A recent think piece by Spiked!’s theoretical guru, Frank Furedi, is an attack on the idea that anti-politics is any kind of solution to the current breakdown in authority of the political system. It’s worth examining Furedi’s case because it aligns with anti-anti-politics arguments currently found on the Left in its softer and more radical […]
16 Nov
Guest post by JAMES ROBERTSON The general elections on 8 November 2016 were a massive vote of “no confidence” in the US political establishment. Whether measured in the active support for Trump’s populist campaign or in the passive refusal of millions of voters to turn out for Clinton, the message was clear: millions of Americans […]
02 Mar
GUEST POST BY SIMON COPLAND Last weekend dealt a blow to the Bernie Sanders juggernaut. Pipped at the post by rival Hillary Clinton in Nevada and crushed by her in South Carolina, Sanders’s route to the Democratic nomination is looking tougher than ever. Many will mourn this potential loss. Yet I am not feeling the […]
05 Oct
Following on from Part 1 and Part 2 of my analysis — which were first published in abridged form as a single article at Jacobin Magazine — I bring the Greek tragedy up to date with why the Syriza breakaway Popular Unity failed its first electoral test, as well as delving deeper into the dead-end of trying […]
02 Oct
Comments Off on Kevin Ovenden’s Syriza: Inside the Labyrinth out now
Left Flank’s Kevin Ovenden has just released his book on Syriza, and its rise as a key party of the European radical Left. Syriza: Inside the Labyrinth is a must-read for those interested in radical politics in Greece, and more broadly across Europe. Many of you will have followed Kevin’s posts on Greece through this blog. We were very pleased to work […]
15 Jul
Comments Off on Sex and society (6): Liberation or Equality?
Welcome to the sixth and final blog in the Sex and Society series. Over the past five blogs we’ve looked at the growth of the nuclear family, its connection to class society, and how the oppression of women and queers manifest today. Last time we looked at love and marriage — how our modern manifestations […]
04 Jul
A selection of KEVIN OVENDEN’s live posts from the massive No protest in Athens, 3 July 2015 Rally for the No side this evening — various different forces calling it — in Syntagma Square, central Athens. The rally will be big and militant. But please do not over-read the size of it and so on. […]
28 Mar
KEVIN OVENDEN writes from Athens on continuing moves to re-legitimise the neo-Nazis of Golden Dawn on the eve of their trial as a criminal organisation, and responds to voices that have tacitly defended some of the perturbing concessions to chauvinism coming from within the new Greek government. Following his essay is some background on the legal […]
12 Mar
Comments Off on Tariq Ali & Luke Stobart: Podemos, crisis & movements
Within a year of its creation, Podemos became the main opposition party in Spain. Analyses of its rapid rise have centred on its unorthodox and ambitious political approach and the different forms of participatory democracy practised (however imperfectly). Less has been said about the relation between the Podemos phenomenon and the Spanish context of major […]
02 Jan
This is the third part of Left Flank’s series exploring the rise of Podemos. [i] The first part looked at how the new organisations drew on the inspiration and power of the 15-M (“Indignados”) movement. The second part critically examined the Podemos leadership’s deployment of radical populist strategy. In the third part Luke Stobart examines […]
03 Feb
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