris Jarvis

Anniversaries are strange things. Almost exclusively, they consist of rose-tinted, uncritical and nostalgic assessments of whatever they seek to commemorate. 2016, forty years since the ‘birth’ of punk, appears no different. Expect Union Jacks, safety pins galore and excessive images of John Lydon in BBC sanctioned documentaries. Expect descriptions of how important Malcolm Mclaren was to punk’s success, claims that New Rose was without contention the first punk rock single and a neat lineage where pub rock became punk – a very British phenomenon.

Inadequate as such histories are, they are demonstrative of the problem we have with understanding punk as a cultural occurrence. Debate rages amongst fans about whether punk was ever grassroots, whether it was ever political, whether any of the anti-establishment ethos was ever genuine, or instead fabricated by an astute record industry seeking to find the new zeitgeist. Adherents to either theory will read selectively into the evidence and ignore anything which would disprove their dogma.Continue Reading

THE FLAG OF HATE RISES OVER EUROPE

Posted on May 26, 2014 by Norwich Radical in Inter|national and tagged EU, Europe, far right, front nationale, Golden Dawn, neo nazi, politics, protest vote, Syriza, UKIP, vote.

by Chris Jarvis.

With results from all countries except Ireland, the European elections depict a bleak picture. Across the continent, an array of hard right parties has seen electoral success as the vote has swung in their direction. Ranging from the latent, little Englander racism of UKIP, to the Muslim hating nationalism of the Front Nationale and the openly fascistic Golden Dawn, they all, at root, have a core based in the politics of division, the politics of fear and the politics of hate.

Of course, they are not all the same. UKIP are not wholly comparable to Golden Dawn, whose representatives have holocaust deniers among their ranks or Hungary’s Jobbik, whose Deputy Parliamentary leader has referred to those with Jewish ancestry as a threat to their nation’s security. To claim them as the same would be to downplay the truly repugnant and terrifying anti-Semitism of some of the parties who will be taking seats in the new European parliament.

neo nazi

TIME TO FUCKING STAND

PUNK AND ERASURE: 40 YEARS LATER

THE FLAG OF HATE RISES OVER EUROPE

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