WILL STONE samples the 20th anniversary atmosphere of this eclectic end-of-season indie festival
Latest editorial
Capital sins
Journalist James Bloodworth is shocked while working clandestinely to see that 21st century Britain employment practices have regressed to the level of 19th century inhumanity and abuse
Comics are not just superheroes and spandex – it can be public art, telling public stories, suggests HARRIET EARLE
The bard serenades the Diggers of Wigan and their festive followers
ALEXEI SAYLE speaks to Angus Reid about a lifetime of protest, how to hone political art – and what to do now
ANDY HEDGECOCK, JAMES WALSH, LEO BOIX and MARIA DUARTE review Just An Illusion, Everybody Digs Bill Evans, Blue Film, Oasis: Don’t Look Back in Anger, and Runner
MARIA DUARTE recommends a nerve-wracking reconstruction of the 72 hours before the Normandy landings
Hired: Six Months Undercover in Low-wage Britain
by James Bloodworth
(Atlantic Books, £12.99)
Don’t be put off by the bizarre endorsements from Blairite MPs, Tory journalists and Theresa May’s former chief of staff, Hired is a devasting exposé of the extent to which capitalism is ruining lives and communities in Britain.
James Bloodworth blends reportage, statistics and socio-political analysis to assess the impact of exploitative employment. His case studies of precarious and poorly paid work in four commercial sectors and four UK regions, are moving, but the book’s strength is its readiness to examine personal experience in relation to class and an economy based on the notion that people are disposable.
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Renewed illusions in social democratic reformism are sprouting as a result of Andy Burnham’s rhetoric, but material conditions are already intruding into the debate, argues NICK WRIGHT
ALEX HALL is fascinated by a lucid and historically convincing account of how rent has dominated capitalist economies from feudalism to modernity
MARTIN GRAHAM welcomes, with reservations, a scholarly addition to the unfinished business of understanding how capital works on a world scale
