Easington Under Siege
The County Durham pit village of Easington spent the strike year as a miniature police state as officers flocked in to enforce Thatcher’s assault. Four decades on, the scars run deep.
4291 Articles by:
Rae Hart
Rae Deer is an economist and freelance writer.
Walking Away from Workers
The period of defeat following the miners’ strike has been marked by an ideological retreat from class across the labour movement. Our task is to put the agency of working people at the centre of socialist politics.
As I Please: The War on the Miners Isn’t Over
Forty years on from the strike which sent their communities spiralling into poverty, former miners are still fighting for a rightful share of their pensions against a government that doesn’t want to give it up.
Still The Enemy Within
On the 30th anniversary of his seminal expose of the British state’s war on Arthur Scargill and mining communities, Seumas Milne explains how those same forces worked to undermine Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour leadership.
Deindustrialisation Destroyed the Workers’ Movement — the Left Must Reverse It
The Tory project of deindustrialisation was a catastrophe for workers. It smashed the confidence of the socialist movement, which can’t become aloof to its historic demands for decent, dignified work.
How South Asians Sustained the Miners’ Strike
South Asians in Britain were all too familiar with state violence at the time of the miners’ strike. That shared experience led them out onto the picket lines and into fundraising efforts, seeking to forge unity through joint struggle.
David Peace: ‘Culture Needs to Change Politics’
From the Red Riding Quartet to GB84, David Peace exposed the seedy underbelly of Britain’s Establishment with rare candour. In this interview with Alex Niven, the seminal novelist discusses his youth in a mining town, the complexities of post-war Britain, and the need for socialists and artists to move beyond defeatism.
The Rebel Diplomat
In 1916, the diplomat Roger Casement was stripped of his knighthood and executed for his participation in the Easter Rising. His homosexuality, uncovered in the trial, still defines his contested legacy.
‘We Are Phuture’: Electronic Music’s Final Frontier
A new essay collection by veteran music critic Simon Reynolds tracks how electronic music’s future-forward tendency became sounds that eulogised progress in the twenty-first century.
The Sodom Odeon
A new documentary celebrates London’s iconoclastic Scala cinema, whose all-nighters and cult programming in the Thatcher era shaped British cinema to this day. But what is its legacy in the 2020s, and what are the movie histories that remain untold?
Making Palestine Solidarity Impossible
In Britain, every cultural body exhibiting Palestinian culture is facing a vicious campaign to cut their funding, cancel their events and sack workers. The message is simple: ignore genocide or face consequences.
Solidarity With Amrit Wilson
In a sign of Modi’s growing authoritarianism, the veteran journalist Amrit Wilson has been banned from India and labelled a threat to the state. Her crime? Writing in support of India’s farmers’ protests for Tribune.
Greetings From a Free Portugal
On the 50th anniversary of the Carnation Revolution, we republish writer and activist Antonio de Figueiredo, who argued upon his return from exile that the liberation of Portugal’s African colonies was the country’s own path to freedom.
Palestine Solidarity in the Dock
The relentless, punitive legal attacks against Palestine Action activists for disrupting Israel’s war machine is a simple lesson about our country today — maintaining injustice abroad requires crushing dissent at home.
Austerity Is Making Us Sick
Rishi Sunak’s rhetoric around ‘sick note culture’ is a transparent attempt to blame workers for government policies that have pushed millions of us into poverty and ill health.
Remembering the Diggers
On St. George’s Day we remember the Diggers — the true radicals of the English Revolution.
The Establishment Fundamentalists
When centrists claim to be guided by common sense over populism of ideology, they ignore that their loyalty to a bankrupt status quo is a fanaticism of its own.
Elon Against Lula
After Elon Musk boosted conspiracies about the persecution of Bolsonaro supporters, Brazil’s far-right was given a shot in the arm. The lawyer who debunked the story speaks about the new threat to Brazilian democracy: Big Tech.
Free Schools, State Attacks
A ban on Muslim students expressing their faith at a London school has nothing to do with secularism’s triumph and everything to do with right-wingers shaping the education agenda.
Spinoza, Breaking Bad and the Race to the Bottom Mindset
Blending philosophy with popular culture, with references to Fight Club, Breaking Bad and more, a new book examines why people fight for their servitude as if it were their salvation.