Everyday Ed - Labour can win by leaving democracy to us

Marc Stears & Anthony Barnett 25 September 2011
For Labour's new leader to win and make a difference, change in Britain has to come from below and not from Westminster - argues one of Ed Miliband's close advisers in a new pamphlet timed for the party conference - and a veteran campaigner disagrees. In a swift exchange of emails they clash over whether 'Everyday Democracy' can undo the influence of neo-liberalism if the old regime itself is not also set on the path of reform.

Arab Revolutions: double standards all round

Hayder al-Khoei 25 September 2011
Extremist Islamists may only be one small part of a wide cross-section of disenfranchised Libyans who could no longer bear the tyranny of Gadaffi, but they pose the question whether reactions to the Arab Revolutions are ever entirely innocent of double standards.

Local government's 'duty to involve' the English is being scrapped

Simon Burall 22 September 2011
Today, local authorities in England have a 'duty to involve' citizens in decision-making. Soon this will be scrapped, leaving only the 'duty to consult'. What is the difference, and what does this mean for English democracy?

The national Us: the Norwegian idea of togetherness

Jena Habegger-Conti 21 September 2011
Ingen Utenfor is the very successful anti-bullying campaign run by Save the Children in Norway. In English it means “No one outside.”

Will Ed make it?

Anthony Barnett 18 September 2011
A pleasant discussion with the authors of the first book on the new young leader of the Labour Party fails to light at least one person's touchpaper.

What is research for? celebrity, targets, exchange value... or knowledge?

John Corner 17 September 2011
The British research culture has shifted. The obligation to publish, the obscure ranking system, the need to deliver 'value for money', together raise a fundamental question: What is the relationship between research and the neo-liberal order?

Get your politics out of our research! Universities fight on against 'Big Society' plans

Thom Brooks 17 September 2011
UK universities are under pressure to research one of the government's key policy ideas - but they are resisting. The campaign to remove the 'Big Society' from the AHRC's research delivery plan is crucial for the integrity of higher education

Workers are agents of economic change: so why isn't Labour listening to the unions?

Hilary Wainwright 16 September 2011
Ed Miliband is following in New Labour's footsteps and keeping distance from the unions. But within the labour movement lie the skills, know-how and creativity needed to discover economic alternatives and make change happen

9/11 and the destruction of the shared understanding of antisemitism

Antony Lerman 14 September 2011
The links between the Israeli far right and Islamophobic groups in Europe follow a certain inexorable logic of the post 9/11 world. These alliances, encapsulated as well as encouraged by the redefinition of the "new antisemitism", make it very hard for Israel to overcome the monomaniacal war spirit of 9/11

Misrepresentations of Rabindranath Tagore at 150

Michael Collins 14 September 2011
The first Asian genius to bring ‘Eastern culture’ to the west remains a cultural icon. But his undoubted global relevance has always been contested, and his alternative concept of modernity is so still.

The road to Europe: the eclipse of reason and democracy

Sergio Bruno 12 September 2011
The myths of monetary policy, the dangers of austerity, the need for a reconstruction of the real economy - these have to be understood. Also, the failure of Europe’s political vision.

‘I am an American’ - filming the fear of difference: a book review

Rosemary Bechler 12 September 2011

Ten years after 9/11 and counting, Cynthia Weber’s project in ‘filming the fear of difference’ is more than ever relevant to our debates.

Wanted: local entrepreneurs to help imagine new Arab futures

Imad Mansour 31 August 2011
Local financiers investing in local potential are needed everywhere. But in Arab societies, what we need above all is people who appreciate the importance of the free exchange of ideas and dialogue with others who do not share one’s opinion.

Breivik: killing the left

Markha Valenta 31 August 2011
However nuanced, it is striking how little extant interpretations attend to the fact that Breivik’s most grotesque violence was not directed at Muslims or immigrants as such but at the youth members of the Norwegian Social Democrats.

Milan Kundera and the Invisible Tribunal

James Warner 29 August 2011
A recurring idea in the work of Milan Kundera is that the spirit of totalitarianism lives on in our mass media. In a world without privacy, will we all be perpetually on trial?

This week's editor

Heather McRobie


Heather McRobie is a regular contributor to 50.50

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European Union stars in Paris. Flickr/notarim. Some rights reserved.

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