Equality – Page 2 – Mike Marqusee

Nov 22, 2010

UK deficit a pretext for social engineering

LEVEL PLAYING FIELD The Hindu Britain’s coalition government has embarked on an ambitious programme of social engineering. The purpose of its historic package of public spending cuts and “reforms” is said to be the reduction of the fiscal deficit, which rose sharply in 2008 and 2009 as a result of the recession. But, as we… Read more

Oct 24, 2010

Bankers, bonuses and “brains”

LEVEL PLAYING FIELD The Hindu, 24 October At a fringe meeting at last month’s Conservative party conference, one of the speakers began a defence of British bankers’ bonuses (£7 billion this year) by observing that “When God gave out brains, he didn’t give them all out equally, and so we have to live in an… Read more

Aug 23, 2010

Small country, big struggle

Mike Marqusee has just returned from a visit with trade unionists and democracy activists in Swaziland. An updated version of this article appeared in The Morning Star on 17 September. Swaziland is a small country with a big problem. The 1.3 million inhabitants of the land-locked southern African kingdom live under the thumb of one… Read more

Aug 1, 2010

Insisting on an alternative: meeting the challenge of the cuts

CONTENDING FOR THE LIVING Red Pepper, August-September 2010 In Act IV Scene i of King Lear, the blinded, humbled, suicidal Earl of Gloucester hands his purse to the naked madman, ‘Poor Tom’ (actually Gloucester’s ill-used son, Edgar) and as he does so observes, “So distribution should undo excess, / And each man have enough.” Shakespeare’s… Read more

Jun 1, 2010

Looking forward to the miraculous

A preview of the World Cup M Magazine (India), June issue If in the course of a visit to planet earth, an intelligent being from another world attended the great sporting spectacles on offer here, he she or it, without the aid of a translator or explainer, would quickly grasp the essentials of football (even… Read more

Contesting white supremacy

CONTENDING FOR THE LIVING Red Pepper, June-July 2010 Back in August, in the wake of BNP success in the Euro-elections, Red Pepper ran a debate about anti-fascist strategy. Although a good start to a necessary discussion, too much of it was polarised between an attack on and a defence of existing strategies and structures. While… Read more

May 19, 2010

The idolatry of “the markets”

LEVEL PLAYING FIELD The Hindu, 19 May In the wake of Britain’s inconclusive general election, there is much talk of the “national interest”. It’s said that politicians of all parties have to pull together to address the crisis caused by the country’s enlarged fiscal deficit. Specifically, they must agree to a package of deep cuts… Read more

Apr 11, 2010

UK election: democracy and inequality

LEVEL PLAYING FIELD The Hindu, 11 April Like this year’s English Premier League, the coming British general election at least offers the excitement of an uncertain finish. But where the three top football clubs offer intriguing contrasts in tactics and styles, the three mainstream political parties are competing stolidly for the middle ground, with the… Read more

Feb 7, 2010

Politics and “the art of the possible”

LEVEL PLAYING FIELD The Hindu, 7 February 2010 Another version of this article, with comment from readers, is published on The Guardian’s Comment is free website. Whenever a commentator declares that “politics is the art of the possible”, I’m on my guard. What I’m being told, I suspect, is to accept apparent present conditions as… Read more

Dec 1, 2009

Busting the straitjacket

CONTENDING FOR THE LIVING Red Pepper, December-January Rolling back the new ‘common sense’ of spending cuts may seem like a difficult job, but it’s not impossible, says Mike Marqusee It’s now clear that cuts in public spending, and resistance to them, will be the stand-out issue in domestic British politics during the coming years. The… Read more