Jeremy Corbyn’s serene countenance during the election campaign drew frequent parallels with that of a Buddhist monk, Corbyn himself at one point referring to his efforts to attune himself to a Zen mindframe. But when watching Corbyn deliver his speech at Glastonbury last week, it occurred to me that a comparison with another spiritual archetype might be more appropriate.
A feature for issue 51 of The New European investigating the music of the Soviet avant-garde during the years immediately following the October Revolution.
A fascinating paper published on the eve of the election offers insights into a rich seam of contemporary Labour thinking that informed significant aspects of For the Many, Not the Few, and that may find fuller expression in the next programme the party takes to the country.
A review of Owen Hopkins’s Lost Futures, a survey of 35 projects from across Britain, including housing estates, schools, libraries, factories, restaurants and power stations built from the 1950s to the 1970s, inspired by the remarkable resurgence of interest over the past decade in Britain’s post-war architectural heritage, a reassessment – after years of ridicule and neglect – driven by a chronic and worsening housing crisis.
Mark Lilla’s collection of essays The Shipwrecked Mind asserts a classic liberal scepticism against both Golden Age and Futurist utopias.
A powerful new book by Ann Pettifor offers one of the clearest explanations I’ve read of where money comes from. An excellent resource for those who want a different economics.
There’s been much talk about the possibility of a progressive alliance between Labour and the Greens: but what substantive differences exist between socialists and greens?