Contents

Regulars

03 Editorial Enough to make you scream

06 Letters Jeremy Hardy Thinks

08 Plattitudes The world according to Steve Platt

27 Natural born rebel Biting the rotten Apple

48 Contending for the living Politics, our missing link

66 Booktopia Josie Long

EDITORs  Michael Calderbank, Sarah-Jayne Clifton, Emma Hughes, James O’Nions, Hilary Wainwright WEBSITE EDITOR  Louise Potter this and that  Steve Platt PRODUCTION EDITOR  Tom Walker DESIGN & PRODUCTION  Tom Lynton Commissioning editorS  Tim Hunt, Siobhan McGuirk Europe editor  Oscar Reyes Economics editor  Andrew Bowman Latin America editor  Pablo Navarrete REVIEWS editor  Kitty Webster Political corespondent  Alex Nunns PICTURE RESEARCH  Louise Emily Thomas advertising  Siobhan McGuirk ads@redpepper.org.uk Student Co-ordinator  Tom Robinson SUBSCRIPTION SALES  Packpost, 01296 489 550, office@redpepper.org.uk BOARD  Anthony Arblaster, Arafat Khalil, Natalie Fenton, Richard Goulding, Tim Hunt, Davy Jones, Hilary Wainwright, Heather Wakefield, Tom Walker ADVISERS  Anthony Arblaster, David Beetham, Huw Beynon, Roy Bhaskar, Kevin Blowe, Sue Branford, Victoria Brittain, Sue Bowen, Tony Bunyan, Louise Christian, Tony Cook, Jeremy Corbyn MP, James Curran, Larry Elliot, Diane Elson, Max Farrar, Natalie Fenton, Trevor Griffiths, Barbara Gunnell, Nigel Harris, Billy Hayes, Pete Jenner, Davy Jones, Penny Kemp, Bruce Kent, Hugh Kerr, Arafat Khalil, 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  Leigh Phillips, Petros Kondylis.

RED PEPPER  44-48 Shepherdess Walk, London N1 7JP 020 7324 5068 office@redpepper.org.uk www.redpepper.org.uk

Culture

50 You make it happen The art of Mitsi B

54 Shedcasting in Surbiton Michael Calderbank visits Mark

Coles, who broadcasts the world’s best music from his garden shed

57 Arab streetwise The uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt have been sustained by an active countercultural scene, discovers Lorenzo Fe

58 Bruce Springsteen: Bring on your wrecking ball

Huw Beynon and Steve Davies consider the significance of an artist whose new album targets the bankers’ crisis

62 Book reviews Socialism with a Northern Accent, Beautiful Trouble, Leila Khaled: Icon of

Palestinian Liberation, Knowing Too Much, Why The Olympics Aren’t Good For Us And How They Can Be, Frankenstein

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

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: Central Books, 99 Wallis Road, London E9 5LN (020 8986 4854). © Socialist Newspaper (Publications) Ltd 2012. ISSN 1353-7024.

n More on dissent at the Olympics n Leigh Phillips on education privatisation n Why being green doesn’t mean being poor n The latest analysis of the situation in Greece

Red Pepper is on Twitter as @redpeppermag

04 red pepper aug | sep 2012 Features

Finance

28 Essay Austerity for the people, welfare for the banks

Andrew Bowman and Leigh Phillips look at how central banks have used the crisis to carve out a new role

34 The financial enclosure of the commons

Finance capital is seeking to extend the privatisation of natural resources we hold in common, writes Antonio Tricario

Disability

10 Able to fight Lorna Stephenson finds that disabled activists are a force to be reckoned with

14 Factories floored Tim Hunt reports on resistance to plans to close Remploy factories

Cover image reworked by Tom Lynton

16 Mythbuster Tall tales about welfare reform

Ben Baumberg, Kate Bel and Declan Gaffney tackle some common welfare myths

18 A new part of the union Richard Goulding looks at how Unite’s community union membership is working

22 NHS: Lines of battle It is not inevitable that the attacks on the NHS will succeed, writes Caroline Molloy

24 Bradford’s revolt Naweed Hussein, a key activist in George Galloway’s victory in Bradford, speaks to Jenny Pearce

International

38 Greece: Syriza shines a light Hilary Wainwright meets the radical left coalition in Athens

42 Syria: Which road for Damascus?

Phyllis Bennis cautions against simplistic answers in Syria

46 Paraguay: A wellrehearsed coup

Francisco Dominquez examines the background to the overthrow of the legitimate president of Paraguay red pepper aug | sep 2012

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