EDITORs Michael Calderbank, Sarah-Jayne Clifton, Emma Hughes, James O’Nions, Hilary Wainwright his and that Steve Platt PRODUCTION EDITOR Tom Walker DESIGN & PRODUCTION Tom Lynton Website editor Andy Bowman Commissioning editors Tim Hunt, Siobhan McGuirk Environment editor Oscar Reyes Latin America editor Pablo Navarrete Europe corespondent Leigh Phillips Political corespondent Alex Nunns Activision editor Isabel Parrott WRITERS Kevin Blowe, Naimi Bouteldja, Nick Buxton, Sue Branford, Matthew Carr, Lena de Casparis, Katie Coyne, Mihail Dafydd Evans, Nick Dearden, Andrea D’Cruz, Kate Ferguson, Gemma Galdon Clavell, Ben Hayes, Stuart Hodkinson, Mathew Little, Grace Livingstone, Vittorio Longhi, Enzo Mangini, Donald Morrison, Roz Paterson, Laurie Penny, Mark Perryman, Jon Robins, Angela Saini, Chris Sands, Lorna Stephenson, Graham Usher, Derek Wall ONLINE AUDIO PROJECT Sean Gittins PRES OFFICER Matt Owen TRANSLATORS Una Hamilton, Pablo Navarrete, Ilaria Perlini PICTURE RESEARCH Louise Emily Thomas VISUALS Andrzej Krauze, Tim Sanders, Matt Littler advertising Siobhan McGuirk ads@redpepper.org.uk bokkeper Matt Barker acounts Bob Tydeman SUBSCRIPTION SALES Packpost 01296 489 550, office@redpepper.org.uk ADVISERS Anthony Arblaster, David Beetham, Huw Benyon, Roy Bhaskar, Victoria Brittain, Sue Bowen, Tony Bunyan, Louise Christian, Tony Cook, Jeremy Corbyn MP, James Curran, Larry Elliot, Diane Elson, Max Farrar, Trevor Griffiths, Barbara Gunnell, Nigel Harris, Billy Hayes, Pete Jenner, Penny Kemp, Bruce Kent, Hugh Kerr, Richard Kuper, Michael Kustow, Colin Leys, Su Maddock, Michael Mansfield QC, Martin McIvor, Simon Mohun, Sheila Rowbotham, Denise Searle, Amanda Sebestyen, Jane Shallice, Aleks Sierz, Kate Soper, Jonathan Steele, Dave Timms, Guy Vincent, Gary Younge, Stuart Weir THANKS TO Stuart Hodkinson, Dr Andrew Williams

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03 Editorial Sarah-Jayne Clifton

06 Letters, Noticeboard, Jeremy Hardy thinks

08 Plattitudes The world according to Steve Platt

22 Mike Marquse The bedrock of autonomy

43 Know your enemy The bankers’ friend

54 Justice gap Ritz justice

55 Asylum watch Mind your language

56 Radical cities: Bristol Dan Iles shows us round Bristol’s activist hotspots

58 In pictures Critical camera Mauro Pinto’s scenes of poverty,

forced migration and discrimination pinpoint the humanity that lies beneath

58

61 Crowd allowed Siobhan McGuirk on the inspiring way new documentary Just Do It was made

62 Book reviews Fuel on the Fire, Seedbombs, Magical

Marxism, Chavs, Fight Back!, After Virtue 66 Tribute Gil Scott-Heron Steve Pretty on the poet who spoke for a generation

Red Pepper is a member of INK, the Independent News Collective, trade association of the UK alternative press www.ink.uk.com

Red Pepper is published by Socialist Newspaper (Publications) Ltd (Reg. No. 02644973, VAT No. 507 5026 20) and printed by Cambrian Printers Ltd, Aberystwyth. Distribution: Native PS, Unit 9, Lidget Hill, Pudsey, Leeds LS28 7LG (0113 290 9509) and Central Books, 99 Wallis Road, London E9 5LN (020 8986 4854). Red Pepper accepts no responsibility for unsolicited material. Only ­submissions with SAEs will be returned. © Socialist Newspaper (Publications) Ltd 2011. All rights reserved. ISSN 1353-7024.

Red Pepper’s cover is FSC certified stock and paper stock comes from sustainable forestry. All inks are soya oil based and print cartridges recycled n More on debt audits and defaults n Audio: our science roundtable in full n The latest responses to ‘phone hacking’ n Extra bits from the trade union interviews

04 red pepper aug | sep 2011

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