Walking on the Far Left

When reflecting on Sylvia Plath's experiences of repression, exploitation and hyper-sexualisation in the capitalist and financially orientated metropolis of 1960s New York, redefined and reshaped by race, riots and mass unrest and opposition during the era of the civil rights movement, through the eyes of Esther Greenwood's character in her 1963 work, the Bell Jar, one can clearly notice the alienation and isolation of working women from society, and the profound impact this has on them physically and mentally in many ways. While somewhat appearing to be a fictional work and created with poetic licence to represent an individual perspective, as opposed to acting as a record and factual representation of the US healthcare system of the 1960s, and the support provided for women suffering from mental health issues during this period, referring to works such as the Bell Jar can prove to be important in humanising and relating back to the issues posed by a perpetually failing societ...

Pub. Kebab shop. Burger restaurant. Theatre. Pub. Pharmacy. Supermarket. Pub. Coffee shop chain. Pub. Convenience store. Nightclub. Kebab shop. Nightclub. These are the fourteen buildings that occupy a lively commercial street in Portsmouth city centre, and the noticeable thing about this selection is that more than half of them sell alcohol, this making it all the more easy for local people young and old to grab some alcohol to satisfy their vice. Be that groups of students off for a night out, couples young and old out on date nights, working aged men downing post-work pints of kidney failure coloured ale at the Wetherspoons on the corner, gangs of youths congregating in the square sharing vapes and cans of cheap cider, and middle aged women dressed up for a theatre trip and sipping prosecco, alcohol remains a common means of bringing people together, and allowing them to find pleasure and enjoyment away from the struggles and alienation within their working lives. However, amidst th...

Sixty years ago was the first time the streets of Notting Hill got transformed into the bold and vibrant cultural buzz for which they continue to be known for worldwide. While the appearance and environmental and demographic characteristics of this part of London have all changed over time, from a small working class migrant community amidst the broad metropolis to a stylish heavily gentrified area sought out by wealthy young international professionals, its heritage and true spirit always remain a constant and ever changing milestone in the celebration of unity, diversity and the shared fight against racism.  This fight, in the light of Professor Jason Arday's tragic death, the war and conflict within the Middle East, and the continual racial hatred and division within society through mass anger against immigration, continues to be ever more important. It is in times like these that, as the people united in hope for a fairer society and sharing in our common humanity, that we shou...

Me wearing a very punk sleeveless leather jacket covered in pin badges Characterised by its vast and broad public image, and its followers taking on their trademark alternative image and way of presenting, one may view the influence of the punk movement as being merely cultural, and lifestyle based, or use the term as an all-encompassing means of describing anything vaguely alternative, individual and outside of social norms, or that would be countering existing fashionable and cultural conformity. While this is largely accurate, there is way more to punk than just a style clothing and music, and, indeed, it would be wrong to consider oneself as punk without taking into account the political dimension of the movement, the ideology adopted by individuals involved within it, and ultimately the overlaps and clear presence of similar ideals for punk movements on both sides of the political spectrum, those movements on the right arguably having become hugely over-ruled by punk movements on ...

Flowers laid at a memorial after a Professor Jason Arday vigil I attended In the light of the tragic death of Professor Jason Arday, an academic at Cambridge University for merely existing as who he was (however the media and the establishment wants to hide this and sanitise this to normalise and make institutional racism seem more palatable), one must reflect not only on the huge loss to the university his many students he inspired and helped out on their academic journeys, but why people continue to shy away from recognising racism, slavery and Western colonialism for what they are, as opposed to glossing over and sugar coating these with falsified bias on modernisation and the influential power of the West. It is through observing this tragedy through this lens that one can further realise more clearly that the decolonisation process in regard to societies attitudes on the legacy of these aforementioned events needs to extend to education, particularly with regard to the teaching of...

In our present post-consumerist society ruled by fear of scarcity, resource disparity and the overruling interests of the elite, desperation, crisis and shocks to the global environmental and financial systems in operation are central to redefining the interests of society. These issues have come about through continual failings of economic growth and environmental destruction, the rise of capitalism and western interests, and the growth in affluence for the wealthy, and in spite of solutions to reverse these having been proposed, the urgency of the situation, as well as the fear of losing income gained to the wealthy through capitalism thus failing to support their vested interests, these have been backtracked on, with immediate and unsustainable fixes having been put into place.  development globally. For many geostrategically important nations within the Middle East and Sub-Saharan Africa, the reasons in which they are so popular for investment in by influential Western neo-colo...

  "If Truman's broadcast turns out to be true, then I think this is the time that all of us [working on the atomic bomb] should literally cut our stomachs... the Americans have achieved a great victory over us" These were the words of Nishio Yoshio, the leader of the Imperial Japanese Army's atomic bomb project said after Harry Truman announced the dropping of a bomb on Hiroshima. While security and status within global systems of power on a military level are frequently adopted as means of furthering nations' influence as sovereign nation states and seen as means by which to preserve diplomacy and relations with other powers, through this further ability to effectively maintain control of geo-strategically important regions. However, this authoritarian and war-mongering mentality only proves to have hindered these outcomes, and only serves the interests of the already influential colonial and neo-colonial superpowers who thrive off of the abuse and exploitation o...

What constitutes a nation is a question with many definitive answers, all of which being heavily influenced by socioeconomic development, position and integration into world systems, and level of superpower status, not to mention the countless other more culturally ingrained practises that define one's national identity and the social and cultural significance of this globally, arguably presenting one's status as a nation state as considerably more nuanced than merely being defined by their individual international sovereignty and self governance on a global scale, and how this affects their integration and cooperation in international agreements. It is through linking this back on my perspective as an internationalist that I will argue whether the existence of these nation states in question is entirely problematic in all respects, and whether abolishing them is likely to effectively bring about the freedom and diplomacy that it sets about to facilitate, or if this can purely ...

A stone walled city nestled within a rugged expanse of mountains and jagged coastline punctuated by hidden caves in the typical karst topography of Southwestern Europe, and running parallel to a multitude of small islands submerged within the Adriatic sea, waters glistening blue and green in the Mediterranean sun, is what seems like any other coastal tourist destination. Yet amidst the beachside bars and restaurants, souvenir shops, bike and car rentals, and all things typical of many European tourist destinations, one can notice the more subtle facets of the Croatian economy past and present. Tucked away within the many ornate Baroque and Renaissance era buildings and typical rural abodes are a few indicators of a heavily religious society, several churches and cross carvings, sculptures and images, as well as some museums, artwork and graffiti indicative of its past as part of former Yugoslavia. It is through visiting Dubrovnik's Red History Museum that one can further recognise ...

When taking a naturalist and dogmatic stance on the chronic perpetuation of outdated and ableist ideals regarding the integration of the disabled population within society, what can be made apparent is the overriding prevalence of Marx's theory on alienation put into practice. This can be reflected on through recognising the common view that one's position in society is largely determined by their ability to engage with the "reciprocal influences amongst government" which would supposedly related to their involvement in "the economy, social classes, state, and status groups" present within a  capitalist society (Oliver, 1999), these all being things which would put disabled people into an increasingly marginalised position, and a supposedly lower status and level of influence on the society in which they coexist amongst others. Observing the inability for the disabled population to effectively integrate within society in this way, appears to be very obviousl...

"Sure. Your parents got the property boom, but we've got vegan bacon that tastes like bacon" This was a slogan remember seeing on a billboard at a bus stop advertising plant based bacon once. What they may have thought of as a genius marketing slogan set to appeal to a younger demographic struggling to find affordable housing, it came off to me as condescending and demeaning of the actual struggles that the UK's low income population have to face, and seemed to do little more than alienate them further from the interests set about through the establishment of a failing economic system which only sought to repress them further and exacerbate the disparities they face. In fact, it seemed like the perfect visual representation of capitalism: seeking to market a non-essential rarely recognised new product which many would buy purely for the novelty appeal of it, this appearing to further entice them to buy it by making its supposed environmental benefits and comparatively...

In present political discourse, it is widely regarded that NATO is a military alliance that operates with the core intention to effectively preserve and maintain sovereignty and establish diplomatic ties between member nations, so as to provide additional security against potential international and geopolitical threats to their socioeconomic and political stability that could likely be prevalent. This has arguably always been their main role by which they were set up to fulfil in that they were developed in that they were founded to deter and protect against the threats posed by the Soviet Union when it was at its peak, as well as having been set about with the support from the UN Charter so as to effectively maintain this in relation to international law (this being led and heavily influenced by maintaining diplomatic relations with the US, thus further fostering any of the potential militarist and neo-colonial intentions that said nations may have). During the era after the Second W...