We left the last post having worked through the basic conceptualisation of intersectionality. If you can’t be bothered to trudge through its thousand or so words, simply put it is the appreciation of how different oppressions rooted in ostensibly discrete sets of violent (symbolically and physically) social relations can intersect and condition the lives of whole groups of people. […]
Posts under ‘Race/Racism’
What is “intersectionality” for? And where does it leave class?
Feb 24th, 2014 by Phil Burton-Cartledge.Intersectionality is the study of intersections between different disenfranchised groups or groups of minorities; specifically, the study of the interactions of multiple systems of oppression or discrimination. Julie Burchill wrote this. Paris Lees rejoined with this. Burchill (paraphrased): “intersectionality is about scoring points off multiple oppressions”. Lees (paraphrased): “intersectionality is about respecting difference”. Who’s right? Both of […]
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What’s behind the anti-immigrant vote in Switzerland?
Feb 13th, 2014 by Tom Gill.Translated by Tom Gill from the original in l’Humanité Since the Swiss / EU agreement on the free movement of people, a sense of unease has been growing in Switzerland, fuelled by the crisis and exacerbated by the demagoguery of the extreme nationalist right. The success of the anti-immigration initiative of the far-right Swiss People’s […]
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Migrants need solidarity, not hostility
Feb 11th, 2014 by Mike Phipps.It’s always satisfying when a government minister is forced to resign on grounds of hypocrisy. This applies particularly to Immigration Minister Mark Harper, the man who brought us last summer’s “Go home or face arrest” vans in multicultural areas of London. He was forced to quit after admitting employing a cleaner without checking her documents […]
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Sex, power play and Trotskyism
Jan 28th, 2014 by Phil Burton-Cartledge.It’s one that has had seasoned left watchers stumped in bemusement. Back in the day, it was so different. As a general rule, most people exiting revolutionary outfits either returned to private life, or continued being active inside the labour movement. A small minority of comrades, however, would stick with the far left. The ultra-correct […]
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Break with this Tory rhetoric on immigration
Jan 20th, 2014 by Mike Phipps.Recent weeks have seen a poisoning of the political discourse about immigration. Much of the ludicrous fear mongering about an imminent invasion of Romanians and Bulgarians was whipped up by Tory tabloid newspapers. Their agenda is transparent: maximum publicity and support for UKIP ahead of the European Parliamentary elections this spring, primarily as a means […]
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Mark Duggan: now there’s no doubt the police are above the law
Jan 9th, 2014 by Phil Burton-Cartledge.Trials or inquests by jury are the most democratic means of bringing a legal process to a conclusion. Recruited from the electoral roll, jurors provide an important corrective to magistrates and judges, who might be hardened by the number of cases that come before them and/or be out of touch with the pace of modern […]
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Cause for concern: Darcus Howe and the struggle to expose police racism
Jan 8th, 2014 by Conrad Landin.One of the most exciting books on the shelves at the moment is the new “political biography” of Darcus Howe, the activist and journalist. Howe has steadfastly refused, unlike so many others, to join the ranks of the establishment. We’ll be publishing a review soon, but in the meantime, you can read an extract at […]
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Mandela the revolutionary
Dec 6th, 2013 by Phil Burton-Cartledge.“Mandela may or may not be forgotten, but he will certainly be distorted, starting now.” As I write, the obituary portraits are being updated and given the requisite spin. For official politics it will be Saint Mandela, the liberal hero. For the hard right it will be Mandela the terrorist, the man who waged a […]
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David Blunkett fuels anti-Roma racism
Nov 13th, 2013 by Jon Lansman.The Romani people have uniquely suffered from uninterrupted systematic racism across Europe throughout the last century in spite of the minority rights established in international law by the Treaty of Versailles. In the first decades it ranged from oppressive segregation to genocide. In the Soviet bloc, material standards of living improved somewhat but at the cost […]
