Ted Knight, former leader of Lambeth Council, dies aged 86 by Paul Feldman and John McDonnell Ted Knight, the former leader of Lambeth Council who was surcharged and removed from office for defying the Thatcher government’s spending cuts, has died in London at the age of 86. Ted Knight was politically active for nearly 75 […]
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Category: revolution
Russia’s female firebrand – a history wi
The world is on fire but it’s a great time for art – thus Tate Modern’s director, Frances Morris, opening the first-ever UK show devoted to Russian artist Natalia Goncharova. Political and constitutional crisis, the rise of populism and species extinction surround us. At the same time, galleries and museums are offering a huge range […]
#Remembrance Day: How a sailors’ mutiny
In the run-up to Remembrance Sunday, it’s time to commemorate not only the end of World War I but the revolution that forced an end to hostilities. Early in November 1918, sailors on the German fleets mutinied, refusing to attack British ships. Their anti-war revolt spread like wildfire, quickly reaching the southern state of Bavaria. […]
The Modernist future, interrupted
This summer, Malmö’s Moderna Museet, along with its partner, the Sztuki museum in Łódź, Poland is staging a must-see show about Modernism. It brings to life two little-known Polish artists whose ideas and life were shaped by revolution and its aftermath. New Art in Turbulent Times is an exquisite presentation of the achievements of Katarzyna […]
How to derail neoliberalism – and replac
Is neoliberalism – whereby the state promotes and facilitates the supremacy of the market in every area of society alongside tariff-free global trade – finally coming off the rails after an almost 40-year run? Paradoxically, the most serious attack on the neoliberal world order has come from within the system itself in the shape of […]
Homage to Haitian Revolution
“… we are all descendants of the Haitian Revolution, and responsible to these ancestors” – thus historian Laurent Dubois in his book, Avengers of the New World. A new display at the British Museum touches on why this is so. Haiti’s image today is of a broken nation at the mercy of earthquakes, colonial powers […]
Striking back at McMafia in Ukraine
Ukrainians of all ages and walks of life demonstrated astonishing courage and perseverance in opposition to corruption and misrule during two huge protest actions over the past decades. Some two million people braved freezing conditions and attacks by the security forces as well as far right movements, first with the 2004-5 Orange revolution and then […]
One man’s quest for the truth
This is the story not just about the artefacts of a revolution, but about one man’s dedicated struggle to restore the truth of what happened in the Soviet Union during and after 1917. David King, who died last year, was a renowned practitioner and historian of graphic design. In 1970 he was sent by The […]
Challenging perceptions of Lenin
On the Woodstock Road into Oxford lies one of the most renowned of England’s public schools – St Edward’s (or Teddies). Its Victorian quadrangle and chapel exude privilege and establishment values. But here’s a surprise. Celebrating its tenth anniversary – the nearby North Wall arts centre, built over the school’s former swimming pool and co-administered […]
Not really Impressionism – how France’s
If only the curators had given Impressionists in London a different name: “How some artists crossed the channel to escape from war-torn Paris with some sculptures and stunning riverscapes by Monet and Derain thrown in at the end”. If only they had focused more closely on the deeper significance of that traumatic, rich and fascinating time […]
In defence of the Russian Revolution
Wars of intervention did not begin with Iraq in 2003. In 1918, shortly after the Russian Revolution armies from 14 countries were sent to support right-wing and monarchist forces fighting to overthrow the Bolsheviks. The revolutionary government’s withdrawal from World War One inspired soldiers on all sides and frightened Britain and its allies. Initial pro-war […]
Young, gifted and Black – art’s power fo
Outside the door opening up to the Soul of a Nation exhibition at Tate Modern screens offer vintage news footage of Black leaders Martin Luther King, Stokely Carmichael, James Baldwin, Malcolm X and Angela Davis. These men and women – two of whom were assassinated – shaped the political landscape of the 1960s and 1970s. […]
One hundred days that shook Bavaria
The Bavarian revolutions of 1918-1919 – and those in the rest of Germany – were the first to take place in an advanced capitalist country. Inspired by the Russian Revolution, whose centenary is marked this year, they challenged the German state and the established political order. What happened in Bavaria holds important lessons for those […]
Time to dump Trump
Trump’s comments about the conflict in Charlottesville at yesterday’s news conference – if it can be called that – have sent shock waves around the United States. Veteran presenters on CBS television said they had “never seen a news conference like this one” after the POTUS returned to his original stance of equating alt-right and Nazi demonstrators […]
The case for a democratic revolution
1 The present political and economic system prioritises and serves powerful corporate and financial interests and not those of the majority. 2 Therefore the system cannot be regarded as democratic in a meaningful way, as is claimed by the ruling elites and others who endorse or support the status quo. 3 The capitalist type of […]
Russian Revolution: A huge leap into the...
In the first of a series of articles to mark the centenary of the 1917 Russian Revolution, Corinna Lotz talks to British Library curator, Ekaterina Rogatchevskaia One hundred years ago this month, stormy demonstrations of workers and soldiers broke out in Petrograd, today’s St Petersburg, then the capital of Russia. Their target was the Provisional […]