STATUES ARE COMING DOWN BUT RACISM REMAINS

Posted on June 22, 2020 by Norwich Radical in Perspectives and tagged #SayHerName, 1312, abolition, ahmaud arbery, anti black, anti-asian, BAME, belly mujinga, black, black lives matter, breonna taylor, british history, Cecil Rhodes, Churchill, colston, desecration, education, empire, featured, george floyd, government, jas assman, Kenya, lockdown, mary seacole, mau mau, munira mirza, olaudah equiano, race, racism, Rhodes Must Fall, Rodney King, say their name, South Africa, statue, Steven Lawrence, system, tony mcdade, uk, war memorial.

by Lisa Insansa Woods

Colston is in the river. Winston Churchill is quivering. Cecil Rhodes glares brazenly at the Oxford University governors threatening to tear him down, his maniacal eyes finding flickers of solace in the realisation that whether he remains or not, the society he served over a century ago still slithers in its self-made pool of white supremacy (enough to still make his cold hard mouth turn into a grin).

The taking down of statues is a powerful display of justice. Every day, the Black community has had to endure looking up at its oppressors whilst simultaneously being battered by the system that those same glorified figures acted to perpetuate. Each statue that falls is a nod of recognition to the Black experience – an experience which has been subdued for hundreds of years as something that is not worthy of our knowledge. However, whilst pulling down a statue is a strong gesture, it does not annihilate the insidious manifestation of racism that courses through every part of our society. We need to do more.Continue Reading

THE 100FT TALL CANARY

Posted on June 25, 2018 by Norwich Radical in Inter|national and tagged Adansonia Adansonia, Africa, African Baobab, baobab, Botswana, capitalism, climate activism, climate change, crisis, developing, economics, environment, environmental justice, featured, forest, humanity, Idaho, Lion King, migration, Montana, Namibia, nature, Nature Plants, neoliberalism, Panke Baobab, pollution, Rafiki, research, resources, science, South Africa, trees, uk, war, West, Wyoming, Zambia, Zimbabwe.

by Stu Lucy

Back in the day, before Maggie had her way, there used to be a thriving northern powerhouse built on the foundations of a mining industry that provided thousands of jobs to people across a vast expanse of our fair isles. It was a dangerous job with the risks of explosions, cave-ins, and noxious fumes overpowering the brave men and women that dared descend into dark depths. One of the tools the miners had to protect themselves from some of the dangers of this perilous job was a tiny little yellow bird in a cage: a canary. When levels of noxious gases began to amass, this small bird would croak it, indicating to the miners it was time to get out. While hardly the most humane method of protecting themselves, it served its purpose and saved countless lives. The mines have now closed and canaries no longer employed to keep the miners safe, the metaphor however lives on, albeit in a somewhat larger capacity.Continue Reading

PASSING THE FEMALE TEST

Posted on April 30, 2018 by Norwich Radical in Inter|national, Perspectives and tagged athletics, cheating, doping, featured, gender, Gold Cost, hormones, IAAF, Mokgadi Caster Semenya, neo-colonialism, olympics, rules, running, Seb Coe, sex, sex verification, South Africa, sport, sports, testosterone.

by Stu Lucy

Professional sport is possibly one of the most challenging and competitive ways to earn a living these days. With national fame and glory as rewards, many dream of representing their country on the international stage and bringing home a medal, earning their place in their country’s sporting history. Imagine then that you were one of the lucky few that made it to the top, that had that chance to take gold and did so, multiple times, earning a revered reputation in the field as the one to beat, then imagine you were told it could all be taken away because you were too much like the opposite sex. Where would you start?!Continue Reading

A TRULY RADICAL NUS – BEYOND TUITION FEES #2

Posted on April 13, 2018 by Norwich Radical in Student and tagged #FreeEdNOW, #NUSNC18, 2010 student protests, academic staff, anti-apartheid, Barclays, Barclays boycott, Beyond Tuition Fees, Blair era, boycott, bureaucracy, centrism, corbyn, cuts, direct action, Divest Barclays, divestment, featured, filibustering, fossil free, fossil fuels, Free Education, higher education, Labour, lgbt+ rights, living wage, mental health, NCAFC, NUS, occupation, plastic, South Africa, student activism, student mental health crisis, student welfare, tuition fees, UCU, uk, universities, university staff, USS strikes, votes at 16.

By Robyn Banks

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. But what will the implications for universities be if this comes to pass? And what can we do to leverage this progress? In this series, the Norwich Radical and Bright Green are bringing together perspectives from across the sector to explore these questions.

Over the last year the NUS has been a shadow of its former self, riddled with accusations of bullying from its President and marked by its failure to engage with the largest upswelling of campus activism this country has seen in years. It was bizarre enough that it refused to back demonstrations for Free Education last year, implying a denial that the end of tuition fees would be a benefit for students. But that pales in comparison to the extraordinary lack of NUS involvement in the recent UCU strikes. While its members joined the picket lines and entered occupation up and down the country, NUS chose to stay silent when our academic staff most needed their support. Continue Reading

AGAINST POPULAR ENVIRONMENTALISM

Posted on February 7, 2018 by Norwich Radical in Inter|national and tagged canada, capitalism, climate change, coffee cups, corporate, ecology, economy, environment, environmentalism, Erik Solheim, Europe, featured, grassroots, India, levy, Mark Fisher, Michael Gove, Naomi Klein, Narmada, Narmada Bachao Andolan, NGO, non profit, Paris Climate Agreement, policy, private sector, profit, science, South Africa, Tar Sands, uk, UN.

by Scott McLaughlan

The earth is facing major – and quite possibly irreversible – environmental catastrophe and ecological breakdown. No need to panic. The Paris climate agreement was a resounding success, was it not?

On the one hand, one set of researchers estimate that at our current trajectory, we have about a 5% chance of remaining below the 2C threshold set out in the Paris agreement in 2015. On the other, a recent audit of the agreement conducted by the United Nations (UN) made it clear that even if the Paris agreement was to be met in full, it won’t be enough of a shift to avoid a total planetary clusterfuck of epic proportions. In his statement on the matter, head of UN Environment Erik Solheim suggested that “if we invest in the right technologies, ensuring that the private sector is involved, we can still meet the promise we made to our children to protect their future”.

What if the “private sector” is the problem? In order to decode the question we need to be clear what the private sector is, what its objectives are, and the kind of power it has over environmental policy.Continue Reading

WHITENESS, PALESTINE AND ‘THE JEWISH STATE’

Posted on January 10, 2018 by Norwich Radical in Inter|national and tagged Apartheid, Ashkenazi, Australia, BDS, Benjamin Netanyahu, canada, colonialism, culture, detention, Emmanuel Nahshon, Ethiopia, featured, Holot, identity, imperialism, income gap, indigeneous, israel, Jewish, migrant, Mizrahim, native, neocolonialism, palestine, racism, refugee, Richard Seymour, South Africa, Susan Abulhawa, systemic racism, two state, white supremacy, whiteness, zionism.

by Scott McLaughlan

Israel’s population is 74.7% Jewish, 20.8% Arab and 4.5% “other”. According to the latest population statistics, “those of European and American ancestry make up about 2.2 million (36%) of the Jewish population, while Africans fill out another 14.5% and Asians are 11.2%.”

That being said, there are also currently around 50,000 African Migrants in Israel, most of whom are from Eritrea or Sudan. Under the UN Refugee Convention (signed by Israel in 1954) no migrant can be forcibly returned to their country of origin. Israel currently abides by this convention, but systematically refuses to grant asylum to refugees, irrespective of their status and the potential danger and persecution they have fled.

Israel’s Foreign Ministry spokesman, Emmanuel Nahshon, recently spewed out the reason for the impasse: Asylum seekers threaten Israel’s identity. The Israeli cabinet has now approved the morally repugnant Holot migrant detention centre, in Israel’s Negev desert, for closure. As a result, two options were laid on the table: step up deportations or jail those who refuse to leave Israel.Continue Reading

FOOD (NOT SO) GLORIOUS FOOD. PART 2: BITTER-SWEET FREE MARKETS

Posted on December 11, 2017 by Norwich Radical in Inter|national and tagged Africa, Algeria, Cadburys, chocolate, choice, coca cola, diabetes, diet, dystopia, food, free market, free trade, funding, globalisation, guidelines, health, macro nutrition, malnutrition, media, Millennium Development Goals, neoliberalism, Nigeria, obesity, poverty, South Africa, sugar, superfood.

by Stu Lucy

In the first article concerning the less palatable aspects of food within a global context, the paradox of abundance and dearth in both Ghana and the West were contextualised within an apparent food dystopia. On that journey, a foodstuff was briefly mentioned that has become almost omnipresent in weird people’s lives, and will be the focus of the next in this series of pieces illuminating the realities and practices relating to food and the international community. So without further ado, let us delve straight into the sickly-sweet world of sugar.Continue Reading

THE STATE OF THE NATION ISN’T GREAT

Posted on February 21, 2017 by Norwich Radical in Inter|national and tagged ANC, Apartheid, Black Empowerment, china, Dr Strangeglove, Dr Strangelove, EFF, Guptagate, Marxist-Leninist, Marxist-Leninist Economic Freedom Fighters party, Nazi, Parliament, pound, PRC, Punch, Rand, riot, SANDF, Slim Pickens, SONA, South Africa, South African National Defence Force, state of the nation, Taiwan, Trump, Zuma.

by Zoe Harding

Article contains strong language.

Okay, I’m not writing another article to bait angry American conservative shitheads. That was funny, don’t get me wrong. I could have got a whole article called: ‘101 talking points for miserable dickheads’ out of it. (For more details, see my Nazi-Punching guide to kicking the Alt-Right in the teeth and my general reasoning for violence against people who advocate genocide, and its gloriously rage-filled comment section.)

But enough baiting easily-baited term-searching nationalist wankers. Let’s be more international and talk about another democratic nation with severe racial tensions, corruption problems and an unpopular leader accused of incompetence: South Africa. On February 9th, Zuma gave the traditional State of the Nation Address of the President of South Africa (SONA, for short) to the parliament.

It didn’t start well.Continue Reading

A SEAT AT THE TABLE

Posted on October 6, 2016 by Norwich Radical in Arts, Perspectives and tagged a seat at the table, album, artivism, arts, BHM, black history month, black pride, black women, Chance the Rapper, creative, empowerment, FUBU, hip hop, Jill Scott, Kelela, Kelly Rowland, LEMONADE, message, music, Nina Simone, Noname, prince, Puma, QTip, racism, Raphael Saadiq, review, Sampha, Solange, solange knowles, South Africa, style, Tink, women artists.

by Candice Nembhard

‘A Seat at the Table’ is the newly debuted project by the enigmatic Solange Knowles. The 21 track album marries intricate layers of R&B with densely packed lyrics, carving open a bigger space to discuss the beauty of black creatives. With features from the likes of Kelly Rowland, Q-Tip, Sampha and Kelela – not forgetting incredible production credits from Raphael Saadiq – there is no denying that Knowles is opening and changing the space for admiring and respecting black creativity.

GLOBAL RAPE: SEXUAL ASSAULT IS EVERYONE’S CONCERN

Posted on May 19, 2016 by Norwich Radical in Perspectives, Student and tagged #standbyme, caroline lucas, Carry that Weight, coerce, definition, Dianne Whitfield, Emma Sulkowicz, end violence against women, Gender Action Project, global rape, Gulabi Gang, Mabel Jansen, Maria Acha-Kutscher, National Union of Students, NUS, outraged women, oventry Rape and Sexual Abuse Centre, Personal Social Health and Economic education bill, proof, protest, PSHE, rape, rape crises centre, rapists, Rhodes University, safety, Sarah Green, sexual activity, sexual assault, Sian Ferguson, sit ins, South Africa, student council, student rights, university, victim, violence against women, women against rape.

by Candice Nembhard

Trigger warning: rape, sexual assault

South African high court Judge, Mabel Jansen, has come under fire in regards to recently published comments in which she claimed black men find gang-rape of a “baby, daughter and mother a pleasurable past time.” Jansen’s accusations came alongside a series of other inflammatory comments in which she likened rape and murder as cultural pastimes within the (South African) black community. Although Jansen later reported that these comments were taken out of context, this does point to a larger issue of how we understand rape, both as a social and theoretical practice.Continue Reading

South Africa

STATUES ARE COMING DOWN BUT RACISM REMAINS

THE 100FT TALL CANARY

PASSING THE FEMALE TEST

A TRULY RADICAL NUS – BEYOND TUITION FEES #2

AGAINST POPULAR ENVIRONMENTALISM

WHITENESS, PALESTINE AND ‘THE JEWISH STATE’

FOOD (NOT SO) GLORIOUS FOOD. PART 2: BITTER-SWEET FREE MARKETS

THE STATE OF THE NATION ISN’T GREAT

A SEAT AT THE TABLE

Support the Radical

Subscribe

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Support the Radical

Subscribe