Aug 25, 2014
Spanish translation by Christine Lewis Carroll of the introduction to The Price of Experience Lo personal es político en el nuevo libro de Mike Marqusee sobre vivir con el cáncer. Cuando me diagnosticaron mieloma múltiple en 2007, prometí a mis amigos que no añadiría otro confesionario a los que ya existen sobre el cáncer. Tenía… Read more
Aug 1, 2014
Mike Marqusee’s latest column for Red Pepper celebrates William Frend, a radical who deserves to be better remembered. Contending for the living Red Pepper, August 2014 The 35-year-old Cambridge lecturer William Frend was putting the finishing touches on ‘Peace and Union’, his pamphlet on political reform, in early 1793 when the hostility between Britain and… Read more
Jul 28, 2014
Dear friends, I’m back home after a week-long spell in the Royal London Hospital recovering from seven hours of surgery on my lower spine. The experience proved arduous, as grueling as it sounds, but the good news is that I’ve survived and should draw tangible benefit from it. What happened was that the revlimid therapy… Read more
Jun 4, 2014
Far from ‘taking it out on the patients’, exploited health workers are actually taking action for my wellbeing The Guardian As a result of a long-term illness (multiple myeloma), visits to Barts and the Royal London hospitals have been part of my regular routine for some years. I never cease to marvel at the range… Read more
May 15, 2014
Reading Owen Jones’ Guardian tribute to Stephen Sutton, the teenager who died this week after raising £3 million for a cancer charity, I found myself becoming more and more perturbed. In fact, downright angry. Jones’ tribute was heartfelt and I am in no doubt that Stephen was an admirable young man who made a genuine… Read more
May 11, 2014
Ephraim Mirvis, Britain’s current Chief Rabbi (in fact, he’s the Chief Rabbi of the orthodox United Hebrew Congregation, to which only a minority of British Jews are affiliated) has penned an appalling column in Jewish News. Mirvis is leading a group of 50 Rabbis in “one of the largest ever rabbinic missions to Israel from… Read more
May 9, 2014
In a confidential report (revealed by Jewish News), the Board of Deputies of British Jews at last acknowledges that there is a significant division of opinion about Israel among British Jews. However, it proposes to address that division not by promoting open, informed debate, but through pro-Israel forces adopting a somewhat subtler, softly-softly approach. The… Read more
Mar 14, 2014
Mike Marqusee remembers one of the great modern communicators of the socialist cause It was inevitable that Tony Benn’s death would be met with tributes from the political establishment to the effect that they admired him even if they didn’t agree with him. But for those of us who did agree with him, his life… Read more
Mar 5, 2014
The argument against Western imperialism can only be strengthened by a firm opposition to other imperialisms, argues Mike Marqusee Red Pepper blog, 5 March 2014 It really should be easy enough to condemn Russia’s action in Ukraine while at the same time rejecting and campaigning against US-EU military intervention. Sadly, there are some in the… Read more
Feb 24, 2014
Fifty years ago, Cassius Clay “shook up the world” by winning the heavyweight title – and embracing the Nation of Islam On the night of February 25, 1964, the 22 year old Cassius Clay defeated the supposedly undefeatable Sonny Liston to become the Heavyweight Champion of the World. It was an upset of historic proportions… Read more
