A collection of writing, from science fiction through politics to medieval history, with some bits and bobs thrown in for good measure.
Marx and the Climate Crisis
From the youth climate strikes to the Green New Deal, climate change has moved up the political agenda. Marx’s analysis of capitalism provides the basis for understanding how the system’s destructiveness is driving the climate crisis.
Elaine Graham-Leigh shows how Marx’s ideas explain the climate breakdown and how we can create a society that protects both people and planet. This is a manifesto for system change as well as an account of why humanity faces its greatest crisis.
England’s Other Countrymen
My review of a fascinating history of black people in Tudor England.
The Night They Sacked New Rome – review
A ‘real-time’ review, no less:
https://dflewisreviews.wordpress.com/2017/04/02/theakers-quarterly-fiction-59/
The problem with citizens’ assemblies
A look at the idea’s limitations.
https://www.counterfire.org/articles/opinion/20416-the-problem-with-citizens-assemblies
Fully-automated luxury communism – book review
Can we get there, and would we like it if we did?
https://www.counterfire.org/articles/book-reviews/20396-luxury-communism-utopianism-or-revolutionary
Far-right terrorists and the meaning of the Battle of Tours
Where that far-right ‘clash of civilisations’ narrative comes from.
The far right, grooming gangs and racist lies
I wrote this last year, but it’s still relevant.
https://www.counterfire.org/articles/opinion/19930-the-far-right-grooming-gangs-and-racist-lies
Cathars in Question
Was Catharism an ‘ism’, or have inquisitors and then scholars created a organised dualist movement where no such thing really existed? My review of an entertainingly bad-tempered collection is here.
The Night They Sacked New Rome
New story! The Night They Sacked New Rome is published in Theaker’s Quarterly Fiction 59, out now. It’s inspired by the 2011 riots and in particular by my young neighbours at the time. It’s about as cheering as my fiction ever is, so check it out.
Review of Marxism and Women’s Liberation
A great review of Marxism and Women’s Liberation by Judy Cox on Counterfire.
‘This book is a timely and valuable contribution to the discussion about the causes and consequences of women’s oppression. The collection of four essays is very accessible and also very sophisticated. The authors provide a clear and coherent Marxist analysis of women’s oppression. By doing so, they explain why we are where we are and what we can do about it.’
I particularly like that she gets the importance of Cordelia Fine’s work on brain sex: ‘a fascinating debunking of these influential but fanciful theories’. Exactly!
