LOVE AFTER BABEL AND OTHER POEMS – CHANDRAMOHAN S

Posted on July 21, 2021 by Norwich Radical in Arts and tagged caste, Chandramohan S, colonialism, creative writing, culture, Dalit, Deeptha Achar, featured, Hayan Charara, Hindu right, imperialism, India, intersectionality, islamophobia, Letters to Namdeo Dhasal, Love After Babel and Other Poems, Malayalam, migration, Muslims, oppression, poetry, post-colonial, radical politics, resistance, South Asia, translation.

By Ananya Wilson-Bhattacharya

The following was originally published as the afterword to the collection Love after Babel and Other Poems by Chandramohan S, published in January 2020 by Daraja Press. The collection won the Nicolás Cristóbal Guillén Batista Outstanding Book Award in January of this year. You can order a copy direct from Daraja Press here.

They ask me why do you write poems?
I write poems – the people have the right to…bear arms.

These lines, taken from his one-stanza masterpiece ‘Why Do I Write Poetry?’, encapsulate the very essence of Chandramohan S’ approach to his craft in his third collection, Love after Babel and Other Poems. These poems are unapologetically weapons, fighting against the pre-modern notion of caste in all its insidious 21st century glory.

CRIMINALISING TRESPASS, PART THREE: SUFFOCATING SPACES OF RESISTANCE

Posted on January 11, 2021 by Norwich Radical in Perspectives and tagged activism, BLM, campaigning, compulsory purchase orders, Crackley Woods, criminalising trespass, direct action, featured, HS2, Jellytot, land justice, occupy, privatisation, protest, public land, resistance, right to protest, right to roam, Stonehenge, Swampy, TINAAR, trespass, XR.

by Tesni Clare

For those who don’t know – and there are many who don’t, because the press have been worryingly silent on the matter until recently – there are a number of small, self-organised communities of activists living in tents and treehouses between London and Birmingham, along the proposed route of high speed railway HS2. The railway, and the protest camps, thread through some of this country’s last remaining pockets of ancient broadleaf woodland. Whilst many have been evicted, some camps have been there for over a year.

NO LONGER THE PRESIDENT, NEVER THE PRINCE: STOP CALLING TRUMP ‘MACHIAVELLIAN’

Posted on November 23, 2020 by Norwich Radical in Inter|national and tagged Bashar al-Assad, catholic church, David Ignatius, dictators, Donald Trump, far-right, featured, Florence, Italy, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Kafka, Machiavelli, Medici, morality, oppression, Orwell, patriotism, political correctness, political theory, politics, republican, resistance, The Prince, tyrants, US congress, US presidential election, USA, virtù, Washington Post.

By Howard Green

The last days of Trump have come at last, heralding an inevitably vast amount of journalistic analysis. Trump has been criticised continually through his presidency from many angles by commentators across the media spectrum. Now, as we seek to understand the terrifying exceptionalism of the past four years, classical political thought has once again reared its head. In order to criticise Trump, many invoke writers who have become associated with a collective anxiety – Orwell, Kafka, and, most frustratingly, Machiavelli. Niccolò Machiavelli and his writings have been associated with despotism and evil ever since his works were placed in the Index Librorum Prohibitorum by the Catholic church. But to describe Trump as Machiavellian is a misunderstanding of the controversial but frustratingly correct political theorist who warned against tyrants like him.

RESISTANCE AND REBELLION AFTER COVID-19

Posted on April 4, 2020 by Norwich Radical in Inter|national, Perspectives and tagged capitalism, class war, Community, coronavirus, Covid-19, direct action, exploitation, featured, freedom, homelessness, Jamese Scott, McDonalds, mutual aid, neoliberalism, NHS, resistance, Sports Direct, Starbucks, strikes, Trump, uk, US, Virgin, Wetherspoons.

by Sarah Edgcumbe

What a time to be alive. As Covid-19 rampages its way across the globe ravaging families and livelihoods, a medical fetish company has had to supply the NHS with equipment because the British government is a lethal combination of neoliberal, greedy and incompetent. While kink is contributing to saving lives, and while many people are faced with the prospect of trying to subsist and keep their families afloat on £94.25 per week sick pay during the lockdown, the British government has been putting together £1 billion of public funding to be doled out to countries who then intend to use this loan to buy British-made bombs and surveillance technology. British people die through negligence, people in other nations die through cataclysmic violence: welcome to Tory Britain.

POWER, FOOD AND LAND: SEEDS OF HOPE AND RESISTANCE – PART 2

Posted on July 8, 2019 by Norwich Radical in Inter|national, Perspectives and tagged agriculture, community supported agriculture, environment, Eves Hill Community Market Garden, food, food sovereignty, food system, La Via Campesina, local, Norwich Farm Share, resistance, soil, sustainability.

by Lotty Clare

We are all actors in a global hegemonic food and agricultural system that is increasingly undemocratic, unjust, and dominated by corporate interest in the hands of a rich minority. Part 1 explored how this has happened and the impacts of power concentration and intensification of agriculture globally. Much of the food we buy from supermarkets is packaged in plastic, , and has thousands air-miles attached to it as it has often been shipped across the world before reaching our trollies. The public has lost a connection to the land and lacks any kind of relationship to where its food comes from, and how it is grown, and indeed there is a great deal of ignorance around food production, nutrition, storage and even cooking. Sadly, it is ultimately the poorest and more marginalised people in society who are impacted the most by food poverty, having to buy and consume cheap food with poor nutritional value. Amidst rising levels of food poverty in the UK, we also have vast amounts of food waste on a household and commercial level, as about ⅓ of food is wasted.

RESISTANCE: WILL THE LEFT EVER TRULY OPPOSE RIGHT-WING POLITICS?

Posted on September 16, 2018 by Norwich Radical in Inter|national, Perspectives and tagged austerity, conservative, featured, financial crisis, Labour, opinion, opposition, party politics, politics, populism, radicalprogressive, resistance, Sweden.

by Gunnar Eigener

Content warning: mentions xenophobia.

As the UK government stutters to find ways to deal with the looming end date for Brexit negotiations, the news is awash with alternatives, the prospect of ‘no deal’, leadership challenges and campaigns for a second referendum. While the fight goes on, one problem is becoming increasingly apparent, not just in the UK, but globally; where is the opposition to the creeping right-wing politics that is slowly casting its shadow over the world?

BEYOND TUITION FEES #11 – MUCH TO LEARN, MORE TO DO

Posted on July 12, 2018 by Norwich Radical in Student and tagged activism, adult education, associate tutors, Beyond Tuition Fees, campaigning, capitalism, co-operatives, Community, consumerism, corbyn, crisis, exploitation, featured, food, Free Education, government, higher education, housing, international students, labour party, learning, market, marketing, marketisation, neoliberalism, NUS, postgraduate, profit, resistance, strategy, student activism, student debt, students' unions, tuition fees, uk, unions, universities, university management, university staff, utopia.

By Bradley Allsop and Rowan Gavin

It is a time of extraordinary potential for change in UK Higher Education. Labour’s promise to end tuition fees has defied the critics and united many behind Corbyn’s political project. In this series, the Norwich Radical and Bright Green have brought together perspectives from across the sector to explore the possibilities of post-fees HE. In the final instalment, the series editors summarise the visions for the next chapter of UK HE that the series has laid out.

There is more energy, debate and innovation on the left now than there has been for decades. Capitalism’s multiple crises, and the inability of its defenders to respond to them, are beginning to translate into tangible political opportunity. This series sought to capture the essence of some of this historical moment and direct it towards thinking about what we want our university campuses to look like, beyond the staple progressive policy of scrapping tuition fees. A project in unashamedly utopian thinking, it recognised the very real possibility that free tuition might be a reality in the near future, and sought to explore how this requires the left to think practically about what comes after and where our energy should be focused next.

KNEELING IS NO LONGER A CHOICE

Posted on May 26, 2018 by Norwich Radical in Inter|national, Perspectives and tagged American football, Amnesty International, anthem, Chris Johnson, Colin Kaepernick, demonstration, Eric Reid, featured, football, Jets, kleptocracy, Mike Pence, Nate Boyer, NFL, patriotism, protest, racism, resistance, san francisco, Seattle Seahawks, solidarity, sport, Steelers, Trumo, USA, USFL.

by Robyn Banks

The NFL’s anthem controversy has been rumbling on for a long time. It started in 2016 with San Francisco 49ers Quarterback Colin Kaepernick deciding to sit for the national anthem during preseason games. This eventually changed to kneeling after a conversation with former soldier and player Nate Boyer about he best way to protest during the anthem. This carried on for the rest of the season with players from across the league joining him in his protest against the treatment of people of color in the United States. At the end of the season, Kaepernick was released from his contract with the 49ers as they looked to rebuild the franchise afresh.Continue Reading

SELF EDUCATION, NEW SOLUTIONS

Posted on September 26, 2017 by Norwich Radical in Student and tagged adulthood, books, Brexit, capitalism, ChildLine, collective action, connectivity, consumerism, conversation, coping, corporations, democracy, disaster, education, environment, environmentalism, events, facts, free thought, globalisation, government, hope, ideology, individualism, information, information overload, knowledge, knowledge is power, learning, local groups, mental health, Naomi Klein, news, No Is Not Enough: Resisting The New Shock Politics, politicians, politics, power, reading, resistance, schools, security, self education, social consciousness, society, sociopolitical situation, This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs The Climate, Trump, truth, voters, voting, young people.

by Laura Potts

Schools stand as institutions of education, aiming to enhance and aid growth in various forms. Children growing through the school system will eventually leave as adults. However, in my generation, there is a trend away from exploring a key part of adulthood: continued self education.

CUT THE CRAP AND STICK TOGETHER: INTERVIEW WITH KILL BITCHES TO DRESS FOXES

Posted on April 8, 2017 by Norwich Radical in Arts, Music That Matters and tagged ale, all girl, andy stanton, animal rights, band, bikini kill, capitalism, DIY, Emma Goldman, erege, female punk, feminist punk, interview, itxi, kathleen hanna, Kill Bitches to Dress Foxes, leeway, lyrics, meinhof, municipal waste, music, music that matters, norwich, plasmatics, politics, punk, resistance, riot grrrl, ROAR, sex, social justice, turko, wendy o williams, women in music, Women's Refuge, women's rights.

by Tim-F

One of the bands appearing at ROAR on April 28th in aid of Norwich’s local Women’s Refuge, Leeway, is London based all girl H/C punks Kill Bitches To Dress Foxes.

I first came across KBTDF on one of those meandering journeys through the internet.. Previously known as Medication Time, this London based three piece is comprised of Ale on bass, Itxi on drums and Turko on guitar. With a variety of musical backgrounds and citing influences as wide as Municipal Waste, Emma Goldman and Andy Stanton, they kindly agreed to an interview about punk, politics and other stuff.Continue Reading

resistance

LOVE AFTER BABEL AND OTHER POEMS – CHANDRAMOHAN S

By Ananya Wilson-Bhattacharya

CRIMINALISING TRESPASS, PART THREE: SUFFOCATING SPACES OF RESISTANCE

NO LONGER THE PRESIDENT, NEVER THE PRINCE: STOP CALLING TRUMP ‘MACHIAVELLIAN’

By Howard Green

RESISTANCE AND REBELLION AFTER COVID-19

RESISTANCE: WILL THE LEFT EVER TRULY OPPOSE RIGHT-WING POLITICS?

BEYOND TUITION FEES #11 – MUCH TO LEARN, MORE TO DO

KNEELING IS NO LONGER A CHOICE

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