In late May, a forthcoming budget of The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) leaked into the public eye. Among the more shocking aspects of the budget was a drastic reduction in allocations for organizing, from 30% of the total budget down to a mere 10%. The report indicated this money […]
Left Politics
Zombie Stalinism: 25 years later, who wants the Berlin Wall back?
Twenty-five years on, how has the fall of the Berlin Wall affected our analysis of Soviet Russia? How has what we have learnt changed our analysis of post-’89 Eastern Europe, Russia and the current situation in Ukraine? The deepest discussions in the international workers’ movement about the relationship between dictatorship and democracy happened in the […]
“Washing one’s hands of the conflict between the powerful and the powerless means to side with the powerful, not to be neutral.”
…Quote – Paulo Friere. https://ungagged.podbean.com/mf/play/kuu2t6/Pod_1_take_2_Mixdown_1.mp3 On this Podcast… PLEASE SUPPORT US – we need to pay bills. A cup of coffee keeps us ungagged! Paypal.me/ungaggedleft On this Podcast: George Collins – Interview with Shawna Hawk Part 1: Media Island and claiming space for the empowerment of women of color. Part 2: Reparations and […]
Opinion: Neil Scott on the “Minister of the Union”.
New Right Wing, Bannonite Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, did a quick tour of the “Orient Juxta- Britannia.” What more did we learn about the new Caesar? I learned that it doesn’t matter to Johnson that political representatives from working class backgrounds think his act is bullshit. It doesn’t matter to him that the Scottish, Northern […]
Illiberal Democrat
Jo Swinson has been elected as the leader of the Liberal Democrats. Usually I’d no more comment on the leader of the Liberal Democrats than I would the latest happenings on the degenerate Love Island, but we live in times that have catapulted the Liberals into public relevance and my consciousness. Partly, it’s because Corbynism […]
Protesters Targeted by High Speed Car – One Protester Killed.
Protesters demonstrating for a water supply were targeted by a terrorist today (18th July 19). Today , the Landless Movement members (MST) of “Camp Marielle Vive” in Valinhos, Brazil, held a peaceful demonstration on Jequitibá Road, km 07, in front of the Camp, when they were surprised by a man with a pickup truck at […]
Is UK Democracy about false promises… or promises fulfilled?
The argument for multiple referenda; “Democracy is not just an election, it is our daily life.” Tsai Ing-wen The political landscape has never been vaguer or indeed more frightening on this island. Watch the latest edition of Question Time to hear the audience boo comments suggesting that a mild mannered, pro equality gardener with a […]
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 […]
Wings over Russia
I’ve never been a huge fan of Stuart Campbell. To put it as bluntly as possible, he’s an arsehole. Or maybe I’m just prejudiced – It could be that I took my mum’s tongue-in-cheek warning, while singing the song about and explaining to me the events of the Massacre of Glencoe, to never trust a […]