anti capitalist musings

The rest of the blog

Jeremy Corbyn

The Macron Fantasy

John Rentoul has never understood the left. A Blairite to his core, he sees politics as something to be managed, not transformed. His call for Starmer to copy Macron isn’t about defeating Farage, it’s about using him. The aim isn’t to inspire, but to frighten voters back into line. Like Macron, Starmer doesn’t oppose the far right. He needs it.

Exporting Jobs, Importing Virtue: A Marxist Critique of Gary Smith’s Net Zero Position

Gary Smith says Britain’s net zero policy has exported jobs and imported virtue. But what he’s really defending isn’t working-class power, this is fossil capital in a hard hat. Decarbonisation without class politics is a gift to Farage. But the answer isn’t more oil. It’s public ownership, planning, and a transition built by workers, not against them.

Britain

From “Feed the World” to Looking Away

Live Aid was forty years ago. Today, we are haunted once again by the images of starving children (and now, starving adults) in Gaza. But this time, it doesn’t seem to register. No concerts. No campaigns. No national reckoning. Why? Because the system can only process suffering when it’s stripped of politics. Ethiopia’s famine was framed as fate. Gaza’s is a siege, and Britain is complicit. That’s the difference.

Alexander Dugin

Dugin Watch: The Performance of Apocalypse

Alexander Dugin has declared the Istanbul peace talks “meaningless theatre” and announced the arrival of “total war.” He wants Russia (not just its army, but its soul) put on a permanent war footing.

Screenshot of a Daily Mail headline by Frank Furedi reading: "We've been silenced on mass migration and the nation's furious. All it will take is one spark and tinderbox Britain will go up in flames: FRANK FUREDI." Below the headline, it notes the article was published at 01:10 on 24 July 2025 and updated at 09:25 the same day. The Mail logo appears at the top left.
Far Right Extremism

Britain Will Not Burn – But Furedi Wants It To

Frank Furedi claims the public has been silenced, while shouting from the pages of the Daily Mail. What he’s really mourning is the loss of uncontested dominance: the fantasy of a Britain where dissent means agreeing with him. This isn’t analysis, it’s a staged panic, designed to justify repression and launder far-right talking points as common sense. Britain isn’t a tinderbox. But pieces like this are trying hard to make it one.

In red ink on textured beige paper, a line of riot police with visors and shields confronts an angry crowd. One masked protester is being pulled back mid-leap. The figures are stylised and simplified, with harsh lines and dramatic motion, evoking urgency and confrontation. In the background, blocky lettering hints at a school building.
Britain

The Hotels Are Just the Excuse

The protests outside migrant hotels aren’t spontaneous. They are engineered. Stoked by far-right groups, amplified by the right-wing press, and legitimised by political cowardice, what we’re witnessing is a strategic campaign to turn fear into power. When the police protect anti-racists, it’s called provocation. When the far right throws bottles, it’s “community concern.” The hotels are just the excuse. The real target is the idea that Britain could ever belong to all of us.

A square graphic split vertically into two halves. On the left, a Barbie doll is depicted wearing a striped concentration camp uniform with a yellow Star of David and an identification number. On the right, a grey microwave oven is illustrated. The background uses muted beige, purple, and grey tones, with thick black outlines and a retro graphic style. The image critiques the commodification of trauma and modern consumer culture.

The Century of Soap and Barbie

Europeana is what happens when history loses faith in its own narrative. Part bureaucratic fever dream, part Adam Curtis montage, it recites the atrocities and absurdities of the twentieth century in a tone so flat it becomes damning.

A vivid red and orange photograph of a nuclear explosion during Operation Upshot-Knothole. A massive fireball and mushroom cloud dominate the image, illuminating the night sky. A steel test tower is visible in front of the blast, and silhouetted Joshua trees and human figures can be seen in the foreground, emphasising the scale and intensity of the detonation.

Destroy Everything, Explain Nothing

There are no responsible nuclear powers—only powers with the bomb and those without—and by explaining the science while ignoring the politics, Frank Close turns history’s most destructive weapon into a tale of tragic inevitability rather than state terror.