The Last Social Democrat
Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme was assassinated on this day in 1986. He was the last social democratic leader to really believe in a world beyond capitalism.
4293 Articles by:
Raven Hart
Raven Hart is co-founder of the Bristol Cooperative Alliance, an organisation that aims to promote a decentralised economy that empowers local communities and facilitates democratic self-determination.
Zarah Sultana: Islamophobia Is Being Used to Demonise Palestine Solidarity
The use of Islamophobia to depict peaceful protestors as violent mobs isn’t just an attack on Muslims — it’s an attack on all of our democratic rights.
Islamophobia: A Tool of Our Political Class
Britain’s political class has stoked a moral panic about British Muslims to dodge accountability for their role in Israel’s genocide — unleashing a wave of Islamophobic hate crime.
From the Pits to Parliament
Ronnie Campbell, who passed away last week, belonged to a dwindling breed of Labour politician. A miner who began work aged 14, his experience of the Northumberland coalfield’s bitter class conflict inspired him to become one of Westminster’s most committed socialists.
A Parliament Against Palestine
Yesterday’s Westminster chaos shows that Keir Starmer’s hostility to democracy applies to parliament itself — but also that despite our politicians’ attempts, protecting Israel from democratic condemnation is becoming unsustainable.
Healthcare Under Siege
Speaking to Tribune, British surgeon Nick Maynard described the realities of Israeli collective punishment that he witnessed in Gaza: patients dying on dirty floors, sheltering from constant bomb attacks and receiving serious surgery without anaesthetic.
Treading Too Lightly
While Blairism said things could only get better, Starmerism says they can only stay the same. But voters aren’t crying out for a politics that ‘treads lightly’ on their lives — they want a politics that improves them.
The Blair Fantasy
Starmer is desperate to become the next Blair — but there’s a yawning chasm between 1997 and 2024.
As I Please: Managing the Mess or Cleaning It Up?
Starmer’s Labour has a historic opportunity to transform the country, but it’s easier to identify what he won’t do than what he will.
No Friends of Labour
Desperate to show a contrast to ‘old Labour’, Tony Blair took pride in upholding draconian anti-union laws and was happy confronting organised workers. But this belligerence created a new generation of trade unionists unafraid to challenge him and make things difficult for New Labour.
Will the NHS Survive Starmer’s Labour?
The NHS is the Labour Party’s greatest achievement — but nothing so far suggests a Starmer government will do what’s necessary to keep it alive.
The Bank of England Independence Disaster
New Labour’s technocratic managerialism agenda involved ceding control of the Bank of England — a decision with profound consequences to this day. While unelected technocrats are able to hike interest rates and engineer economic slowdowns, workers will remain worse off.
How the Centre Killed Democracy
The decline of mass parties in the late 20th century eroded democracy and gave rise to technocratic centrists who hollowed out politics — ushering in an era of unprecedented voter apathy and distrust.
Grey Labour
The hollow and apolitical style that looks set to define a Keir Starmer government can’t survive a world riddled with profound crises. When this unambitious offer crumbles, the Left has to be prepared to answer seriously.
Tribune & Anti-Colonial Africa
In the years after the Second World War, African independence fighters seized world attention, forcing democrats in Europe to reckon with problems of colonialism and freedom on the continent. Tribune’s historical journey towards emphatic support for African decolonisation leaves a record of enormous relevance for the anti-colonial left today.
Thurston Moore: ‘I Like Being Slightly Alien in the Culture’
Guitarist and vocalist of the iconic Sonic Youth sits down with Tribune to discuss his recently published memoir recounting a personal history of American rock and New York City counterculture.
Britain’s Secret Anti-Apartheid Militants
For the first time, a new film reveals how at the height of the apartheid regime’s power, South African revolutionaries recruited and trained young British workers to assist them in the underground armed struggle to topple the racist state.
Mark Fisher’s Futurist Labour Vision
Under Ed Miliband’s leadership, Mark Fisher and Jeremy Gilbert wrote Reclaiming Modernity, which urged Labour to fight the neoliberal domination of workers’ lives, resist Britain’s endless marketisation — and harness the technological ambitions of the young century.
Culture Is on Trial in Berlin
In ‘progressive’ Berlin, daring to treat Palestinians like they are human beings can destroy your life and your work — as thousands of artists and cultural institutions are now discovering.
A Letter from Gaza
In a harrowing dispatch from Gaza, Palestinian human rights activist and Gaza City resident Raji Sourani gives an account of daily life amid Israeli air strikes that are killing entire families. Despite it all, Palestinians in Gaza are clinging to hope.