Valerie Zen is an opponent of Putin who lives in Moscow, who has been involved in several campaigns in Russia (she doesn’t like to describe herself as an activist) and is active on social media speaking up against the Russian regime. In this interview she tells me (Rachael Horwitz) about her thoughts on the current […]
Democracy
The Scottish Socialist Party 1999-2007: One Big Activist University…
Twenty years ago, the Scottish Parliament reconvened after 300 years. That election for me, was an election that showed that radical politics COULD make a difference as the Greens and the new Scottish Socialist Party made, what were at the time, surprising and ground shaking breakthroughs. One idea, one seed of change germinated and broke […]
Age of Anger: Notes on the new politics of ressentiment
Photo reproduced without permission- owner, please contact Ungagged 1. Those attracted to the politics of ressentiment often have some basis for their feeling of victimhood; they have experienced oppression, do not feel they fit in with mainstream society, and therefore politics. They perceive a gap between the world in how they experience it, and how […]
Nathália Urban Reviews – The Edge of Democracy
I just finished watching The Edge of Democracy (Netflix) directed by the filmmaker Petra Costa, in short the film shows the critical points that led to the rise of the extreme right in Brazil today, but not forgetting its painful past with the military dictatorship. I could try to keep myself impersonal while I’m writing […]
Equality for Women… Thrash ’em all…
You’d almost think that the Tories knew right from wrong. Foreign Office minister Mark Field attacks, sorry restrains female Greenpeace protester Janet Barker, and says he was acting “instinctively”, that she may have been carrying a weapon. He regrets it of course and immediately refers himself to the Cabinet Office for an investigation. Meanwhile Theresa […]
This is what a British Trump looks like.
In 2016 the world was shocked when the United States political system elevated a privileged self centred man child with a long record of making bigoted statements to the highest office in the land. The UK is facing its own Donald Trump moment as Boris Johnson looks set to become the leader of the Conservative […]
Hopeless Proper
It’s not easy to keep your head above water in these politically turbulent times, but do we have a choice? I’d say that we don’t. The future is not ours to give up on. We all have our low points though and for me the world really shifted on its axis on 7th November 2016, […]
Labour’s Love Lost
The UK is broken, and I can’t see how it can ever be fixed. Like Humpty Dumpty, all the constitutional monarch’s horses and all the constitutional monarch’s men can’t put it together again (other animals and sexes are also available) (as are other governing systems, if not actually right here, right now…) Even if, by […]
Áurea Carolina speaks out: “Brazil has become an even more threatening country for those who fight for their rights.”
Interview of Áurea Carolina by Nathália Urban (@UrbanNathalia) The world is aware of the absurdity and outbursts of Jair Bolsonaro’s government, but perhaps people do not know that many of their mistaken decisions are facing strong resistance, mainly in the Chamber of Deputies. One of the main voices of this resistance is Deputy Áurea Carolina, […]
Media Island, Reparations, and the Racism of the Old (White) Guard
What happens when a media organization formerly run by white men who claim to be radical leftists falls into the hands of a black woman? Do they accept the change in ownership and move on with their lives? Do they offer their support and encouragement at this opportunity to promote a much-needed space for women […]