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Mark Thomas
Arts, Books, Culture
NEW Sunbathing in the nude
From his advocacy of a ‘simplified’ rural lifestyle to his backing for causes as diverse as women’s suffrage, sexual freedom and recycling, Edward Carpenter cuts a surprisingly modern radical figure. Sheila Rowbotham says it is time for a revival of interest in a man who challenged not only capitalism but the values of western civilisation
PLUS The patron saint of sandal-wearers
Matthew Beaumont welcomes Sheila Rowbotham’s biography of Edward Carpenter and reflects on the political counter-culture that emerged at the end of the 19th century as the economy plunged into depression
WIN A copy of Edward Carpenter: A Life of Liberty and Love by Sheila Rowbotham
A poem by Carol Ann Duffy has been removed by a school exam board. Michael Rosen thinks poets may have a battle on their hands
A cultural revolution
Poet and writer Andy Croft talks to Neil Astley, the founder and editor of Britain’s most important poetry publisher, Bloodaxe Books, about putting the politics into poetry
Carrying on from the Chartists
Can poetry provide a means for change ? Dave Toomer, Christina McAlpine and John G Hall, the editors of Citizen 32 magazine, explain the importance of combining poetry and activism
Drawing back the curtain
Osman Ahmed speaks to Amanda Sebestyen about his passionate journey to make his art bear witness for the hidden people of Kurdistan
A colourful revolution
Does the People’s Republic of Stokes Croft, a public art project in a rundown district of Bristol, offer an alternative to the usual business-led model of urban regeneration?
Grist to the radical Mill
Is worth reading or rereading John Stuart Mill? Anthony Arblaster explains his importance for socialists and radical liberals in this discussion of a recent political biography
Manu Chao: Politik Kills
Oscar Reyes on the Bob Dylan of global protest
Big art and Perspex panels
Steve Platt on public art
Which eight books would you take to the ends of the world with you?
NEW Tracy Quan mixes love, lust and Biblical studies
Newsnight’s Paul Mason on red virgins, vines and wrath
‘You’re not in the Rough Guide, you’re in the Fucking Rough Guide’ Jo Brand finds room for her mum among the Dickens
Peter Tatchell plumps for some Wilde with his de Beauvoir
Comedian Mark Thomas mixes Rushdie and Brecht with the Bible
Red Pepper Review
From Karl Marx to Max Stafford-Clark, Christopher Hitchens to the Lord God Almighty, it’s all happening here!
Other blogs we’re reading this week
Red Pepper Forums
What people have been saying in the Red Pepper discussion forumsLatest
Call for a British left list in June 2009
Can the UN climate conference save the planet?
Massacre in Gaza
Ewa Jasiewicz reports from Gaza:
Gaza today: ‘This is only the beginning’
The ‘darkest night people have seen in their lifetimes’
Civilians dead
Bombardment by F16s and Apaches as children leave their schools for home reveals a contempt for civilian safety
There is a light ...
The world must turn the light of conscience into activism
Update: Ewa Jasiewicz in Beit Hanoon
Meaning of Israel’s attack on Gaza
Phyllis Bennis on holding Israel to account
New Bringing Hamas in from the cold
Bombing Hamas into Gaza’s scorched earth will not change the rules of the game, says Arthur Neslen
Stop the Gaza massacre rally
8 January 7.30pm, Friends Meeting House, Euston Road, London NW1
Speakers include Tony Benn and Tariq Ali
In our forums: Solidarity with the Palestinian people
The Word
’Like winds and sunsets, wild things were taken for granted until progress began to do away with them. Now we face the question whether a still higher ’standard of living’ is worth its cost in things natural, wild and free. For us of the minority, the opportunity to see geese is more important that television.’ Aldo Leopold Further words
Agony Subcomandauntie
Help, advice and political correction from the woman who knows it all
Keep in touch
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Fur coat and no knickers
Well, perhaps a fake fur coat but you get the idea. Red Pepper is hanging by a thread financially and we desperately need money to reach a wider readership. If we can do this we know we can flourish and become the success story the independent, non-sectarian left so badly needs. But we can’t do it without you.
We’re not looking for a pair of designer silk knickers; plain old Marx and Sparts will do just as well. If all our readers were to give just £5 – more if you have the means – this would make a huge and lasting difference.
If you understand that Red Pepper is more than just a magazine, if you’ve read just one article in this issue or on the website that’s made you think or given you hope, then please donate today and give us the undergarments we need.
Gaza today: ‘This is only the beginning’
Meaning of Israel’s attack on Gaza
Convention for modern liberty
28 February 2009
Ill doctrine
Putting the hip-hop in to politics
How to live in the 21st Century
Casino crash
Critical radical thinking on the financial crisis
Justice for Colombia report
UK Military Aid to Colombia, Alternatives to a Flawed Policy
Pambazuka News Forum for social justice in Africa with some of the best reporting from social movements in Zimbabwe, Kenya and elsewhere
Iraq Occupation Focus
Campaigning to end the occupation of Iraq
Harold Pinter
Latest Issue
Don’t miss the new Red Pepper
The Dec/Jan issue of Red Pepper is out now
In our Dec/Jan issue, out now, we look ahead at the world with Obama in the White House. Bill Fletcher Jr reflects on Obama’s victory and offers a legislative agenda for his first 100 days. And William Greider, Frances Fox Piven, Doug Henwood, Arun Gupta and Naomi Klein discuss the financial crisis facing him – and what should be done.
In our special feature If not capitalism, what? Leo Panitch, Robin Blackburn, Martin Ryle, Kate Soper and Michel Bauwens consider alternatives to neoliberalism. Hugo Radice delves through the layers of the financial crisis. Stuart Holland looks for a new role for the state. And Jeremy Gilbert says Criticism is not enough and asks if the left has an alternative to New Labour.
Other features include The patron saint of sandal-wearers on Edward Carpenter, A rebel with many causes paying tribute to Irene Bruegel, Spain Rodriguez’s Che: a graphic biography and a Guerrilla Guide to unionising your workplace
Up in smoke
Derek Wall looks at the many dangers of burning our waste
The oil and gas bank
The Royal Bank of Scotland has long ploughed money into fossil fuels – but now we own it, shouldn’t it stop? Kevin Smith reports
Shell to Sea
Andy Bowman examines the global links and networks being built by Irish anti-Shell activists
Start your subscription with our current issue for just £20 and get our last three back issues, absolutely free
In our Oct/Nov 2008 issue, we look into our crystal ball with 2014: A Tory dystopia as Alex Nunns takes us on a trip into the future to see how Britain might look after four years of Tory rule
In My friends on the left Gary Younge considers the importance of Barack Obama’s base. Mark Steel writes on youth and protest. Elaine C Smith explains why she’s been won over to Scottish independence. And Plaid Cymru Welsh Assembly member Leanne Wood asks Are the English up for it?
All power to the poet: From Adrian Mitchell to Jackie Kay, Michael Rosen to Polarbear, our Poetry Special brings together some of the best in modern verse. With features on putting politics into poetry and poetry into politics, and John Rety’s selection of radical poems.
PLUS: Climate camp photo-feature, Standing up for football, Jonathan Steele on Nato and Russia and Tracy Quan’s Booktopia
Aug/Sept issue
In our Aug/Sept issue, we interview Manu Chao, the Bob Dylan of the alter-globalisation movement. Gary Younge and others debate what Barack Obama’s candidacy means to the left. Ruth Lister writes on the irresponsibility of the rich. And Hilary Wainwright, Sue O’Sullivan and others contribute to our special feature on 40 years of feminism.
Our cultural coverage includes Steve Platt on public art, Paul Mason’s Booktopia, Osman Ahmed on making his art bear witness for the hidden people of Kurdistan and Return of the Soul: the Nakba project.
In our June/July issue, Red Pepper takes on the far right and poses the question Can music change politics?
Read our report on the carnival against racism, and Stuart Weir, Magnus Marsdal and Jon Cruddas MP and Nick Lowles on the far-right upsurge across Europe.
Steve Platt considers the great dope myths of the ‘counter culture’ and its enemies. Sarah Irving shows us the historic city of Nablus being reshaped by urban warfare and Michael Kustow offers a dramatic introduction to the work of architect Eyal Weizman.
Cover story
1968: The mysterious chemistry of social change
Mike Marqusee questions the nostalgic legacy of ‘68
Red hot
Editorial: Hilary Wainwright
What kind of crisis?
Hugo Radice delves through the layers of the financial crisis and lays out the challenges that any adequate alternatives have to meet
Criticism is not enough
New Labour did not implement its policies of the past decade in a vacuum, says Jeremy Gilbert. The question now is whether the left has an alternative
Red Pepper put the question ‘If not capitalism, what?’ to five people who are working for a new society based on values of social and environmental justice: Leo Panitch, whose Renewing Socialism is reprinted this month in updated form, Robin Blackburn, author of Age Shock: How Finance is Failing Us, eco-socialist writers and activists Martin Ryle and Kate Soper, and Michel Bauwens, director of the Peer to Peer Foundation
Why Cuba is still important
Diana Raby argues that those who deny the legitimacy of the Cuban system will never understand why, after 50 years, the revolution is still an ongoing reality
No workers’ paradise
Cuba’s not my idea of socialism, says Dave Osler
Cuba after Castro
Pablo Navarrete on whether Fidel’s retirement will usher in a ‘transition’ period for Cuba’s socialist revolution
New Cuba’s return
Will Obama and Castro meet?
Competition
To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Cuban revolution, Verso is offering Red Pepper readers the chance to win a copy of their new publication book Che: A Graphic Biography, along with a beautiful Che/Cuba commemorative t-shirt from Philosophy Football Click here for details
This is what you do
As long as Israel’s occupation continues, this article by Michael Kustow is not out of date
The mega prison of Palestine
Ilan Pappe sees a deliberately genocidal policy by Israel towards the Palestinians
Talking with the enemy
Peace requires negotiating with your enemies, says Gerald Kaufman MP, and any attempt that doesn’t involve negotiations with Hamas is a waste of time
Singling out Israel
Its supporters constantly laud Israel as the ‘only democratic country in the Middle East’ with the ‘most moral army in the world’. Why single it out for criticism, they ask
A walk in the hills
Once Raja Shehadeh would lose himself in long walks across the open countryside around his home in Ramallah. Israeli settlement in the Palestinian occupied territories has put a stop to that
Pull the plug on President Ahmadinejad’s propaganda, says Peter Tatchell, it’s an insult to 100,000 murdered Iranians
Playwright, poet, actor, director and Red Pepper advisor
October 1930 - December 2008
In words and silences
Hilary Wainwright reflects on Harold Pinter and Red Pepper
Thank you, Harold
A short note about Harold Pinter
Pinter moments
Michael Kustow remembers three moments with Harold Pinter
Pinter on war
Four poems about war ...
The War against reason
There’s an old story about Oliver Cromwell ...
Adrian Mitchell
Red Pepper’s Shadow Poet Laureate
October 1932 - December 2008
On Adrian Mitchell’s Answerphone
by Keith Armstrong
Steve Platt on Adrian Mitchell
‘Adrian’s pages – like the man himself – sparkled with enthusiasm, commitment and verve’
‘Long live the earth, deeper than all our thinking’
Thank you, Adrian
Socialist, activist and Red Pepper advisor
May 1919 - December 2008
Aubrey was born into a Jewish émigré family in London’s East End in the early 20th century. Like many of his generation he gravitated towards radical politics. And he stayed there, his political engagement continuing up to his death last week. Here we print some extracts from his autobiography
Goodbye, Aubrey, we will miss you
The Transnational Institute (TNI) in Amsterdam seeks a full-time Communications Manager
Phil Woolas should stop worrying about poor people’s fertility and tackle the real ‘extremely thorny’ question - rich people’s wealth, says Bob Hughes
Poznan climate talks: fiddling while the earth burns
The UN Climate Conference failed to achieve any breakthrough towards a global climate deal, says Oscar Reyes
What can Obama do? Send in troops? Any action along these lines would make Iraq seem like a minor event, says Immanuel Wallerstein
Enduring exile
Some six million people are trapped in mainly poor countries as long-term refugees, writes the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, António Guterres
Win one day
Joaquin Nzuzi Mbambi is UK general secretary of Abako, the oldest anti-colonial party in the Congo. He escaped the country six years ago and is seeking asylum in the UK
Dead safe
The government insists that Iraqi Kurdistan is safe and is deporting hundreds of Kurdish and other asylum seekers to Iraq. By Amanda Sebestyen
Fighting to stay
Jessica Charsley of Manchester No Borders offers a ten-step guide to building an anti-deportation campaign
PLUS A fake friend
Andrea D’Cruz looks at the truth about the International Organisation for Migration
Unhealthy obsessions Phil Woolas should stop worrying about poor people’s fertility and tackle the real ‘extremely thorny’ question - rich people’s wealth, says Bob Hughes
NEW Prophet of doom
Dissident economist Harry Shutt was arguing that capitalism was heading for a fall long before the current crisis. Interview by Mat Little
It’s a credit crunch, Gordon, but not as we know it
Economist Graham Turner argues that in the current financial turmoil, the omens are not encouraging for remedying the inherent flaws that will tip us into debt deflation
Crisis of a gilded age
Deregulated capitalism may have come to a crunch, says Doug Henwood, but there’s nothing new on the horizon
Jim Stanford on The global financial crisis - and some socialist solutions
But the banks are made of marble
With a guard at every door
PLUS When activists and intellectuals of the movements for global justice met in Beijing, they proposed a set of practical alternatives to the current economic crisis.
Read the ‘Beijing Declaration’ and join the discussion seeking feasible alternatives to capitalism
Anita Roddick
The redesigned Red Pepper magazine and website owe much to Anita Roddick, who died from a hepatitis C-related brain haemorrhage in September.
Tamanna Kalhar recalls meeting Anita Roddick in When Red Pepper met Anita Roddick while Anita herself writes about Hepatitis C and me in an article first published in 2007
Red Pepper magazine, 1b Waterlow Road, London N19 5NJ. Tel (+44) 20 7281 7024