On the class dynamics of education policy, the preservation of elite education & Labour's inability to articulate class struggle thru education. "Unless Burnham offers a substantial change there is little reason for anyone involved in education to vote Labour at all." lwbooks.co.uk/why-does-edu...

Looking at what is going on politically right now (not withstanding the forthcoming showdown between Farage and a bloke with a bin on his head), it's clear that some people have been well ahead of the game One is @alexniven.bsky.social His last book certainly deserves attention right now

Andy Burnham’s campaign in the Makerfield by-election has become a testing ground for what some call the “Idea of the North” — a mix of branding, regional identity, and political ambition that goes far beyond simple PR.

“There are deep historic reasons why England’s ability to forge a path to independence will be limited, despite the battle cries of emancipatory Englishness from a far right that can’t decide whether it’s pro-British or pro-English.” Election eve Ukania. www.newstatesman.com/ideas/2026/0...

Britain is still breaking up

May 2026 will be defined by nationalism

newstatesman.com

@stuartelden.bsky.social @solgamsu.bsky.social @reproutopia.bsky.social @leaypi.bsky.social @drlisacorrigan.bsky.social @ingridagnete.bsky.social @alexniven.bsky.social @ayanassar.bsky.social @quinnslobodian.com @marcusrediker.bsky.social

Ben Bowsher@benbowsher.bsky.social · 6mo ago

As the crowdfunder for the first radical bookshop icon Newcastle for 40 years gets closer to the end I’m making the bold move of calling on all the academics I sort of vaguely know and also those I don’t to share the link for our crowdfunder: www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/booksfromb...

From the “woke mind virus” to the memeification of politics, what does Muskism tell us about the world after neoliberalism? In the first episode of AFTER ORDER, @meadwaj.bsky.social sits down with @quinnslobodian.com and @bentarnoff.com to unpack the contradictions of the US right. 🔗 Link in bio

Boomers grew rich as their economies were financialised, turning them into 'mini capitalists' who cared more about asset prices than wages. But the financial boom that made them wealthy was a one-off - and the next generation will never catch up. open.substack.com/pub/gracebla...

What I read this week

More dispatches from the K-shaped recovery...

open.substack.com

Emerald Fennell’s ‘Wuthering Heights’ adaptation strips the novel of its racial, regional, and class dynamics, producing an empty spectacle emblematic of the erasure of working-class voices from the arts.

Wuthering Heights, Withering Lows

Emerald Fennell’s ‘Wuthering Heights’ adaptation strips the novel of its racial, regional, and class dynamics, producing an empty spectacle emblematic of the erasure of working-class voices from the a...

tribunemag.co.uk

This gets at a real limitation of the Gen X Left (guilty as charged) and the 2010s Left which is an unhealthy obsession with form over content. A legacy of modernism which reflects the long retreat from politics to culture.

Alex Niven@alexniven.bsky.social · 9mo ago

This was indeed a lot of fun

This was indeed a lot of fun

Love is the Message Podcast@lovemessagepod.bsky.social · 9mo ago

THE MUSIC OF NORTH EAST ENGLAND with Alex Niven Apple: tinyurl.com/28etdbax Spotify: tinyurl.com/46s8wfd4 Patreon: tinyurl.com/33ffu8dh @jemgilbert.bsky.social is joined by @alexniven.bsky.social to talk about the musical history of England’s North East.../

The 1970s vision for Newcastle United's new Brutalist East Stand at St. James' Park @alexniven.bsky.social

Once regarded as a utopian project, digitalisation is now letting Big Tech and superpower governments regulate the world in ominous new ways. Is rejecting the devices and technologies they control the only effective way to fight back?

Does the ‘Military-Digital Complex’ Control Everything?

Once regarded as a utopian project, digitalisation is now letting Big Tech and superpower governments regulate the world in ominous new ways. Is rejecting the devices and technologies they control the...

tribunemag.co.uk

A product of working-class Manchester and its second-generation Irish culture, Stone Roses bassist Mani — who has died aged 63 — was the ultimate team player, and an embodiment of socialist values in his life and art. tribunemag.co.uk/2025/11/mani...

Really loved putting this together with Chal, a true legend of the game

Tribune@tribunemagazine.bsky.social · 11mo ago

In our atomised, fragmented society, newness in pop music can be increasingly hard to uncover. Tribune invited Chal Ravens to discuss the rate of innovation — and the cultural position of music in the 2020s — with fellow music journalist @liaminscoejones.bsky.social tribunemag.co.uk/2025/08/afte...

Radical British filmmaker Peter Watkins was briefly tipped by the BBC before The War Game made him a controversial pariah. But he persisted — and now, at 90, he is a hero of liberated, formally remarkable socialist art. tribunemag.co.uk/2025/10/cryi...

Crying for Freedom: Peter Watkins at 90

Radical British filmmaker Peter Watkins was briefly tipped by the BBC before The War Game made him a controversial pariah. But he persisted — and now, at 90, he is a hero of liberated, formally remark...

tribunemag.co.uk

The high modernism of Glasgow novelist Alexander Trocchi has often been overshadowed by his low living. At the centenary of his birth, can we discern a meaningful literary legacy beyond his associations with existentialism, Situationism and counterculture? tribunemag.co.uk/2025/08/salt...

Saltire Situationism

The high modernism of Glasgow novelist Alexander Trocchi has often been overshadowed by his low living. At the centenary of his birth, can we discern a meaningful literary legacy beyond his associatio...

tribunemag.co.uk

Anarchist bricklayer Lucio Urtubia robbed banks to fund revolutionaries in Franco’s Spain, defrauding Citibank and getting away with it. Surely this is a story we’ve all been waiting for? Huw Lemmey on a contentious autobiography by a Spanish leftist hero. tribunemag.co.uk/2025/08/the-...

The People’s Bank Robber

Anarchist bricklayer Lucio Urtubia robbed banks to fund revolutionaries in Franco’s Spain, defrauding Citibank and getting away with it. Surely this is a story we’ve all been waiting for?

tribunemag.co.uk

The latest event I put on with @alexniven.bsky.social and @pdkmitchell.bsky.social takes place in Newcastle this Saturday. We have Owen Hatherley coming to @alphabettitheatre.bsky.social to discuss his new book for the latest @lortburnspecials.bsky.social. 🎟️ www.ticketsource.co.uk/alphabetti-t...

I put this night on with @alexniven.bsky.social and @pdkmitchell.bsky.social. Come and stroke your chin and drink loads of pints.

Lort Burn Specials@lortburnspecials.bsky.social · 12mo ago

LORT BURN SPECIALS: 3 Featuring OWEN HATHERLEY, ANDREW HANKINSON, KATE LISTON and music from BEN LOWES-SMITH SATURDAY 18 OCTOBER 7PM @alphabettitheatre.bsky.social MAKE NEWCASTLE MITTELEUROPA AGAIN

Attention North Easterners! These events put on by @pdkmitchell.bsky.social, @leighsus.bsky.social and @alexniven.bsky.social look great.

Lort Burn Specials@lortburnspecials.bsky.social · 12mo ago

LORT BURN SPECIALS: 3 Featuring OWEN HATHERLEY, ANDREW HANKINSON, KATE LISTON and music from BEN LOWES-SMITH SATURDAY 18 OCTOBER 7PM @alphabettitheatre.bsky.social MAKE NEWCASTLE MITTELEUROPA AGAIN

Young people are facing one of the toughest job markets in decades: there has been a 33 percent drop in graduate job listings compared to this time last year. Read Tribune staff writer Grace Blakeley on the cost of living crisis.

The Great Living Squeeze

A sense of malaise among younger generations is backed up by hard economic statistics speaking of a drastic decline in living standards. How can we overhaul the individualist non-society responsible…

tribunemag.co.uk

As our new issue, ‘Beyond Decline’, is released, Tribune editor Alex Niven argues collective hope is the antidote to societal despair and the key to recovering the soul of socialism.

The War Against Decline

If it feels as though we’re living through a time of decline, that’s partly because social disintegration has been the whole point of mainstream politics for decades. But as the writing in the new…

tribunemag.co.uk

#GreyLabour was (I think) first elaborated by Tribune's editor @alexniven.bsky.social in February 2024 - spot on Alex. The latest article is behind a paywall, sorry, but you can read Alex's piece here: tribunemag.co.uk/2024/02/grey... tribunemag.co.uk/2025/08/grey...

Grey Labour vs. the Working Class

Late 2020s British culture is dominated by an oppressive mix of boredom and quiet violence. Meanwhile, working-class forms of expression are aggressively marginalised by a decaying bourgeoisie.

tribunemag.co.uk

I’m in this! Spoke to Chal Ravens about newness in music 15 years on from Retromania, AirPods, the new Niontay album and other things, I’m really proud of how it came out

Tribune@tribunemagazine.bsky.social · last yr.

Our new issue, Beyond Decline, will arrive on subscribers’ doorsteps this week. Sneak preview: tribunemag.co.uk/issue/beyond...

toot toot new tribune! i'm inside writing about philippa snow's excellent new book it's terrible the things i have to do to be me, which looks at the female celebrity as a monstrous magnifier of her civilian counterparts. buy a magazine!

Tribune@tribunemagazine.bsky.social · last yr.

Our new issue, Beyond Decline, will arrive on subscribers’ doorsteps this week. Sneak preview: tribunemag.co.uk/issue/beyond...

Our new issue, Beyond Decline, will arrive on subscribers’ doorsteps this week. Sneak preview: tribunemag.co.uk/issue/beyond...

A few weeks before Palestine Action was proscribed in Britain, anti-fascist French organisation Jeune Garde suffered a similar fate at the hands of the Macron government. Is Europe’s extreme centre trying to eradicate left activism? tribunemag.co.uk/2025/07/is-b...

Is Banning Left Protest the New Normal?

A few weeks before Palestine Action was proscribed in Britain, anti-fascist French organisation Jeune Garde suffered a similar fate at the hands of the Macron government. Is Europe’s extreme centre tr...

tribunemag.co.uk

Visionary Japanese sci-fi author Izumi Suzuki anticipated our present malaise decades ago, in writing that combines melancholy for the failure of sixties radicalism with scepticism about a world of ubiquitous screens.

Acid Japonisme

Visionary Japanese sci-fi author Izumi Suzuki anticipated our present malaise decades ago, in writing that combines melancholy for the failure of sixties radicalism with scepticism about a world of…

tribunemag.co.uk

As socialists from all over the world prepare to attend the 139th Durham Miners’ Gala, we explore the story of the Gala’s iconic banners, which celebrate our historic solidarity and continuing hope in the face of oppression and hatred.

DMG 2025: Communism in the Coalfields

As socialists from all over the world prepare to attend the 139th Durham Miners’ Gala, we explore the story of the Gala’s iconic banners, which celebrate our historic solidarity and continuing hope…

tribunemag.co.uk