A CENTURY OF SOLIDARITY: PROCESSIONS 2018

Posted on June 27, 2018 by Norwich Radical in Community and tagged 14-18 NOW, activism, Artichoke, Belfast, Cardiff, celebration, City College Norwich, community action, craftivism, creative activism, creativity, demonstration, Edinburgh, Emmeline Pankhurst, featured, feminism, Fiona Kay Muller, imprisoned women, intergenerational, london, Mary Richardson, Norfolk & Norwich Festival, norwich, Print to the People, privilege, Processions, propaganda, solidarity, suffragettes, votes for women, women of the world festival, women's rights.

By Laura Potts

This year I was determined to make the most of the Norfolk and Norwich Festival, taking place from the beginning of May. Last year I found myself reading about projects and events that had already taken place. However, this year I was aware of a project early on that was just getting underway: ‘Processions’, in association with Artichoke and 14-18 NOW. This idea saw a number of women gather together with local textile artist Fiona Kay Muller to create a banner. This banner, with all its laboured hours very much part of its fibres, would then be part of a nationwide procession in London, also taking place in Belfast, Cardiff, and Edinburgh.

DON’T JUST VOTE

Posted on June 6, 2017 by Norwich Radical in Inter|national and tagged 1906, AJ Tracey, apolitical, conservatives, corbyn, credit rating, don't just vote, electorate, general election, grassroots, Grime for Corbyn, jeremy corbyn, just vote, Labour, labour party, martyr, old people, political freedom, Reform Act, right to vote, ruling class, Selina Cooper, suffragettes, theresa may, Tories, trade union, vote, voting matters, welfare state, women, working class activists, yougov, young people.

by Will Durant

There is a particular and widespread attitude to voting that is well meaning but ultimately futile. It goes something like this: “I don’t care how you vote, just vote!” We find a typical example of this attitude from a 2015 Mirror article. What are these reasons? (1) It helps your credit rating, (2) young people vote far less than older people, (3) people fought and died to win for you to vote and (4) non-voters can change the outcome of an election. These reasons do indeed hold true for our election in 2017. In fact, as I write, the YouGov polls giving Labour a vote surge rely heavily on a big turnout from the young.

There is, however, something very strange about this attitude to voting. Although it tells you that it is possible, it gives no reason for why you would want to change the outcome of the election, it is simply something to do. Without advocating any particular outcome, this rationale for voting manages to make it apolitical.Continue Reading

THE URGENCY AND STATE OF SISTERHOOD IN 2017

Posted on May 9, 2017 by Norwich Radical in Perspectives and tagged capitalism, charlize theron, economy, emotions, employment, equality, Fawcett Society, female, female friendship, feminine, feminism, feminist philosophy, freedom, furiosa, gender pay gap, leora tanenbaum, mad max, madonna, planned parenthood, sisterhood, slut, suffragettes, togetherness, whore, women, women's rights, workers.

by Sunetra Senior

It’s becoming a popular thought in public consciousness that women ought to focus on their own autonomy and watch out for co-dependence on their closest female friends. It’s a third/fourth wave feminist philosophy that gained momentum through the hopeful nineties years, evidenced in such films as teenage clique critique ‘The Craft (1996). And surely, the thinker will say, a continued focus on personal freedom for women can only good? To these people I say: please remember we’re living in an unhinged, manipulative age.

With the infamous/illicit (?) inauguration on 20th January, we’ve just had Trumpeted to us social regression by at least 20 or so years so if the good fight for feminism is to keep up we must adapt the strategy accordingly. This means once again pushing for a support-group, grass-roots sort of approach – not unlike the Suffragettes who fought for the women’s right to vote in the early 19th century – whereupon more women not only campaign together, but sincerely support each other in their private relationships. Continue Reading

THE 20 BEST RADICAL MUSIC RELEASES OF 2016

Posted on January 1, 2017 by Norwich Radical in Arts, Music That Matters and tagged a tribe called quest, Against Me!, anohni, austerity, b-real, chris t-t, chuck d, climate change, cypress hill, drone warfare, dubstep, enter shikari, far right, fascism, folk, folk-punk, fugazi, gentrification, Green Day, hardcore, hip hop, Kate Nash, Lobster, Martha, michael kiwanuka, mischief brew, Muncie Girls, obama, OPS, petrol girls, pop punk, post-hardcore, post-punk, prophets of rage, public enemy, punk, racism, rage against the machine, rap, refused, reggae, reggae punk, Saul Williams, Ska, ska punk, sleaford mods, slyvia plath, Solange, Sonic Boom Six, soul, suffragettes, surveillance, taj weekes, The Selecter, The Tuts, tom morello, war.

By Chris Jarvis

Yes, yes, we all know that 2016 has been an unmitigated cluster-fuck, with rising fascism, worsening humanitarian crises and intensifying conflict. In moments of darkness, many of us turn to the arts world – especially music – for comfort, for release, for explanation. With David Bowie, Prince, George Michael, Glenn Frey, Paul Kantner, Maurice White, George Martin, Phife Dawg, Erik Petersen, Leonard Cohen, Nick Menza, Greg Lake, Sharon Jones, and too many others all having passed away, many have found music to have also fallen on dark times.

That notwithstanding, 2016 has been a year of some undeniably and uniquely brilliant music too, especially music that espouses messages of a better world, of political analysis, of radical alternatives. Here are the 20 best of those radical releases from the past year.

I’M A FEMINIST, BUT

Posted on December 12, 2016 by Norwich Radical in Perspectives and tagged ableism, feminism, gender equality, gender equity, intersectional feminism, intersectionality, misandry, misogyny, suffragettes, white feminism.

by Alice Thomson

I’ve known a few women who’ve said, “I would never get married. I wouldn’t be a good feminist if I did.” What does it mean to be a ‘good feminist?’ Do we even want to be feminists, especially when feminists are frequently derided as man-haters? How did it come to this? I always thought feminism was about gender equality. From an uneducated standpoint I understood it to be a movement designed to create equal opportunities for women within work, politics, home and social life, but it seems to have become so much more than this. Feminism means different things to different people. I’m no expert on the subject, but I’d like to think I am a feminist even though I’ve never read a book on the matter. So I decided to try and educate myself – and here is what I understand:

suffragettes

A CENTURY OF SOLIDARITY: PROCESSIONS 2018

DON’T JUST VOTE

THE URGENCY AND STATE OF SISTERHOOD IN 2017

THE 20 BEST RADICAL MUSIC RELEASES OF 2016

I’M A FEMINIST, BUT

Support the Radical

Subscribe

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Support the Radical

Subscribe