VIJAY PRASHAD examines why in 2018 Washington started to take an increasingly belligerent stance towards ‘near peer rivals’ – Russa and China – with far-reaching geopolitical effects
Introducing skirret – a long-forgotten vegetable
Despite being tasty and nutritious, this root veg did not fit into the capitalist mould, so never won the popularity of the more durable potato, writes MAT COWARD
ROGER McKENZIE looks back 60 years to the assassination of Malcolm X, whose message that black people have worth resonated so strongly with him growing up in Walsall in the 1980s
At least 1.5 million tons of crude oil has been spilt in the Niger Delta since 1958, writes PAVAN KULKANI
ANDREW MURRAY surveys a quaking continent whose leaders have no idea how to respond to an openly contemptuous United States
Based on his experience of Haringey Council Councillor MARK BLAKE believes only a radical policy rethink will reconnect councils with the alienated constituencies they are supposed to serve
Last week the CPUSA launched a new Rapid Response project aimed at mobilising a popular resistance to policies enacted by the new government. CAMERON HARRISON explains
IT TASTES good, it’s nutritious, it’s easy to grow and you can harvest it more or less all year round. So why isn’t skirret better known?
The answer, I suspect, lies in the transition from one mode of production to another: skirret (Sium sisarum) is a vegetable well suited to gardeners growing for their own use. But it doesn’t lend itself to capitalist agriculture, which requires, amongst other factors, uniformity of product and a decent shelf-life. Skirret doesn’t keep well, doesn’t travel well, is of unpredictable size, shape and quality, and it’s fiddly to clean before cooking.
The potato, on the other hand, fitted into the industrial revolution like a jigsaw piece, meeting the needs of busy, hungry, dispossessed proletarians and of the landowners. Potatoes are easy to market and to use. As a result, many of our traditionally popular root crops disappeared, at least until the allotment movement.
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