Downstream: The Queen Bears Responsibility. Aaron & Ash Monarchy Special
On the 8th of September this year, Queen Elizabeth II died. In a special episode of Downstream, Aaron and Ash discuss her life and the aftermath of her death.
Tag: colonialism
Analysis: Angolans Are Done With a One-Party State
by Joana Ramiro
Next week's election could spell the end of the MPLA's half-century rule, writes Joana Ramiro.
Report: A Prestigious London University Has Suspended Four Latinx Cleaners for Protesting Racist Pay, Falsely Accusing Them of Violence
by Polly Smythe
The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine is embroiled in another race scandal. Polly Smythe reports.
The Bastani Factor: How Britain Starved Ireland
Today the island of Ireland has a smaller population than it did 200 years ago. How did that happen, and what has it got to do with free market capitalism? Aaron Bastani explains how London politicians and Irish landlords exploited a crisis in the name of an ideology – in the process wrecking the lives […]
Report: The Met Could Be Sued Over Its Racist Gang Database
by Sophie K Rosa
A Black musician, with the help of legal advocacy groups, is trying to take the Met to court over its discriminatory watchlist of young people supposedly involved in ‘gangs’. Sophie K Rosa reports.
Explainers: How Racism Affects Our Sex Lives
Does love transcend everything? What does it mean to fall in love in an unequal world? Dalia Gebrial looks at how race shapes our experiences of sex and desire, and asks: what would it take to create better conditions for loving one another?
Opinion: Anti-Vax Canadian Truckers Deserve Our Solidarity
by Shanice McBean
Justin Trudeau is freezing the bank accounts of Canadian truckers protesting vaccine mandates. The left should be up in arms, argues Shanice McBean, whatever we think of the protesters’ politics.
Opinion: Challenging Monogamy Is a Political Act
by Sophie K Rosa
Regardless of the relationship style we choose, we should all challenge compulsory monogamy, writes Sophie K Rosa.
Analysis: First, Citizens Were Turned Into Immigrants. Now We’re Being Stripped of Political Rights
by Gurminder K Bhambra
The new Nationality and Borders Bill gives the state the power to strip citizens of their citizenship without letting them know. Gurminder K Bhambra explains how we got here.
Downstream: How the Mainstream Media Enabled Climate Denial
Aaron Bastani speaks to George Monbiot about COP26, which countries are climate change leaders and how the mainstream media enabled a culture of climate denial when it mattered most.
Opinion: In Keir Starmer’s Anti-Racist Universe, Palestinians Don’t Count
by Barnaby Raine
The Labour leader’s anti-Palestinian racism is classic colonialism with a contemporary twist, argues Barnaby Raine.
Long Read: Forget ‘Liberté’ – 17th-Century Indigenous Americans Knew a Lot More About Freedom Than Their French Colonisers
by David Graeber and David Wengrow
On issues like personal freedom, gender equality, sexual mores and popular sovereignty, indigenous American attitudes were far more progressive than 17th-century European ones - and far more like our own, write David Wengrow and the late David Graeber.
The Bastani Factor: Operation Legacy: How the British Elite Re-Wrote World History
Conservatives are obsessed with the idea that the left wants to erase Britain’s history. Yet that’s precisely what happened when its empire collapsed after 1945, as re-writing the past became a matter of state policy executed on an industrial scale. Here Aaron Bastani explains what was called ‘Operation Legacy’ and how those who care about […]
Opinion: It’s High Time Britain Fed Itself
by Kai Heron
To mitigate the worst effects of climate breakdown, we need to learn to feed ourselves. But that won’t happen as long as two thirds of England's land is owned by less than 0.4% of the population, argues Kai Heron.
The Bastani Factor: What the British Really Did to India
From famine to deindustrialisation and paying for the world’s largest army, there were no advantages in being part of the British Empire. Aaron Bastani on what the British really did to India.
Total Solidarity With Palestine is the Only Anti-Racist Position
by Barnaby Raine
Israel's efforts to wipe Palestinians from the map are nothing short of racist, writes Barnaby Raine.
Long Read: The West is Dying – of Narcissism
by Arun Kundnani
Conservatives often frame demographic change as western cultures 'committing suicide'. The left must challenge this, writes Arun Kundnani, because as individuals and as peoples, we can only grow through our encounters with others; in pursuing a purification of the west, conservatives foster the very cultural death they claim to fear.
Opinion: Of Course the Right Fears Demographic Change – It’s Going to Deliver a Progressive Majority
by Ash Sarkar
The ruling coalition of white property owners is ageing out of the electorate. A progressive majority, made up of young tenants and communities of colour, is set to replace it.