KEN COCKBURN traces the one original language – that of the Yamnaya pastoral nomads – from which all European and Indian languages derive
Latest editorial
Rethinking Labour’s Past: nationalist-flavoured phrasemongering
The book praises David Miliband's promotion of ‘community ethics’
PAUL DONOVAN is fascinated by the debunking of the iconic British war hero
ALEX HALL recommends a searing panorama of our global predicament
Comics are not just superheroes and spandex – it can be public art, telling public stories, suggests HARRIET EARLE
ALEXEI SAYLE speaks to Angus Reid about a lifetime of protest, how to hone political art – and what to do now
The bard serenades the Diggers of Wigan and their festive followers
Rethinking Labour’s Past
Ed. Nathan Yeowell
IB Tauris (2022) £17.99
“Firm principles and policies are open to objections
And the streamlined party image is the way to win elections.”
The editor and most contributors to this collection of essays appear to have taken the words of Leon Rosselson’s 1960s satire on the Labour Party as sound advice. The writers are drawn from a small group of institutions, who generally hail Starmer’s election as a reprieve and an opportunity.
Its success, we are told, will depend on “craft(ing) a new narrative capable of defining a new future for country and party alike.”
They come to bury Corbynite “historical narratives” such as Ken Loach’s Spirit of ’45 or the 1983 Labour manifesto. They seek to revive “narratives” and “insights” of Wilson, Kinnock and “the early Blair.”
Similar stories
SETH SANDRONSKY recommends a Marxist critique of the ‘race-first’ views of the influential black US theorist Cedric Robinson
MATTHEW HAWKINS welcomes an engaging and nourishing account of the queer subculture that flourished in London between WWII and partial decriminalisation
GORDON PARSONS is intrigued by a pessimistic novel in which Hitler is removed from history, to little effect
RICHARD SHILLCOCK examines an enjoyable, but philosophically conventional book, and urges Marxists to employ their capacity to embrace the totality in any explanation