Committed is a new podcast series from Novara Media about Britain's political prisoners
reporters Rivkah Brown and Clare Hymer follow five young people into jail and out again
asking how a concerned citizen could become a convicted criminal
We speak directly to activists in prison to find out how Just Stop Oil persuaded so many of them to take direct action against the climate crisis
how do Just Stop Oil prisoners make sense of what they’ve done
and is life on the inside any different for political prisoners
How does jail-time strain the relationships with the people they love most
And with Just Stop Oil’s actions slowing to a halt
Why are some people willing to risk their freedom for what they believe in
Clare and Rivkah meet imprisoned Just Stop Oil activists who took direct action against the climate crisis and faced dire consequences
climbing bridges and throwing soup at paintings
they made headlines – and became national hate figures in the process
We find out how four ordinary young people ended up as convicted criminals
at the sharp end of the government’s crackdown on protest
Locked in their cells for up to 22 hours a day
how are Britain’s jailed climate activists coping with a life of inaction
Rivkah and Clare follow the Just Stop Oil inmates to find out how they’re adjusting
How does JSO prepare activists for incarceration
What’s it really like inside Britain’s prisons
And what do the guards and other inmates think of Just Stop Oil activists’ crimes
Just Stop Oil’s jailed activists were willing to pay the price for their actions – but they’re not the only ones suffering the consequences
Clare and Rivkah find out what it’s like to see your loved ones locked up
How do the prisoners’ families make sense of their crimes
And what’s it like to know your fiancée would choose activism over you
Just Stop Oil announced an end to its campaign of direct action – yet many of the group’s activists still face years in jail
Rivkah and Clare find out whether the prisoners’ commitment to their cause has wavered
and speak to former inmates as they adjust to life on the outside
We also speak to veteran climate campaigner Roger Hallam
about whether he feels any guilt for spurring young activists into imprisonable action
And with Just Stop Oil now promising to “hang up the high-vis,” was it all worth it
CN: This episode contains mention of suicide
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ASHWAUBENON - Crews have started work on a 152-unit, two-tower mixed-use development on a high-traffic intersection in the village
Site work and excavation began at 750 Cormier Road in early January and will continue for awhile before the mixed-use complex begins to rise on the northeast corner of Holmgren Way and Cormier Road. Ashwaubenon in December issued a permit to Rodac Construction for the project with an estimated cost of $35.6 million
includes a five-story apartment building with first-floor commercial space
resident parking and another 300 parking spaces for visitors attending events at nearby entertainment venues
Two towers of apartment units will be connected by the first floor and an outdoor recreation space atop the first floor roof
Derek Liebhauser of Spark Development and Cormier Property Partners said Novara makes a nice addition to an active area while offering residents top-of-the-line amenities
How we got hereFrom 1942 to 2007, the Cormier Road property was home to Green Bay Packaging Inc.'s folding carton division
The operation relocated to a property on American Boulevard in 2007 and the company demolished the structures on the 7.8-acre site in fall 2022
Mark Skogen, owner of the Green Bay Rockers, Epic Event Center and Festival Foods
purchased the vacant site under the name Cormier Property Partners LLC
Cormier Property Partners submitted the current mixed-use development plan to village officials for review
The village approved a rezoning of the property to facilitate the project
Novara's plans call for a building with a shared first floor from which two
four-story towers of apartments would rise
The design includes common spaces on the first floor
but also allows the project to develop an elevated patio atop the first-floor roof
Liebhauser said additional outdoor grilling spots and green spaces will be developed on the site for tenants while the studio
two- and three-bedroom units will include high-end finishes and amenities
a dog wash and three retail spaces on the first floor
The development will also include 84 indoor parking spaces for apartment tenants
more than 480 surfacing parking spaces for retail space customers
residents and event parking for Capital Credit Union Park and other nearby entertainment venues
Liebhauser said the group hopes to begin taking names for a wait list within a couple of months before leasing begins in earnest in late 2025
He said the first units should open in early 2026
The building includes 8,000 square feet of commercial space for retail users
“We think it’s going to add some great energy to that corner of Cormier and Holmgren,” Liebhauser said
“It’s an attractive location for a business to come into.”
“It really furthers the momentum we see in the sports entertainment and village center districts,” Schuette said
As more momentum builds in that area of Ashwaubenon
the village will invest in some infrastructure to make sure people slow down in the area
Schuette said the village this year plans to install a crosswalk with rapid flashing beacons mid-block on Cormier Road
He said it is expected that event attendees will likely use Novara’s overflow parking area and the large parking lot in front of Epic Event Center to park for everything from Green Bay Rockers games at Capital Credit Union Park to concerts at Epic
The crosswalk will provide a safer way for pedestrians to cross Cormier
Contact business reporter Jeff Bollier at (920) 431-8387 or jbollier@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter at @JeffBollier
The room at Isleworth Crown Court falls silent as the jury files back in
In the dock: eight Just Stop Oil activists
arrested following an action at Heathrow airport last summer
I’ve got my eye on two defendants in particular
Luke Elson and Rosa Hicks have already spent over a year on remand between them
If convicted of conspiring to cause a public nuisance
and these verdicts weren’t totally unexpected
calculations are already running: sentencing possibilities
how many months – or years – before freedom
friends and supporters clutch each other’s hands
despite Judge Duncan’s earlier calls for restraint when the verdicts came through
Phoebe Plummer sits amongst them. Phoebe is one of Just Stop Oil’s most recognisable activists, famous for throwing soup at Van Gogh’s Sunflowers in 2022
Phoebe was released from prison just three weeks ago
with its small windows and stifling protocols
was where they first saw Luke after seven months apart
they’d gone over to the dock and – despite knowing the rules – stuck their fingers through a gap in the glass panels to try to touch him
but the pull of Just Stop Oil brought her back to Britain
Rosa’s time in prison on remand has already strained their relationship
mouthing “I love you” before the guard leads him away
An hour later on the platform at Isleworth train station
it becomes clear the situation isn’t uncomplicated for Phoebe
“I don’t think anybody [in Just Stop Oil] goes into a trial expecting to be found not guilty
There’s an element of being at peace with that for the part of me that’s a person in resistance,” they explain
“But then there’s also the part of my brain that’s like
I think it’s harder when your partner goes to prison than being in prison yourself.”
Luke, Phoebe, Rosa and Angel are people whose relationships reveal the personal cost of political commitment that rarely makes headlines. Over the last five months, reporter Rivkah Brown and I have been getting to know these people for our new podcast series, Committed
We wanted to find out: how does it feel when your partner gets locked up for activism
How do you maintain your relationship when one or both of you is in prison
for those whose lives aren’t so defined by political struggle
how does it feel when your partner chooses a life of resistance over a life with you
Phoebe and Luke never really had a normal relationship
“I think I could probably count the number of dates Luke and I have had in nearly two years on one hand,” Phoebe told me the following week via Zoom
Just Stop Oil wasn’t just the backdrop to their romance – it was its foundation
Their first kiss was at a Just Stop Oil fundraiser with a free bar (“We were both a bit pissed,” Phoebe said)
Romance wasn’t something either of them had had on the cards
they’d mostly see each other at meetings and socials
where they’d spend all of their time together
following a slow march in Parliament Square
they got arrested together – holding hands
Luke and Phoebe’s experience isn’t particularly unique within Just Stop Oil
Many activists say that shared political commitment accelerates intimacy between people in the group
having those shared experiences – almost anybody you meet doing this
you have a bit of an instant connection with,” said Phoebe
“I think that’s maybe part of why I fell for Luke quite quickly
That resistance comes first – “quite a brutal thing to say to the person you love,” Phoebe acknowledged
And that in a context of a government crackdown on protest
Phoebe had already been to prison when they met Luke
of course I’m going to end up in prison again’ – it’s the upshot of taking effective action at this point,” they said
When Luke signed up for the Heathrow 10 action
he knew it was likely he’d get remanded for it
The day before going to the safe house before the action
and then the two said goodbye outside the courthouse
“None of the emotions had really sunk in until we were sitting opposite each other on this pathetic little patch of grass in central London
and it hit me that I just wasn’t going to see him – the person I love so much – and I had no idea how long for,” Phoebe said
this is easier than when just one of them is behind bars
as it’s not like one of them is continuing to live their life without the other
Neither can one of them just pick up the phone
Communication has to happen the old-fashioned way: by letter
Luke also sends Phoebe drawings which they stick up on their cell wall with toothpaste (“Something you’ll never learn until you’re in prison is that toothpaste makes excellent blue tack”
the challenges of his relationship with Phoebe are all worth it
I would never have met them [Phoebe] in the first place.”
Phoebe agreed – and is adamant that their relationship fuels their political commitment rather than distracts from it
“I think anyone could come up with 101 good reasons why they shouldn’t go to prison
and love will always be one of them,” they said
in order to be resilient enough to deal with all of the uncertainty and anxiety and difficult shit it brings into our lives
And being in a relationship with Luke gives me all those things.”
being out of prison without him has made Phoebe realise just how hard it is on those who love Just Stop Oil activists
and they’ve been worrying about him – and from the outside
there’s very little they can do to make sure he’s okay
“It’s definitely been a wake up call for how different it feels to be the one on the outside,” they said
“I think I knew beforehand that it’s difficult for our loved ones when we go to prison
“I actually think it wouldn’t be a fair thing to put someone through who isn’t involved in civil resistance – saying
I love you so I’d quite like you to still be my partner
but you’re going to come on this massive uncertainty with me and I’m not going to be around to kind of build a life with you’
“It’s a hell of a thing for a partner to go through
And I wouldn’t want to put somebody I loved through that.”
Rosa moved to Australia in 2017 for a study abroad programme
she’d already done a bit of climate activism in Britain
that she decided she was going to make it her life
Rosa returned to Britain the following year to finish her degree and immersed herself in the scene here
The Extinction Rebellion protests of 2019 were a big moment for her
Rosa didn’t meet Angel in a political context
It was a while after that before the two hit it off
Angel always knew that climate activism was a big part of Rosa’s life
solid in her convictions,” Angel told me over Zoom in December
“It eases the people around her into lifting themselves to a higher standard.”
The world of resistance isn’t alien to Angel
campaigning around the rights of young people in Australian detention centres
But she’s not an activist in the same way as Rosa
But there was a problem: Rosa was feeling the need to move back to Britain
She wanted to be doing the kinds of direct action that risked arrest – “to lead by example and have proper integrity
But getting arrested and charged in Australia could have meant getting deported
Rosa also didn’t want her relationship to hold her back
She’d seen how people’s love for their partners had stopped them from taking direct action
“The amount of times people would sign up for an action […] and then say
my husband doesn’t want me to do this’ and then step back,” she said
Rosa made the difficult decision to leave Australia for Britain
Angel understood – but she could see complications
the UK government had created new criminal offences for protest
in part in response to the tactics of Extinction Rebellion
prison was becoming ever more likely for activists
just because of how the political climate was going over in England.”
Rosa flew back to Britain and threw herself into Just Stop Oil
she’d been arrested several times and had a number of upcoming court cases
Rosa was on remand at HMP Bronzefield following an action at Heathrow – one
Prison only made Rosa and Angel’s already long-distance relationship harder
It took a long time before Angel was able to speak to Rosa on the phone (sorting out your prison call list can take a while)
they were only able to call around once a week
but I think we’re both [so] busy trying to catch each other up on what’s happening in life that I feel like we never get to have real discussions,” Angel said
“It’s definitely taken away some sort of depth and emotional intimacy.”
Angel wants Rosa to do what’s right for her
But it’s hard not knowing for how long she’s going to put activism above their relationship
“I did say to her at some point […] that if she gets out
because I’m not going to sit in the limbo forever,” she said
I just want her to let go of whatever she’s holding on to
the best decision is for me to stay in England and continue doing this
but I’d respect that […] But I feel like she’s living in two worlds
pulled between two entirely different things that they want.”
Over a series of phone calls with Rosa from Bronzefield
The situation she’s put Angel in isn’t one she feels good about
I don’t want you to go’ […] then I think that would have been a real challenge,” Rosa said
“Because I think I would have just had to make a decision and would have gone
because ultimately I have chosen this over her
committed to wanting to spend our lives together
but at the same time there is something else which is so important […]
she almost just has to […] wait for me and be fine about it.”
But Rosa might not have much of a choice about whether she goes back to Australia at all
Rosa told me that speaking to us for Committed has prompted her and Angel to have some conversations they’d perhaps been scared of having
She’s waiting until after her sentencing in mid-May before making any big decisions about the future of her relationship
“I’ve always not really been sure that I’ve believed in unconditional love,” Rosa said
“But the fact that Angel has been so amazing during my time in prison […]
But that doesn’t mean Angel’s not facing tough choices herself
“I think I feel a lot of resistance […] to letting go
because she’s such a massive part of my life,” Angel told me
“I think even if we [were to] throw away the romantic side […]
and choosing to let go of a best friend when there’s been no falling out or anything – it’s a very hard decision.”
Clare Hymer is head of articles at Novara Media
Our podcast about Just Stop Oil prisoners continues
Our new podcast goes behind bars with Just Stop Oil
A new podcast going behind bars with imprisoned Just Stop Oil activists
Professor Emeritus of Economics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst about how Donald Trump has reshaped capitalism and class struggle in his first 100 days of his second term in office
The hospital confirmed what we’d feared: John’s second broken hip in a year
An operation giving my father-in-law a new one was followed by a gruelling summer in a rehab unit
where he was determined to learn to walk again
in a taxi to visit his horribly hot bedside
the doctors said they’d got John as far as they could
But they wouldn’t discharge him unless care arrangements were in place
While they could start the process of organising that
when John and Jennifer had moved from London to live nearer to us
We looked into our options: most agencies offer a drop-in service
But a company called Elder would introduce you to live-in carers – and that’s what we needed
We showed John and Jennifer short videos of women talking about how they would work
Elder’s model seems pretty simple at first: you pay the company a lump sum every month
like almost every carer we’ve met through Elder
comes from southern Africa – is robust
it became clear we needed a night carer too
while Elder had told us our invoices would include a breakdown of what the carers were getting and what fees they were claiming
the company initially only included a generic pie chart
When we got to know Agnes and Dambisa well enough to ask them
it became clear that about a third of what we were paying in total was being skimmed off by HQ
if Elder had provided some support for that money
I can’t think of anything Elder did in exchange for this fee
I asked her what support she’d had from Elder in the roughly two years she’d cared for them
‘What difficulties are you facing?’ ‘How can we support you?’ No support whatsoever at any point in time
‘Which part of your job do you struggle with the most
My father-in-law finds his situation frustrating
and can display challenging behaviour – a fact which Agnes reported to Elder
What kind of support do you think you would need?’” At no point was she offered expert advice
or any other kind of help relevant to her situation
Agnes and Dambisa say Elder also encourages carers to overwork far beyond what might be typical in a salaried job
including getting bonuses if they log a long streak without taking a break
carers were directly employed by agencies: “You’d get your holiday pay
These agencies are largely local to an area
In the last ten years or so, “these platforms, they call themselves, started to get into this market”. Elder was founded in 2015 by a corporate lawyer, who had previously founded Mopp.com
the way they have designed their hub,” says Agnes
for people who move to Britain from abroad
the flexibility of being freelance can feel like an advantage at first – you can go back home for a month if you want to
But “they don’t take responsibility for you – you’ve got to manage your own tax
The advantage for families is obvious. On its website, Elder says its services are
“35% cheaper than traditional alternatives”
While a few companies now operate this way
“They ‘match’ you,” says Agnes – a bit like online dating
even the “matching” process involved the minimum of input from Elder
The only in-house training Elder offers staff is online
“They don’t know anything about me,” she adds
My wife and I had slightly more contact from the company than Agnes
asking us to update my in-laws’ profile on their site
we maybe had two phone calls to check how things were going
Not once did Elder bother to contact John or Jennifer
Agnes and Dambisa quickly started lobbying us to do the obvious thing – cut out Elder
But our contract with the firm made clear that if it caught us doing this at any point in the future
we would have to pay them six months of their fee – that is
elderly in-laws were obviously worried about doing this
we found ourselves in the ridiculous position where not only were they paying these exorbitant agency fees
but also paying the carers some of the holiday pay the agency denied them
As we approached the second anniversary of Agnes’s arrival
we began to think about the question again
there are various conditions which describe whether someone is genuinely self-employed
and looked at the specifics of how Agnes and Dambisa’s work was arranged
my wife and I came to a simple conclusion: they weren’t self-employed
ACAS, for example, lists six criteria which would have to be met for someone to be truly self employed
Agnes and Dambisa definitely don’t meet three of them
They were legally entitled to paid holidays
the conclusion would likely be that it wasn’t Elder who was the employer
It turns out that this is a common problem. The Low Income Tax Reform Group, which helps people who can’t afford professional tax advice, warns on its website that introductory agencies often claim the carers they introduce you to will be self-employed
and it’s up to the recipient of the care to check the status for themselves
that Elder had left my in-laws in a position where they were obliged by a contract to break employment law
which is the only place it could really be decided
we told Elder we didn’t need its services anymore
my elderly in-laws had paid around £75,000 to the firm
it seems unlikely to me that any carer would go to a tribunal
Every carer we’ve met through Elder came from an African country
and intends to return once they’ve saved enough money
People with precarious work visa situations tend not to cause a fuss
and are more likely to accept terrible conditions
and that’s why they recruit from certain countries,” says Agnes
The reality is that as the population ages
we don’t need corporate lawyers to set up flashy new ‘platforms’ where they charge desperate families huge sums to introduce them to the carers who can help them – and then parasite off the relationship for years
But when we talk about his experience with Elder
The fact that the company charged hundreds of pounds each week on top of the salary paid to Agnes and Dambisa
but then did very little for more than two years is
And he’s pretty miffed they never once contacted him
and I’ve changed the names of everyone involved
because we’re still worried Elder will realise we breached our contract and sue us
You might hope that the company would let elderly clients who paid them tens of thousands of pounds out of their life savings off the hook
But none of our interactions with the firm leads us to imagine they would be generous
Elder didn’t respond to a number of specific points put to them by Novara Media
but a spokesperson said: “Elder is an award-winning care technology platform connecting families with self-employed carers nationwide
providing a marketplace that enables choice
Self-employed carers and customers choose each other based on individual preferences and rates
with our platform supporting mutual agreement before care begins and dedicated service teams supporting both throughout the placement
payments to carers have averaged around £800 per week for live-in care and £20.50 per hour for visiting care
making Elder’s offering highly competitive and attractive to experienced carers
Elder’s model improves accessibility for families by offering live-in care at around 33% less than the next leading provider
enabling more people to remain in their own homes where they feel safest and most supported
mission driven workplace where we have worked for ten years together to create a better homecare experience which is critically needed in the UK.”
*Names have been changed to protect anonymity
Brand and I could hardly be more dissimilar
Brand’s signature Estuary accent loudly announces his Essex origins
He’s an autodidact expelled from several conventional and stage schools
Yet somehow the contours of his life feel familiar to me
That may be because the people close to me are working-class (my partner
a close colleague) and over the course of my life I have witnessed the messages they have internalised: you are your labour; you must work to be worthwhile; tending to yourself is a superfluous activity
since any need beyond your labour is to be repressed
I’ve many friends who have been heroin addicts
Class oppression and addiction go hand in hand – you need something when you’re under the boot
We both found ourselves through Vedic spirituality in our late twenties
I went on holiday to India and there developed a belief in karma and reincarnation
I read the Bhagavad Gita (a central Hindu liturgical text) and spent time in a Hare Krishna temple
though as part of a non-theistic spiritual practice
Brand found support for his addiction through Iskcon Krishna consciousness (colloquially known as the Hare Krishnas) and started to practice yoga and meditation
I realised that over the years I had myself rationalised and excused Brand’s obvious and repeated transgressions
I got to know Brand watching Big Brother’s Big Mouth
broadcast on Channel 4 directly after the latest episode of Big Brother
featured Brand talking to a live audience about the latest activity in the Big Brother house
Reality television was still a recent invention and while already denigrated as trashy
it was doing something entirely new: giving audiences a chance to observe everyday people relate to one another with seeming spontaneity and authenticity
It allowed him to demonstrate his considerable skills in reading a room
feeling its energy and alchemising it into entertainment
He had an uncommon ability to speak to his audience
generate immediate connection and a feeling of intimacy and draw out others’ opinions
There was simply no one else on telly like Brand at that time
not only his disruptive energy but also his stark appearance
Brand would sign off the show with “Hare Krishna”
Brand has the Hindu deity Krishna – often depicted as a blue-skinned male figure
love and protection – tattooed on his upper arm
Part of Brand’s rebellion was to smuggle into mainstream celebrity culture allusions to philosophy and spirituality
forcing the transcendental into a devoutly materialist realm
He has an unconventional grasp of language: a wide vocabulary and an ability to uncommonly re-deploy words
He cuttingly deployed political and historical references against his opponents: “You’re a Poundshop Enoch Powell,” he told Nigel Farage on BBC Question Time in 2014
His self-taught erudition was a refreshing contrast to the old Etonians crowding out public life with their obscure classical and historical references
While people like Boris Johnson used knowledge to reinforce their born-to-rule incumbency
Brand made knowledge urgent and accessible
It wasn’t long before Brand got himself into trouble
Brand and his guest co-host Jonathan Ross called up Andrew Sachs
leaving voice messages discussing Brand’s brief relationship with Sachs’s granddaughter Georgina Baillie (“He fucked your granddaughter!”)
and Brand’s calculated decision to broadcast it was to most people a clear indicator of his flawed capacity to judge social propriety
Brand resigned from the BBC; Ross was suspended without pay for 12 weeks
I left the country that year to study abroad so I missed the media furore
though my dad gave me live commentaries on “Sachsgate” on our weekly phone calls
He said it was the media event of the year
I probably should have been joining the dots
Brand published his memoirs My Book Wooky (2007) and Booky Wook 2 (2010) – though in truth
all of Brand’s books are memoirs – and I read them as soon as they came out
His capacity to confess the ways in which he wasn’t in control of himself felt brave
less vulnerable or self-reflexive masculinities popular at that time – rather than a grim indicator of things to come
Brand relates how he was prohibited from trashing the neighbour’s flowerbeds – and despite not wanting to
Part of Brand’s appeal to me was his fearlessness in sharing embarrassing things – the need for spiritual practice
for example (I never told anyone about my spiritual journey)
The memoirs also convey the sexual mores to which Brand was inculcated
such as the holiday to Asia he took when he was 17
in which his father paid for them both to spend a substantial amount of time with several sex workers
After his rise to national prominence Brand went to Hollywood
starring in a range of films including Forgetting Sarah Marshall
and marrying pop star Katy Perry in a Hindu ceremony in India
A couple of years later Brand was divorced and back in London
Brand’s transition from pop culture to politics began in earnest in 2013 when he guest-edited The Spectator
writing about his experiences as a drug addict in recovery
Brand was interviewed by Jeremy Paxman on BBC Newsnight
This was a significant moment in popular culture: a mainstream celebrity appearing on a prestige political news show
Brand positioned himself as a social justice warrior
a group of mothers squatting empty flats on a council estate in Hackney to campaign for better housing provision
saying to Evan Davis “I’m here to give a voice to ordinary people.” Indeed
he uses the proceeds of the book to start Trew Era
a social enterprise cafe in Hackney staffed by local recovering drug addicts
Brand spoke directly to audiences outside of the Westminster bubble in his media appearances within the political space – his inclusion opened up political discussion for new audiences
“What was funny was out of that [Jeremy Paxman] interview last year
you were accused and still being accused by people of turning young people off politics
not getting them engaged and ironically you’ve actually probably engaged more young people in thinking about these issues than any politician who votes
missing Davis’s repeated offers of a more credible framework for his views
He’s argumentative as Davis shares a graph showing the UK real wages since 1870
at which Brand balks: “I don’t have time for graphs.” Patiently
the graph shows real wages have gone up over the last 150 years …I’m on your side here.” When Davis presses Brand on the 9/11 conspiracy theories
Brand is defensive to the point of paranoia
In 2014 Brand started his YouTube channel The Trews (a portmanteau of “true news”)
in which he dissected mainstream media narratives from an anti-establishment perspective – mainly alone
I watched The Trews daily – it filled a void and introduced me to fringe figures I still admire
It was interesting to see a television celebrity move onto YouTube – a reversal of the more typical celebrity trajectory in which social media influencers sought legitimacy by moving into more conventional formats like TV and radio
I understood the move as communicating Brand’s desire for the freedom
immediacy and intimacy with this audience that YouTube allowed
I wonder whether it was also that he’d burned his bridges with television and radio execs through his on- and off-screen behaviour
In an interview with the American social work scholar Brene Brown in 2019
Brand reflects on this period: “It made me mental and I had a nervous breakdown.” He doesn’t elaborate
but it suggests that going from making entertaining telly to challenging the narrowness of political discourse was too unsteadying a transition for him
He had the kind of attention he craved but was unprepared for
Perhaps feeling a need to substantiate some of his political instincts
in 2017 Brand began an MA in religion in global politics at Soas University of London
a wide-ranging long-form interview podcast
Naomi Klein and Brad Evans – interrogating them with his scatty
This style was the product of Brand’s professional background: Brand had honed his craft getting a studio audience to love him on Big Brother’s Big Mouth
Brand’s aim seemed similarly to dazzle his interviewees
Interviewing the documentary director Adam Curtis in 2017
Brand interrupts at key moments when Curtis is gathering his argument
Brand gets in the way with facile interjections and literal pleas for hugs and affection: “I’m coming round to kiss you”
“I don’t want to be controlled by your comedic persona,” replies Curtis
I know I’m no different from anyone with ego problems
give me attention,’ but it ain’t just that
framing Brand: “The persona you have created as a comedian is the arch narcissist of our age
you are an example of modern social realism
because everyone lives in their heads … you express it in a big comedic way.” It’s a testament to the rapport between them that Curtis can deliver back to Brand such a stark portrait of himself
Talking to a verbally strident rightwing American commentator Candace Owens in 2018
Owens sideswipes swathes of political thought
championing what she considers the ultimate fairness of the free market and asserting socialism is a killer
But Owens pokes fun at him and Brand admits he doesn’t have the tools to dismantle her argument
even though what she’s saying doesn’t ring true
What you realise is that Brand reflects the energy of whomever he’s with
Brene Brown’s warm presence draws out an emotionally grounded Brand in his interview with her on Under The Skin in 2019
Brown advises Brand on how to evolve as a parent and remain calm in the face of toddler tantrums
The pair share their experiences of recovering from addiction
This sensitive emotional mirroring demonstrates Brand’s particular abilities
It is precisely this skill he used to demean and dominate
aimed at bringing instant sexual titillation to young men
with its sexual position how-tos aimed at young women
the script was clear: being a girl meant that men were going to touch
I felt a tension between wanting to be sexually visible and wanting to visualise myself unconventionally
As an art student and on the fringes of alternative scenes
His dandyish presentation challenged both class and gender expectations
though his hypersexuality – he was named the Sun’s “shagger of the year” in 2006
2007 and 2008 – complicated the apparent queerness of his style
What was clear, however, was that Brand represented a desire to push past staid traditions and flout taboos. I was grateful that sex was Brand’s text – everywhere else
The constant inadequate attempts to conceal the way that women were objectified were disorienting
Brand’s obsession with sex sounded like he was interested in giving women a good time and somehow
It’s just that women were the butt of his jokes
for the same reasons that I couldn’t see the abuse that I was being subjected to
I couldn’t see it because it was everywhere
Freud offers the concept of deferred action or après-coup
in which a subject understands her own experiences with new insight – for example
sexual abuse that a child failed to understand and therefore repressed
I feel a strong sense of après-coup now as I consider my own parasocial relationship with Russell Brand
I needed the jolt of Dispatches to reevaluate Brand’s behaviour. The documentary juxtaposes the stories of five women who give testimonies of sexual abuse, manipulation, coercion and rape by Brand with his comedy material and media appearances from the time of the alleged abuse. “I can undo your bra!” he joked to Australian reporter Liz Hayes in 2012
at the end of an interview as he kissed her on the lips
While Hayes takes the interaction in her stride
knowing perhaps that the camera compels Hayes to be receptive and good-natured
Old footage of Brand’s interviews and comedy has resurfaced. His sexual transgressions were often barefaced: “I don’t think God would give you that body and then give you morality.” “When you laugh like that it lets me know what you’d sound like when you come.” However
it is within his confessional style of comedy
outrageous stories permitting no deeper reflection that he hides what he’s really done
“I like them blow jobs where it goes in their neck a little bit,” he tells the audience in his Shame
standing in front of Hindu temple decorations and a beatific Lord Krishna
After Dispatches was broadcast, further clips began circulating of Brand that should have raised red flags at the time. In one
Brand tells the American talk show host David Letterman: “Despite appearances
look at his wonderful haircut he must be gay
Look how sensitive and vulnerable he is he must be gay
That means women feel safe around me and then bang
Pregnant!” His comic timing is impeccable – even now
Near the start of the Dispatches documentary
we hear one testimony from Nadia: “He does this thing where he glazes over”
we hear his accuser Phoebe say: “I saw something come over his eyes
like a different person literally entered his body.” I understood this description of glazed-over eyes
I have been in sexual encounters where the other withdraws into himself
The opposite of Brand’s famous skill: reading the room
At an Oxford Union talk in 2015
Stephen Fry described Brand’s characteristic ability to see into people with reference to his eyes: “He has an extraordinary ability to look people deep into the eyes such as they melt like a chocolate put in front of the fire.” This ability to melt people with his gaze apparently worked in Brand’s favour as his star continued
“It’s a pattern that seems to follow Russell Brand throughout his career,” Lorraine Heggessey
controller of BBC One between 2000 and 2005
he transgresses what would normally be acceptable within broadcasting and he gets rewarded by promotion
Brand finally began facing the consequences he had dodged for so long
Channel 4 removed shows featuring Brand from its streaming platform
which hosts his main output of solo videos to camera with media analysis and commentary
Brand was interviewed by the police and in November it was reported that a file had been passed to the Crown Prosecution Service for consideration
My partner is a molecular biologist and cancer researcher
and our conversations seemed to have no place in Brand’s output
Going back to his videos to write this article
I find it difficult to even grasp his arguments – he jabbers on without an obvious starting or endpoint
I don’t believe his sincerity now – he’s performing positions he’s previously been against
Either he has an exceptionally loose grip on his own beliefs and commitments
or he’s a grifter – I honestly couldn’t call it
but with thinner observations that feel formulaic
and with more of an emphasis on “them”: a word he repeatedly uses without explanation
Now the threat is the deep state and authoritarianism
He encourages his new audience to do their research – the conspiracy theorist’s call to action
His new videos feature sponsorship with partners including Airestech
a signal-blocking amulet – one that presumably protects Brand from the Bluetooth microphone that’s clipped to his shirt
centrist commentator Ian Dunt and author Dorian Lynskey analyse Brand’s output over his career
and argue that his move from left to right did not come out of the blue – signs of his conspiracy theory tendencies were always there
Brand’s mistrust of authority has always structured his observations
leading him once to what he describes as “anarcho-syndalicalism”
Yet what’s always been clear is that Brand’s positions are grounded less in political conviction than refracted through the prism of his emotional state in any given moment
Brand reads the energy in the room to inform what he says – though now
what he says is designed to accrue power more than puncture it
In her recent book Doppelganger, Naomi Klein writes about the mirror world, in which cancelled figures continue to grow their audiences, but making less and less sense, their untested ideas drifting further from the need for veracity. Brand is now subsumed in that mirror world. Adrift from former allies like George Monbiot
who prior to Dispatches had already distanced himself from Brand
calling out the dangerous game he was playing
The mirror-world Brand has become unrecognisable to me now
He speaks from positions he previously persuasively critiqued
his cadence was noticeably slower (perhaps the footage was slowed down) indicating that his speech needs to be adapted to his new American audience
Brand no longer speaks to or indeed for a working-class British audience
Brand belabours his own persecution by the rape allegations
saying: “I’m aware that you guys have been saying in the comments for a while
‘Watch out Russell they are coming for you
Having once skewered Nigel Farage he now jokes that he’d love to work in Trump’s new government if asked
which to me seems less a product of deep spiritual conviction than a way of aligning himself with his new peer group of rich
heterosexual power players (Tucker Carlson
He has made videos exclaiming that he’s redeemed of his sins
In the 2019 Under the Skin interview with Brene Brown
Brown says to Brand: “I can find God in you
but I’m going to hold you accountable for what you’ve done.” Like Brown
I don’t believe it is helpful to characterise Brand as a monster
There is certainly a Brand in me: by which I mean
I maintain my spiritual practices of self-examination
I do not write this from the pearl-clutching holier-than-though position but in full recognition of the complicatedness of being a person
While the rape allegations have now moved into legal processes
an extreme volte-face is well within the realms of possibility
my thoughts turned to my friend Jamie Dolan – here for a good time
Polls have opened across England as local elections
mayoral elections and even one parliamentary by-election take place
Plus: The Football Association has banned trans women from competing in women’s football; and tensions escalate between India and Pakistan over a massacre in Kashmir
Aaron Bastani: One of my favourite things about working for Novara Media is co-hosting our weekly, in-depth interview series, Downstream
The show’s rather grand-sounding aim is to talk to some of the most interesting people about the ideas and events that matter
people seem to really enjoy examining an idea
I now regularly read material I otherwise might not
So while I’ve not consumed as much fiction as I might have liked this year (a growing toddler will do that)
I have been able to read lots of nonfiction
allow me to proffer my favourite books of 2024
Because while there’s little worse than wasting your time – and money – on a bad book
there’s little more rewarding than getting it right
First up is Vassal State, by Angus Hanton
The claim that the United States essentially runs the UK has a long heritage
and is fervently believed by those on the left when it comes to foreign policy (including myself)
But rather than focusing on the not-so-special relationship
Hanton instead examines the changing economic ties between the two countries
private equity and big tech has led to previously implausible levels of corporate capture
Second is What Went Wrong With Capitalism, by Ruchir Sharma
Today Sharma is chairman of Rockefeller International and a columnist at the Financial Times
But for 25 years he worked at Morgan Stanley
where his roles included chief global strategist
Rarely will you read something which confounds so many of the platitudes on both the left and right (while also making sense)
is that capitalism has morphed into “socialism for the very rich”
That our present model can only generate low growth
capitalism as we know it has been a zombie for most of the 21st century – a startling conclusion given Sharma’s CV
Third is Why Empires Fall, by Peter Heather and John Rapley
while Rapley is a political economist who specialises in development
the two men came upon a remarkable finding: the contemporary West looks remarkably similar to the Roman Empire of the late 4th Century
so declinist cliche – or so you might think
But rather than following the lead of Edward Gibbons
whose seminal account of Roman decline blamed Christianity and a loss of civic virtue
Heather and Rapley argue that by developing the periphery
the imperial core inevitably creates the conditions for its own demise
Fourth is Lobbying for Zionism on Both Sides of the Atlantic, by Ilan Pappe
I’ve been lucky enough to speak to Pappe twice this year
The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine is still the first thing you should read by him
which chronicles the rise of the Zionist lobby in both the US and UK
is a truly extraordinary piece of work (it’s over 600 pages)
If you think that’s too long for a Christmas gift
why not try A Very Short History of the Israel-Palestine Conflict
The prodigious Professor Pappe also published that over the last twelve months
Finally is How the World Made the West, by Josephine Quinn
This sensational history begins in Sumeria 4,500 years ago and ends at the dawn of the Renaissance
one begins to grasp the true debt the West owes ‘the rest’ – an analysis which goes beyond the hackneyed examples of Arabic numerals (which are in fact Indian) and medicine
Does monumental Roman and Greek architecture happen without Egypt
Then there are Phoenician innovations in sailing
Ash Sarkar: I can’t say I’ve been able to read as much as I’d have liked to in 2024 – rushing to finish my own forthcoming book, Minority Rule
meant time that I would have spent reading for pleasure
was instead gobbled up by research and fact-checking
But Downstream means a portion of each week is set aside for reading new books (though I must say
Judith Butler’s Who’s Afraid of Gender? is essential reading for anyone who wants to make sense of the transphobic moral panic which has engulfed Britain and America
Butler’s work has a reputation for being dense
But Who’s Afraid of Gender is not an academic mediation on the nature of gender; rather
it is an expansive examination of how a global ‘anti-gender’ movement became the vehicle for fascist and anti-feminist politics
This is probably Butler’s most direct and polemical work
but their relentless critical rigour is apparent throughout
No shade to Mr Smith, my GCSE geography teacher, but a part of me has always regretted not choosing to do history. History podcasts are my preferred form of escapism (proof, if any was needed, that I’m not in my twenties anymore). William Dalrymple’s The Golden Road embodies what I love the most about great historical writing: a reader like me
is transported into a world that’s at once familiar and foreign
The Golden Road is about how India’s maritime trade
Fans of this year’s Silk Road exhibition at the British Museum may enjoy hearing a counter-hypothesis
Next up is another history book, Avi Shlaim’s Three Worlds: Memoirs of an Arab Jew
As we’ve watched the genocide in Gaza unfold
quite naturally the left’s focus is on Israel’s war on the Palestinian people and Palestinian culture
there has been another act of warfare – one which turned Jews into Israelis
at the expense of their other cultural identities
and his family considered themselves just as ‘Arab’ as their Muslim friends and neighbours
That all changed with the foundation of the state of Israel in 1947
Three Worlds tells the story of how Israel stoked Jewish fear in the diaspora
and waged a secret bombing campaign against Iraqi Jews
And finally, because I genuinely believe that reading novels is good for the soul, there’s Oisín McKenna’s Evenings and Weekends
I like fiction which takes me into a context that’s radically different from my own (Wolf Hall hive
But what was so special about Evenings and Weekends was how close it was to my own life-world
Set during a sweltering summer weekend in 2019
Evenings and Weekends is about four people – Maggie
best friend Phil and his mum Rosaleen – struggling to work out what it is they really want
each of them is paralysed by shame and indecision
while economic precarity nibbles away at their ability to create stability for themselves and the people that they love
and at any moment a character might spill their pint on my trainers
We’re a small but dedicated team here at Novara Media
covering everything from the housing crisis to the picket line
opinion or long-read pieces would be possible without our monthly supporters
If you value our articles and want to see even more impactful investigations and coverage in the year ahead, please consider a monthly donation — just one hour’s wage, or whatever you can afford. Go to novaramedia.com/support to sign up
Aaron Bastani is a Novara Media contributing editor and co-founder
Ash Sarkar is a contributing editor at Novara Media
Avi Shlaim is a historian and author of “Three Worlds: Memoirs of an Arab-Jew”
He joined Ash to talk about the Israeli right
Mossad’s covert operations in Baghdad and what it means to have hyphenated identities
Israeli historian and author Ilan Pappé’s new book details the origins of zionism and the struggles against it throughout the 19th and 20th centuries
Labour Friends of Israel and the Christian roots of Zionism
James Butler and Eleanor Penny explore what the 1988 action comedy reveals about corporate power
mid-century terrorism and women in the workplace
Who is Bruce Willis’ shoeless cowboy cop out to rescue
And what is Hans Gruber’s vague European accent supposed to tell us
Listen to our previous seasonal episodes with James Butler examining It’s A Wonderful Life and A Christmas Carol
I am a cis woman in my late 20s and in the past few years
I’ve realised that I am extremely impacted by the hormonal changes throughout my menstrual cycle
I know that there’s all sorts of advice out there on this but that it’s also an area that’s super under-researched because of sexism
I bristle against the idea that it’s my job to make myself acceptable to a society that loves how fun and productive I am when I have oestrogen coursing through me (although it sometimes tells me I’m “too much”) but hates me when I’m exhausted and angry and whatever else progesterone has thrown at me that month
So I don’t think I want medical intervention
I don’t want to go on birth control and I certainly don’t want anything more long-term
I want to retain my autonomy and apart from anything else
I’m experiencing a normal process that society has maligned
I am also an engineer who takes pride in my work
I am a friend trying to be there for my friends
I feel like I spend half the month straining to keep up appearances and the other half borderline manically working to make up for it
both in and outside of work – but I can’t help thinking I can never ask to be treated any differently from a cis man who doesn’t have to deal with this biological process
Is there a “politically correct” way to have a period in this society
seems to consider periods a necessary evil that we can overcome with the right effort
an increasingly loud and often trans-exclusionary earth mother subculture promotes menstruation as a spiritual gift
glossing over earthly matters such as emotional and physical agony
The truth is that most of us experience menstruation with a lot of ambivalence
One thing the woo-woo approach to periods gets right
is recognising that we change throughout our menstrual cycles – physically
And yet we live in a culture where good people (workers) are supposed to be stable
a culture built by and for people notorious for their volatility
I recognise your struggle; how the fuck are we supposed to menstruate in a capitalist society
pretending to be something we are not (pain-free
It has become more taboo for men to ask if someone is on their period
Doing so is deemed sexist often for good reason; the question usually insinuates the dismissal of emotions as irrational
But I don’t want to disavow the impact that my hormones have on my emotional life
my biggest and most challenging emotions do come ahead of my period
Though this system doesn’t make any sense to me
capitalist patriarchy claims to enshrine rationality
People who menstruate have been oppressed on the basis of our supposed unruly
You write that you “can never ask to be treated any differently from a cis man who doesn’t have to deal with this biological process.” I understand this; to do so could have material as well as emotional consequences
There is little in place structurally to back us up
It also has shoddy sick pay and shedloads of stigma around periods
Even in countries with menstrual leave policies
While there may be growing general awareness that periods can be painful for a day or so
the reality for many people – weeks-long emotional and physical symptoms – is rarely grasped
Perhaps because it is too much for the system
I’m also wondering about how self-care factors in. I agree with you that individualisation entrenches the logic that causes our suffering in the first place. Indeed, the stress of capitalism no doubt makes menstruation more difficult and increases the prevalence of so-called menstrual disorders
there is a role for showing ourselves and others consistent care
Whilst I agree that medicalisation can be problematic
I do think there can be a place for getting to know our bodies
Especially difficult periods can indicate particular diagnoses or stressors
It took me years of contending with doctors’ dismissals (“These are just women’s problems!”) to receive a polycystic ovary syndrome diagnosis – and even then
my doctor only offered support if I wanted to get pregnant
people who menstruate and trans people become experts in their own health
I have come to better understand how my hormonal and menstrual health relates to my emotional health and stress levels
and as such have identified things that help and hinder my wellbeing
A lot of this has been about attempting to honour rather than resist the fact I am a cyclical being – although of course this is easier said than done
I am not suggesting that self-care is the answer – it is more a case of survival pending revolution
We can also collaborate on and share menstrual health knowledge with those around us
but to the alleviation of symptoms we want to and might be able to alleviate – or at least understand better
In a society that does not permit us to exist authentically – which is to say
in alignment with our feelings and our cycles – how might we be able to self-authorise
And what would make this self-authorisation more possible
I don’t think we should aspire to politically correct periods
Living under conditions that render our menstrual cycles disruptive
Sophie K Rosa is a freelance journalist and the author of Radical Intimacy
That mindboggling aggregation of human data provides one part of the raw material for AI
the amount of data is now so vast that hitherto unfeasible new applications can be developed – most strikingly in the creation of computer software seemingly able to hold a conversation
intelligent computer has been a dream of science fiction for as long as computers have existed
fantastical artistic creations are apparently available with just a few keystrokes
It is little surprise that AI has sparked off such extraordinary hype
an extension of the data-extraction industry that we have all become entangled in over the last two decades
What is happening with AI is the operations of data extraction are now happening on such a large scale that science-fiction results appear possible
and because it has to run at such huge scale
there are hard limits to what current AI technologies can do
suggests the stock market valuations of tech companies are likely to be wildly out of line with the real economics – a classic bubble
Labour’s own plans for their rapid expansion are likely to run hard into England’s already over-stretched water supply
used to generate thousands of targets for the IDF in Gaza
As climate change worsens and resource constraints become apparent across the globe
harder questions need to be asked about the extraordinary commitment we are making to technologies increasingly geared towards profit and war
When we dig further into the exit polls, a new narrative arises. Trump actually gained very few additional youth votes compared to 2020, while Harris lost several million young voters compared to Biden
It now seems that rather than young voters flocking to the right
the real story is that Democrat-aligned youth stayed at home
seems to have been light and grudgingly given
It certainly wasn’t strong enough to produce the high youth turnout seen in 2020
But there’s also something else to consider
Even if young people had turned out for Harris
their support still wouldn’t have been interpreted as votes for the left
we’d likely now be talking about ‘generation centrist’
young people’s shift to the left was much more visible in the Democratic primaries than in the elections themselves
there was a stark generational divide between those backing Bernie Sanders and those backing Hillary Clinton: Sanders won 72% of 17-29-year-old voters
with this division almost exactly reversed at the other end of the age scale (Clinton won 71% of over-65s to Sanders’ 27%)
When the left isn’t given political expression
We’ve seen a similar story play out in France
When the far-right leader Marine Le Pen beat rightwing centrist Emmanuel Macron among young voters in the final results of the 2022 presidential elections
the narrative set in that young people in France had firmly shifted to the right
But French presidential elections are held in two rounds
leftwing candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon won a healthy plurality of 18-24 and 25-34-year-olds
This allegiance was repeated in this year’s legislative election
in which the victorious leftwing NFP alliance gained the largest youth support by far
The pattern seems clear: there’s no enthusiasm for the neoliberal centre
and when voting is reduced to a choice between centrism and the far right
making the far-right youth vote appear to grow
This observation doesn’t mean we can be complacent, however. There could be a political shift underway, and we can’t trust that demographic change will save us. Indeed, the generation left thesis never suggested young people would naturally move to the left. My 2019 book of that name began by identifying a trend already in existence
and asked what this trend could tell us about contemporary class composition so we could act in the most politically effective way
The generational political distinctions that dominated politics at the time emerged primarily out of a divergence of material interests, in which generational differences in the pattern of asset ownership played a key role
But linking material interests to political views and actions is far from straightforward
because material interests we perceive and act on aren’t given – they’re formed
A person’s perception of their material interests is rooted in their sense of what is socially and politically possible
along with accelerating environmental crises
have made the future more uncertain than ever and
with young people generally more exposed to those risks
shared experiences of declining life prospects
Political expression doesn’t just reveal what already exists
It also helps to create what it expresses by making those experiences more comprehensible
the left managed to give political expression to experiences of insecurity
that left was comprehensively defeated by a centrist restoration
and a massive potential to grow quickly if the appropriate political forms and expression are found
Those who took generation left as an accomplished fact rather than a political project now risk making a similar mistake by universalising a trend among some young men into a wider shift towards the far right
they risk foreclosing the very real possibility of the left’s revival
Keir Milburn is the co-director of the Abundance think tank
He is also the author of Generation Left (2019) and Radical Abundance (forthcoming in 2025)
Lockdown was one of the defining experiences of our lives
From the plantation to the infirmary and from the leper colony to the stay at home order
contagion and confinement are inextricably intertwined
race science and colonial violence have shaped six of the most powerful plagues in history
swingeing tariffs on imports were threatened and just as swiftly withdrawn against the US’ two nearest neighbours
Trump is essentially an old man shouting at a cloud
all we need to do is wait for him to burn out
This is arguably what happened the first time around
Trump version two is a far more serious prospect
Behind the bedlam of the past few weeks is a clear plan
is only the most visible element of it – big finance and big energy are right behind Musk
The result is a serious effort to reassert US capital’s dominant position in a tumultuous world
The key figure in this realignment of US capitalism and the Trump administration is not Musk
but in fact Trump’s new treasury secretary
the billionaire hedge fund owner Scott Bessent
it’s more like a lengthy pitch by Bessent for the job he now has
Bessent himself is a committed free marketeer
His vision for Trump is that the US would now have a president who could credibly threaten economic retaliation against other powers
Trump’s seeming craziness – his willingness to say the unsayable
and perhaps even do it – makes him an effective negotiator
impose and then withdraw tariffs on $1.4tn of trade with Canada and Mexico – two countries you have a longstanding free trade agreement with – it’s a clear sign that you might be willing to do something equally mad anywhere
Fear of what an unchained America could do is what will bring the rest of the world to heel
Trump a kind of wrecking ball that can clear a path to a brighter future
Bessent has spoken of the “reshaping of the global economic order” – that out of the chaos of the world today
the US could impose a new settlement on the planet and so initiate what Bessent has called a “golden age”
Bessent’s plan would look a lot like neoliberalism 2.0
free movement of money around the world and
America first – the US still the dominant economic and military power
preserving order in the rest of the system
We can have some ideas of what this might look like. Bessent has floated the idea of a new “Plaza Accord” with China
This references the December 1985 agreement
Japan and their western European allies – the so-called G5 – in which Japan agreed to allow its currency
Japan’s boom over the preceding decades had seen it become a manufacturing powerhouse
had resulted in a huge trade deficit between the two countries
The supposed economic “threat” of Japan became a cultural touchstone – Back to the Future 2 and Bladerunner
play up to fears of a world where Japan was now the world’s largest economy
made his first foray into politics with demands for tariffs on Japan
the G5 economies agreed to a kind of controlled demolition of the currency system
The immediate result of the deal was a rapid
dramatic increase in the value of the yen – up 46% against the dollar by the end of 1986
which became far more expensive to the US and the rest of the world
And with Japan’s economy so dependent on those exports
that meant Japan entered a recession over the following year
Desperate measures to stimulate the economy by the Japanese government stoked up a property bubble
which burst in 1990 and opened up Japan’s so-called “Lost Decades” of low-to-zero growth
The story could sound superficially similar to today
which is presumably why Bessent makes the comparison
playing up to fears of China has domestic political advantages
And Trump’s tariffs against Mexico and Canada of course also played up to – correct
as it happens – beliefs that free trade deals across North America had undermined US manufacturing jobs
Cementing Trump’s domestic coalition will be important to making the economic aggression abroad stick
But there is no reason for China to accept anything remotely similar to Plaza. Japan was then, and remains, politically and militarily subordinate to the US. It houses 120 US bases, resident to 54,774 service personnel
Whatever negotiation the Trump administration intends to open with China
it will enter in a weaker position than the Reagan administration approached Japan
that orientation – seeing the relationship with China as central to reordering the world – is what is likely to define the Trump administration’s real actions abroad
too: the normalisation of relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia is in significant part an attempt to undermine China’s growing influence in the region and stymie its growing relationship with Saudi
which is currently trembling at the prospect of tariffs
the Trump regime believes it holds a unique advantage
Europe is a hub of cheap energy (the real source of America’s recent economic growth)
electric vehicles (crucial in a world of rising energy demand) and data centres
Already Trump has removed Biden’s moratorium on constructing liquified natural gas export terminals
we should expect Trump to be ruthlessly pragmatic when it comes to specific deals
His administration will be prepared to apply economic pressure to all and sundry – motivated not merely by the erratic beliefs of the president
but by a strategic orientation towards reshaping the world around US capital
How the richest man in the world became Trump’s new best friend
I find myself in a corporate environment that feels increasingly suffocating
and my long-held anti-capitalist beliefs have transformed into a deep-seated hatred and rage
I’m stuck in a situation where I need to earn money
but the reality of my job is becoming unbearable
It’s hard for me to accept that this is what life has become for so many of us
I often wonder how others manage to endure such harsh conditions
I’m aware that my situation is better compared to many other workers
which adds another layer of complexity to my feelings
but even so: are we all destined to be victims of this relentless system
Is there a way to break free from the cycle of exploitation
or are we simply trapped in a web of economic necessity and corporate greed
The choice between needing to survive in a capitalist society and holding on to my principles feels increasingly unresolvable
I know I’m not alone in this fight – many people grapple with similar frustrations and aspirations for change
It’s disheartening to see that even those of us who are more privileged still feel the weight of systemic oppression
The reality is that the desire for a more humane and equitable existence is stronger than ever
and it begs the question of how we can collectively challenge the structures that perpetuate these conditions
Maybe all of us should commiserate each other more about the everyday inhumanity of capitalism
much of the indignity of capitalism entails weighing up its evils against the alternative: doing soul-destroying work and being able to pay for vital things is generally considered luckier than having no work and living in poverty
I am sorry your job is taking it out of you – I wonder what “it” is
Your question brought the “serenity prayer” to mind: God
grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change
You write that your job is “becoming unbearable” and that it is “hard for [you] to accept that this is what life has become for so many of us”
Life under capitalism fills you with anger – why not change your relationship with it
And yet capitalism itself does not fit neatly into the category of “things we can change” – though it is not always easy in our political movements to admit this
capitalism is the air we breathe – if we were to resist every aspect of it
we all make compromises with the system; this is true even for the most driven revolutionary
This might mean doing a job that does not fully align with our values
behaving or living in ways we ideally wouldn’t want to – if only we lived in a different kind of society
Even for those of us who consciously want to
We can hate capitalism with every ounce of our being whilst not seeing a way out
the sensation you describe of being trapped in capitalist logic might be at the heart of our suffering
Realising we have limited agency is a tough pill to swallow
The common leftist prescription for feelings such as yours is: revolution
This remedy often has a side-effect of cognitive dissonance – the experience of holding conflicting beliefs at once
But we can ardently want revolution without really believing it is an immediate possibility
To what extent does one need to believe such a revolution is possible to be comforted by its possibility
To what extent does one need to believe in it to fight for it
How much hope do we need – can we really expect to have – to endure our present conditions whilst taking action to change them
it is important that we attempt to be honest with ourselves
Rage can fuel revolutionary action – but it can also leave us feeling frozen
As Hannah Proctor writes in Burnout: The Emotional Experience of Political Defeat:
Psychological experiences require patience while so much in the world demands urgency
The problem with anti-adaptive healing is that it is necessarily asynchronous: to get better in the present it is necessary to change so many things in the world
And the problem with that is that by the time it’s done it will already be too late
I wonder about your relationship with hope; you want things to be different
Proctor argues that hope cannot be a precondition for action
It might be enough to simply know that we are still here
in a world where things could be otherwise: “Our minds (and bodies) may be in hellish conditions
where things can still be organised differently.”
You are experiencing a conflict between your principles and the survival requirements of capitalism
and ask how it can be harnessed towards effective action
an occupation or protest – or by simply participating in these things
and you might experience joy or relief – and sometimes you will need to admit defeat
It could be encouraging to learn more about the ways – small and large – that people are resisting oppression every day
What kinds of resistance set your heart on fire
Could taking action on the issues that beleaguer you help foster a sense of agency
Have you spoken to your colleagues – assuming this is possible – about your working conditions
There’s everything to fight for – so much so it can feel impossible to know where to begin
give me the serenity to enjoy my life under its present conditions; the courage to change the things I must; and the wisdom to know that this means changing everything
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Is it institutional processes that protect minorities from the rule of majorities
the French far-right leader who was recently found guilty of embezzlement
she has been barred from running for public office for 5 years
a time period which crucially would include the 2027 presidential election
she was one of two second-round candidates and would stand a very good chance of getting there again
Should the electorate be able to decide entirely by themselves whether they regard the crimes of candidates as disqualifying
Or should the legal apparatus be able to constrain who runs for election
Certainly Le Pen once thought it should be able to – back in 2013, she called for a lifetime ban on running for office on people who had embezzled public funds
the 29-year old heir presumptive to Le Pen’s position and current Rassemblement National (RN) president
he claimed that the purpose of the charges was directly to prevent Le Pen from running
There are many other global examples of legal challenges to the right to stand in elections
Brazil’s Lula was convicted of money laundering and corruption – and disqualified from running for president in 2018
come to power and accelerate the deforestation of the Amazon
All this only for Lula’s cases to be quashed in 2021
with the supreme court finding serious bias in the case against him
Pakistan’s Imran Khan has faced a slew of court cases – from misdeclaration of assets he was gifted to violating Islamic marriage law
He was disqualified from politics for 5 years in 2023
the constitutional court of Romania cancelled elections in the country
who emerged suddenly as a frontrunner in the first round of the election
was accused of benefiting from a campaign organised by a “state actor” (presumably Russia)
He was accused of “incitement to actions against the constitutional order”
He was convicted in May 2024 of falsifying business records in the Stormy Daniels hush-money case
Some had hoped that Section 3 of the 14th Amendment might have disqualified him
which prohibits people who “have engaged in insurrection or rebellion” against the Constitution from standing
The Supreme Court ruled in March 2024 that that would not apply
Trump has immunity from prosecution for “official acts”
A deep crisis is metastasising through global capitalism
It is becoming increasingly difficult to form stable hegemonic blocs of voters in almost any major country
2024 saw almost every electorate in the world turn against the incumbents
Candidates fight dirtier and more radical challengers arise
legal institutions become more important as constraints
But it is not only the courts that have impinged on the core democratic process of elections
Liberal democracies are also integrated into other structures
that can also tank governments and which set the playing field for elections
David Adler, co-general coordinator of the Progressive International recently argued argued to me that way that Liz Truss was brought down – through a crisis triggered by her own disastrous mini-budget – should also alarm the left
it was not judges that scuppered her project
The same worries surrounded Corbynism and will be wielded against any future left project in the UK – will the markets rebel
That such an antidemocratic force would have such an oversized say in the politics of a country rubbishes the notion of democracy
the German Minister of Finance famously declared
“’elections cannot be allowed to change economic policy”
this means even in the direction of disastrous rightwing policies like Truss’s
seemingly impossible to decisively solve from the perspective of liberal democracies
which rely on the balances of power between distinct wings of power
some explicitly stated in the constitutional order
the leader of La France Insoumise (LFI) – the largest left group in the French Parliament – said “the decision to remove an elected official should be up to the people.” LFI referenced one of their most prominent constitutional demands: “a recall referendum […] in a democratic Sixth Republic.”
The Sixth Republic is a proposed restructuring of the constitutional system of France
it would reduce the power of the presidency
enabling democratic accountability between the country’s half-decadal elections
This might mean that even if Jordan Bardella – a likely future presidential candidate for the RN – were to become the President of France
he would remain to some extent democratically accountable
But it is far from the conclusion to this emerging crisis of liberal democracy
The heterogeneity of these cases happening across the globe gives the left no easy
It is not obvious that there is a simple way
to sort the spurious and antidemocratic impingement of legal systems on democratic processes from the legitimate activities of essential democratic institutions
a left take on exceptionalism: the ascent of fascist governments should be opposed by any means necessary
But one thing is also clear: It’s a dangerous game for the left to offer blanket support to these processes
Not only because they can be used against us
but also because in some cases they give the right ammunition of their own to make the false claim that they are the true opposition to the Deep State: the nebulous collection of judges and bureaucrats and security services that constrain the electoral process
The left’s project is a much more radical form of democracy: a form of autonomy and power exercised by people directly over their lives
from their participation in the economy to their associations with others
free not only from the restrictions of the liberal state’s decisions about who or what is a legitimate actor
but also from the rule of capital over it all
Richard Hames is an audio producer at Novara Media
but the US will not come to Europe’s military aid and is insisting on Nato members ramping up their defence spending
The resulting panic and disorganisation amongst Europe’s leaders is all too visible
Directly tied to this hegemony of force was the US’ role as an economic hegemon
The US has acted as the provider of the world’s most important currency
and US borrowing has sustained economic growth across the rest of the world
The removal of barriers to trade and the flow of money around the world
this included the growing integration of China into the US-centred economy from the mid-1970s onwards
the US was the world’s absolutely dominant power
followed shortly after by the 2008 financial crisis
Major economic crises in the US and across Europe cleared the path for China
to achieve parity with and even overtake western economies in key areas
most obviously renewables and electric vehicles
became increasingly tied into a China-centric trading model
supplying raw materials essential for its growth whilst Chinese investment in turn spread across much of the globe
By 2015 Washington was already beginning to fret about the emergence of its first peer competitor
Trump’s first presidency marked the first significant US break with the neoliberal rules of the game
stepping up the use of trade tariffs against China
Joe Biden’s presidency merely reinforced this
making greater use of legal sanctions against Chinese companies
whilst also spending heavily domestically to try and outcompete China in key industries like semiconductors and renewables
Trump version two is a further extension and deepening of the approach – to the point of breaking its longstanding commitments to its historically closest allies
Washington’s response has been to retreat and retrench
China has repeatedly signalled its willingness to act as a neutral peacemaker in Ukraine and has even mooted sending peacekeeping troops
Its exclusion from talks is an intentional snub
the clear willingness of Trump’s administration – for all the rhetoric – to strike a trade deal is a sufficient incentive to allow US-Russia dealmaking to continue
That deal currently looks strikingly brutal – demands for reparations from the US and near-unlimited access to Ukraine’s mineral wealth on one side
with Russian territorial gains formalised on the other
It’s an old-school imperial carve-up of the kind that wasn’t supposed to happen in the postwar order
As climate change bites and resource constraints tighten
we should expect more of these very direct carve-ups by the major powers
diplomacy and military conflict are likely to zero in on the issue of raw material access
that he intends to use the US’s own growing fossil fuel exports as a bargaining chip in future deals across the world
and it seems likely that the UK government will be willing to strike a deal for US liquified natural gas to curry favour with Washington
strike a deal with Russia and repair relations with China
Donald Trump and those around him have their vision for America first in a new world
In May last year, Andrew Bailie posted a photo of the kind rarely seen on LinkedIn: a small white mushroom growing out of a floorboard
“That mushroom grew in the last flat I rented,” Bailie wrote
a shocking confession on a platform famed for shameless self-promotion
“I was paying 50% of my income to live there
Roost has not yet realised its grand ambitions
it has so far created five – one being Bailie’s in Hackney
There is also a Roost co-op in Sheffield – a 48-bedroom former hotel opened in March this year – and three other London Roosts
Roost co-ops differ significantly from traditional housing co-ops in two important ways: they charge market rent and are leased
Rooms in Sheffield cost between £560 and £750 per month
while a recent Roost newsletter advertised a soon-to-be Tottenham Roost in northeast London
a terraced house converted into four one-bedroom flats with a large shared garden
for £1,700 each (£850 each for a couple) – an eye-watering amount for the kinds of people co-ops conventionally attract
Knowing where you will live and what your rent will be in 2040 is nothing to sniff at
most of all the co-operative orthodoxy that says co-ops must grow slowly from the grassroots and resist the temptations of capitalism
three more on the way and a glittering advisory board of Oxford lecturers
its willingness to work with big investors and its acceptance of the inevitability (at least in the short-to-mid-term) of landlordism have rung alarm bells among housing activists allergic to the trappings of tech companies
In trying to engineer a co-operative housing boom
is Roost threatening the principles that underpin it
Or is it oiling the wheels of a creaky co-op movement in the hopes of popularising a different way of living
co-ops are about collective ownership: groups of individuals pooling resources to gain more control over a certain commodity (food
this has historically meant using co-op members’ collective resources to build or buy properties and so escape the whims of landlords
something of a minority activity in the UK
when a group of weavers and artisans in Rochdale came together to build around 80 co-operatively owned homes
A second wave of co-operative house-building in the early 1900s created a few hundred more
including across large sections of Hampstead Garden Suburb
now one of the capital’s most expensive areas
The suburb’s Waterlow Court was purpose-built to house single working women and their children; a one-bedroom flat in the block could now easily set you back half a million pounds
Few renters in the UK will have ever seen a place in a co-op advertised – and that’s intentional
Many co-ops work with local authorities and housing associations to refer people directly from the council house waiting list
Those with open applications receive dozens of applicants
so turnover is low; a small number of co-ops grant automatic membership to members’ children
While there is a small amount of government funding available – mostly to build
rather than acquire properties – most would-be co-op founders find themselves having to beg
“It feels like a very big undertaking,” said Marieke
who has been a member of Sanford co-op in southeast London for four years
and asked to be identified by her first name only
… That does take time and dedication.” The process usually takes several years
which hosts gatherings of housing and worker co-ops
The relative atomisation of the co-operative universe means co-ops often sit on cash reserves they are reluctant to spend
particularly outside of the co-op – what if a roof needs replacing
or a member loses their job and can’t afford their rent
Bailie told me he understands this mindset: “People start off with principle six [of the seven co-operative principles
co-operation among co-operatives] and then [they decide] ‘The point of my co-op is to give me permanently affordable rents and I’m really risk-averse because I’ve put my blood
sweat and tears into it.’” A recent vote at Sanford – the oldest purpose-built housing co-op in the UK
housing 120 people across 14 properties and a block of flats – decided to increase rents for the first time in several years by around 10%
Keeping rents this low means Sanford must eat into its reserves to stay afloat
Bailie’s co-founder Ben Dunn Flores is blunt about the problem at hand: “Co-ops are too big and they’re too conservative.”
advertises spaces in co-ops and lobbies co-ops to support a new crop of co-ops
the hostile climate for co-operatives deters all but the most tenacious; many precariously housed people are too busy trying to make rent to dedicate time to creatively solving their housing problems
Bailie met Dunn Flores – a criminally young 24-year-old – in February 2023
over a patchy WiFi connection provided by the Colombian bar near the hostel where Bailie was staying
A former homelessness charity worker and a UX designer
Bailie and Dunn Flores were put in touch by a mutual friend sick of hearing them both complain endlessly about the housing crisis at parties
and who wanted them to do something about it (the friend
Bailie had a hunch that co-ops were the answer to the housing crisis after meeting his partner Bendiek
who at the time was living in the Edinburgh student co-op
It blew Bailie’s mind that the young people could do anything they wanted with the house
a drastic departure from the bluetac-phobic landlords students are used to
Bailie was in Colombia on a fellowship researching how cities can help food markets grow – by enabling co-operative behaviour
Both men also had an interest in the ability of tech to improve people’s living
conditions: Bailie had worked in a startup
that helps people organise their affairs after they die
Dunn Flores at another “tech for good” company trying to identify exploitation on construction sites (the problem
is that workers didn’t care about being exploited
Bailie and Dunn Flores subscribe heavily to the tech industry axiom of the power of the nudge: the idea that marginally reducing the friction involved in an activity – in this case
starting a housing co-op – will drastically impact individual behaviour
The UK housing market is ripe for co-operatives
but creating them is prohibitively complicated
Their bet is that by lowering some of the barriers to entry
“we can give [the housing market] a push” and initiate what they believe is an inevitable transition
“I genuinely think we’re going to get to the stage that most housing in London is a co-op,” Bailie told me
Declining rents, rising interest rates, regulatory pressures and growing social stigma (look at the recent furore over Labour’s newly-elected slumlord MP Jas Athwal) have meant that “landlordism on easy mode is over”
is exactly where Copenhagen was on the eve of its co-operative boom
The “push” Roost intends to give the housing market is to centralise the unglamorous bits of starting and running a co-op: incorporation
drawing up contracts and voting on changes to the co-op
It also currently operates something like an estate agent
scouting for and securing properties for prospective co-ops (Roost says it hopes that in the long term
“Roost is the boring admin automation company that helps people set up really interesting housing,” Dunn Flores said
Roost’s definition of “interesting” has changed over the past year
The company began with the intention of helping co-ops buy housing
Co-op members would contribute towards mortgages
which when paid off would mean that the co-op would own the property (members could
and banks proved reluctant to lend to a group of zoomers/millennials with an untested startup idea
Roost realised its original strategy would exclude all but the wealthiest – people who could likely afford to buy properties of their own
Roost has since pivoted from an ownership model towards a renting-but-better model
acquiring long-term leases from landlords rather than trying to buy properties (a co-op in Kassel
Germany that Roost helped to start has bought a property
though that’s partly thanks to an already robust German co-op sector)
Roost’s offer to landlords is lower-than-market rent in return for stable
long-term tenancies and fewer management responsibilities
Its offer to renters is greater security within and a sense of (though not actual) ownership over their home
minus the complex and time-consuming administration of traditional co-ops
What this means is that Roost co-ops lack what many consider to be the primary selling points of housing co-ops: housing ownership and cheap rent
This has ruffled feathers among some in the co-op movement
“It sounds like they aren’t interested in changing the ownership model
“Co-operative living is great … but affordability is what changed my life
… I don’t really see how charging people market rate will change anything about the housing crisis.”
Bailie’s answer to this is that long-term leases are a short-term solution
a stepping stone on the way to co-operative ownership
Long leases “are how we get a foothold,” Bailie said
“It’s just about getting more affordable starting points”
is to use the success stories that come from these long-leased co-ops to make a case to big-money investors; Roost is currently in talks with large social and housing investors
to lend to co-ops looking to buy properties
one the co-op movement has largely neglected
I join Bailie and Dunn Flores at Bailie’s co-op in Hackney for the company’s weekly “community lunch”
Roost employees and extended members of the Roost universe (surveyors
a corporate away day and the engagement party of someone I barely know
I remind myself that startups are intended disrupt these categories
Bailie and Dunn Flores explain that it has been harder to persuade risk-averse co-ops of the benefits of helping co-ops start up than it has landlords and investors
They’re content with working with capitalists in order to grow
“The way we see it is almost like a capital ladder,” said Bailie
“where you need to prove that £1m of investment into community-owned housing works really well
and then stop lending to the buy-to-let sector altogether.’” The sums are dizzying
And who would receive these theoretical millions
but an asset-locked community interest company
which could then disburse funds to co-ops to enable them to buy properties
“Startups go bust all the time,” said Bailie
“We obviously think it’s going quite well and that we’re right
but we feel it’s important that the co-ops aren’t tied up with our operational success.” If Roost went bust
all co-ops would lose is the platform they use to manage their properties
where a group of stragglers is huddled around the dining table
each glued to a different Google Sheet or Zoom call
“I’ve got to jump onto this interview,” Bailie tells me – can I show myself out
The room has the electric atmosphere of a hack day
a tech industry ritual in which coders put their heads together on a thorny problem
Some trace the origins of the modern “hackathon” well past the creation of the internet to 1929
when India held a nationwide contest to design a more efficient spinning wheel
Roost’s invention could be just as revolutionary – but by Bailie’s own admission
What’s unequivocal is that co-ops aren’t working as well as they could in the UK
even within the constraints of the current system – or at least they are
Roost thinks the missing link in the UK’s co-operative revolution is a tech company
one that can make it a lot easier for a lot of people to start co-operatives
Roost is prioritising things the UK co-operative movement never has – scale and speed – but in doing so has been forced to make compromises with capitalism that most co-ops never would
Even many sceptics I spoke to agree it’s a step in the right direction
however: better that more people are invested in co-operatives
loosening the chokehold of homeownership and laying the foundations for a more collective society
Better that the hundreds of millions Roost hopes to attract goes to co-ops than into the pockets of landlords
The question is: can the housing market be hacked by a group of young upstarts
Rivkah Brown is a commissioning editor and reporter at Novara Media
What’s really causing Britain’s housing crisis
In 1955, writing in the very first issue of the National Review – now the bible of the American right – William F. Buckley declared a mission statement for American conservatism
Buckley explained that “a conservative is someone who stands athwart history
at a time when no one is inclined to do so
or to have much patience with those who so urge it.”
For most of the 20th and early 21st centuries
that is exactly what US Republican leaders did
They would be the people yelling “stop” in the face of social
They would scream “stop” against the prospect of gay marriage
racial justice and increased labour rights – even such innocuous trends as rock’n’roll and video games
the conservative mind was like Lot’s wife: always anxious to snatch one more look backwards at a lost home
The campaign directly appealed to middle-aged and elderly voters who liked to watch second world war documentaries and imagine they were at Normandy
or who still dreamed of a lost love from a trip hitchhiking across the country in their youth
the left mistakenly assumed he was offering the same sepia-toned nationalism
Trump’s campaign also resonated with a younger
tech-savvy (usually male) demographic that had grown up between his 2016 and 2024 election wins and found themselves concerned not with what has been lost from an idealised past but with what treasures they might find in the ruined temples of the future
This cohort of 2024 Trump fans was equally disillusioned by the collapse of the traditional US economy but they did not want to shout “stop” and return to the factories and car plants of the mid-20th century
digitally native self-starters wished to drive headfirst toward crypto
platform-based work and speculative entrepreneurship
And they had a champion in the man who probably gained the most from this election besides Trump: Elon Musk
Since it won’t be strictly a federal agency itself
Doge will enjoy autonomy from the traditional checks and balances that are supposed to ensure governmental accountability
It will be unleashed to slash regulations and cut jobs
creating a future where the government acts less as a watchdog and more as a streamlined service provider
working on-demand to the needs of entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs only
the frenzied grin on his face anytime he is pictured with the president-elect seeming to suggest that he sees this as his once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to enact all his libertarian fantasies
Because Musk will not look to destroy the state – just the parts of it that don’t serve his interests
this is a man who has spent his life enriching himself through industries – electric vehicles
the internet – that benefit from substantial state subsidies
subsidies that will likely survive this bonfire of regulation
To oppose Musk and Trump, the left must be attuned to how American conservatism has shifted over recent years (one can only imagine what Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan would say if they could see a Republican president being advised by a businessman open about his use of psychedelics)
For what Musk shows is that the new American conservatism doesn’t only promise to stop the future
it also openly promises to shape a future that is rewired in the interests of capital
Kojo Koram is a reader in law at Birkbeck College
University of London and the author of Uncommon Wealth: Britain and the Aftermath of Empire
How worried should we be about the ever-growing arsenals of space weapons
How does the left gain power in a political scene turned to vapour
Richard Hames took to the streets of Pittsburgh
and its surrounding counties to speak to people across the political spectrum about America’s future
Richard Hames spoke to voters to see what they had to say about Israel
migration and the real economic hardships facing this former industrial heartland
to speak to Kamala Harris supporters outside her rally
Richard Hames spoke to residents of Dearborn
Trump and why they feel betrayed by the Democrats
After hearing the R-word on a comedy podcast
Moya offers an intrusive thought about the limits of language policing
Plus: what to do about a horrible housemate
Send in your questions for If I Speak’s birthday AMA episode on 18th February! [email protected]
The ACFM gang gather for a springtime reading of a classic acid-communist text by Russian revolutionary Alexandra Kollontai
Download the text and follow along as Nadia
Keir and Jem get their teeth into Make Way for Winged Eros
Check out the AK-47 podcast mentioned in this show
Sign up to the ACFM newsletter: https://novaramedia.com/newsletters
On 15 April, judges at the UK Supreme Court unanimously ruled that for the purposes of the Equality Act
a woman (and a man) is defined by ‘biological sex’
swiftly followed by updated Equalities and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) guidance on trans inclusion
was celebrated by ‘gender critical’ campaigners
the decision looks like a huge setback for trans rights
In December 2011, Trans Media Watch submitted a report to the Leveson Inquiry into the culture
It focused on tabloids – the Daily Mail
the Sun and the Express – and their tendency to ‘out’ trans individuals and monster trans people as a group
which would investigate the nature of the relationship between journalists and the police
The Labour government had reluctantly passed the Gender Recognition Act in 2004
after the European Court of Human Rights ruled that a trans person’s inability to change the sex on their birth certificate constituted a breach of their Convention
out of a sense that with certain legal rights secured
our next priority should be to tackle print and broadcast media that systematically dehumanised us
After Meadows’ death, I cautiously hoped for some contrition from the media, not least as the coroner rebuked them at the inquest
there was a barrage of op-eds about how ‘gender-critical’ voices were prevented from raising ‘legitimate concerns’ about ‘gender ideology’
These articles simultaneously cast trans people as a tiny minority who would crumple if anyone dared question their identities
and as a mafia who had captured the media and would organise against anyone who stood up to their rigidly-enforced orthodoxy
A hostile environment had been created for us: what was the point of working in mainstream media if we couldn’t justify doing so without wasting our energy on repetitive arguments
even if the Burchill fiasco had forced our opponents to push bad-faith lines slower but more often
most trans voices got shouted out of politics journalism
In 2017, both prime minister Theresa May and Scottish first minister Nicola Sturgeon launched public consultations into reforms to the Gender Recognition Act to make the application process easier and cheaper
and remove the need for medical professionals to validate it
instead allowing trans people to self-identify
These consultations proved to be a lightning rod to recently formed anti-trans pressure groups
who pushed the line that the rights of trans people to use ‘single-sex spaces’ were in conflict with women’s rights
resting on the assumption that trans women were men and therefore inherently threatening
and that the masculinity of trans men also made them dangerous
They found more than enough newspaper columnists willing to help them manufacture consent for this idea
as a step towards diminishing both trans visibility and rights
praising it as a summary of their position
The proposed gender recognition reforms were put on hold – and parliament decided by just five votes that the long-awaited second part of the Leveson Inquiry
which Ed Miliband and Jeremy Corbyn had demanded
Liz Truss became new prime minister Boris Johnson’s minister for women and equalities
the Murdoch-owned Sunday Times reported that Truss wanted to scrap the reforms and bring in legislation that would exclude trans women from women’s spaces and prevent young trans people from accessing puberty blockers
and amidst criticism from across the political spectrum
Truss’s plans were dropped – along with the plan for self-identification – with the process of applying for a gender recognition certificate becoming easier and cheaper as a compromise
but its level of social conservatism and willingness to adopt whatever position the rightwing media demand has surprised all but the most pessimistic of observers
A big part of that recapture was an all-channels media campaign to accuse Corbyn and the left of being antisemitic
due to their support of Palestinian liberation
The Equalities and Human Rights Commission
investigated the party over the allegations
with the media treating both the groups making the accusations and the EHRC itself as neutral
despite the latter being stuffed with rightwingers over a decade of Conservative rule
The leadership immediately used it as an excuse to expel Corbyn and accept the media narrative about the evils of the Labour left
and as a prompt to reorient the party towards an Atlanticist foreign policy
this had led them into an alliance with an Israeli government carrying out a genocide in Gaza
which they have maintained since winning the 2024 election
which was set up to exclude trans people from campaigning
mirroring the US Christian right’s strategy of trying to separate trans people from lesbian
with a view to setting back the rights of all of them
The Supreme Court case that decided that for the purposes of the Equality Act written by the Labour government and passed by the Conservatives in 2010
trans people should be treated as their assigned (or ‘biological’
A limited non-profit company founded in response to the Gender Recognition Act reforms in 2018 and boosted considerably by JK Rowling
For Women Scotland secured their desired result at the third attempt
with photos of a handful of older white women celebrating being amplified by the BBC and the rightwing press
making a Saturday protest unviable with a Sunday one at Parliament Square impossible due to the London Marathon
and who never seem to be satisfied with any win
This is partly because the Supreme Court result has not just failed to secure the apologies they think they’re owed from people who got sick of their obsession
We re-emerged after Nazism; we can survive a gaggle of (mostly) expensively-educated newspaper columnists
Besides pivoting to anti-migrant sentiment
however the EHRC guidance ends up looking after going through parliament
There is a sense amongst trans people that the Supreme Court verdict was extremely unjust
and that the EHRC’s reaction represents serious overreach
I’d like another Leveson Inquiry that takes in the EHRC in an investigation into how our media and major parties have been captured by rightwingers who consistently unite to manufacture consent for legislation that makes the lives of the working class
for the gain of the wealthy or simply out of spite
The rightwing press have made it clear that they will smear and bully anyone who tries to stand up for people
castigating Starmer for ever knowing anyone ‘pro-trans’ – and in this instance
With no help coming from the Labour frontbench – with women and equalities minister Karin Smyth demanding Theresa May apologise for ever supporting trans rights – or the courts
it’s up to trans people and to everyone else who is sick of things only ever getting worse to fight back
This means grassroots organising and protesting
but it also means getting our hands dirty and struggling
to change media outlets and political organisations that have done us harm
Our enemies didn’t look at publications that were platforming trans people or parties that were supporting trans rights and then vacate the battlefield – they drove us out and made our sympathisers afraid to speak up
Transphobia cuts across the ideological spectrum – but so does pro-trans sentiment
with the advantage that our side is younger and far better at turning out numbers for demonstrations
unenforceable verdict into a tipping point: it might take years of fighting on every front
but if we want to stop the fascism that has swept the global north before it’s too late
the struggle for trans rights and representation is one that should concern us all
The UK government is racing to keep Britain’s last steel blast furnaces in operation
Plus: Why Donald Trump has already lost his trade war with China; and Israel destroys the last functioning hospital in Gaza City
Ash Sarkar and Commonwealth’s Mathew Lawrence
Aaron Bastani will be joined by historian Ilan Pappé
Pappé is a pre-eminent voice on not only the history of the Nakba
The recorded conversation will begin at 7.30pm and be followed by a social
Bastani and Pappé will be discussing the emergence of the Zionist lobby
on both sides of the Atlantic – examining the extent of political capture in Britain’s media and politics today
Bastani will also be asking Pappé about Israel’s prospects moving forward
Liberal Zionism sitting alongside more religious elements has always been a struggle for Israeli civil society
Is the greatest challenge facing Israel now from within
And how can people in the West help end a conflict that has brought such misery to millions
The event will be hosted by British-Palestinian political economist and Novara Media contributor Kieran Andrieu and followed by a social in the bar
where you’ll have the chance to splash out on some Novara merch or get yourself a copy of Pappé’s Lobbying for Zionism and have it signed by the author himself
Novara Media will be donating 15% of profits raised from the event to Medical Aid for Palestinians
The remaining funds will support Novara Media’s independent
It is only thanks to our supporters that we exist at all and can continue to provide these events
Novara Media has decided to publish the piece in full
following consultation with several scholars of genocide and Jewish history
Content note: This piece contains explicit references to torture and sexual assault
in the subjugation or displacement of indigenous Palestinians
For the past 12 months, Israel has been implementing a long-held colonial fantasy of not only “finishing the job,” but doing so with a gleeful sadism that echos the social media posts of Tzipi Navon
Sara Netanyahu’s close advisor and office manager
who called for residents from Gaza who participated in the [7 October] massacre to be tortured live on broadcast television: “First removing the nails from the hands and feet … cut off [their] genitals and let [them] see [their testicles] fried in canola oil and [force them] to eat them … Keep the tongue to the end
the ears so that [they] can hear [their] own screams and the eyes so that [they] can see us smile.”
Polling data from Israel’s Institute for National Security Studies suggests that a majority of Jewish Israelis do not think that soldiers accused of torturing Palestinians should face criminal charges
Dr Mark Perlmutter, an orthopaedic and trauma surgeon from North Carolina who volunteered as an emergency doctor in Gaza, has said that of “all the disasters I’ve seen … 40 mission trips
all of that combined doesn’t equal the level of carnage that I saw against civilians in just my first week in Gaza … almost exclusively children
I’ve seen more incinerated children than I’ve ever seen in my entire life
I’ve never seen more shredded children in just my first week.” He said children are “definitively” being shot by snipers
The raw footage and sounds of carnage are undeniable – whole families buried alive en masse in the rubble of their homes
over and over; torn bodies; shredded bodies; broken bodies; burnt bodies; dismembered bodies everywhere; blood and gore in the town squares and roads; unreachable bodies rotting in the streets
themselves burned and broken; wanton destruction of everything in the entirety of the Gaza strip
As is frequently the case when Palestinians speak, my article was met with scepticism and dismissal. But 10 days after its publication, The Lancet, a venerated peer-reviewed medical journal, published a “conservative” number of “up to 186,000 or even more deaths” killed
corroborating the lower end of my estimated range
which I believe is still a gross underestimation
People across Israeli society call for greater violence
even a nuclear strike to wipe out all Palestinians in Gaza
Israel is committing the holocaust of our time
and it is doing it in full view of a seemingly indifferent world
susan abulhawa is a Palestinian author and human and animal rights activist living in Pennsylvania
Overnight, Kamala Harris formally accepted the Democratic nomination for US president, closing out the four day political Cirque-du-Soleil that is the Democratic National Convention. The selection in Chicago was never going to be anything less than a coronation, and with Harris now leading Donald Trump by a comfortable 3.3 points in national polls
But in all the excitement generated by Harris’s booksmart-aunt energy
one thing seems to have dropped out of view: the politics
It’s been a month since Joe Biden endorsed current vice president Harris as his successor in this year’s presidential election. And in that time, there’s been little in the way of policy from her campaign. Sure, we had the sketch of an economic plan last week
containing proposals that will have both immediate and long-term impacts on low and middle-income families
But if you were expecting more from Harris’s show-closing speech
we go high” – to attack the Republican pick
High on the Chicago buzz, Democrats will be patient for now. But the lack of a clearer sense of Harris’s direction will soon prove troubling. While Harris’s overall lead has grown, polls still show that Trump is trusted more on the economy in swing states
Amongst her more material economic pledges is the reinstatement of the Biden child tax credits
while giving a $6,000 tax credit to families for the first year of a child’s life
Less solid is her pledge to pass a federal ban on price-gouging by corporations
Harris’s proposals are tweaks – limiting out-of-pocket costs on prescription drugs to $2,000 and a vow to tackle medical debt
Her convention speech barely departed from that record
promising that both sides would have everything… eventually
But the rhetoric held no shift from the Biden position of strong
military support to Israel and a slowly-slowly approach to a ceasefire
But the devastation in Gaza since then just “happened”
while “so many innocent lives” have been merely “lost”
meaning 22 million women lost their right to terminate a pregnancy
Would it have hurt the Democrat’s electoral chances if they had
Harris has promised to give her first – her first
– in-depth interview by the end of this month
so we may hear more policy details over the next week
The risk for Harris now is that a sharp pivot to policy – and the scrutiny that comes with it – will kill some of the electric buzz carefully cultivated at the DNC this week
The article was adapted from our newsletter The Cortado. For more political analysis straight into your inbox, click here
Steven Methven is a writer and researcher for Novara Media’s live YouTube show Novara Live
Having cut off military support to Ukraine
the US is now no longer sharing military intelligence either
Plus: Donald Trump’s marathon address to congress; and the British millionaires who are demanding to be taxed more
By David Cristol
far-right movements are mobilising support by placing the blame for real catastrophes – Covid-19
their own riots and insurrections – on entirely made-up enemies
This is what Richard Seymour, a writer, theorist and founding editor of Salvage magazine
He joins Richard Hames to discuss the current irruption of riots
the global south’s incipient fascism
the far-right impulse towards a ‘heroic death’
and why the left must to harness popular resentments to bring about a ‘sober class hatred’
His new book, Disaster Nationalism
Germany finds itself in a precarious position
the country’s manufacturing innovation has stalled
and Germany’s dependence on Russian resources has become
So what will happen to this once deeply consequential world power
and what does its story tell us about the future of Europe and the upending of global power in the 21st century
Wolfgang Münchau has a thorough understanding of this story. A writer for the Financial Times on European and German matters for over 20 years, his new book Kaput tells us an awful lot about why Germany is in the state it currently is
What historians have got wrong about the collapse of the Roman Empire sheds much light on the current state of western civilisation
according to the authors of How Empires Fall