Latest news with #KarlMarx
The Guardian
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Made in Walthamstow: a football kit that brought a community together
In an address to the Trades Guild of Learning in 1877, William Morris, the Victorian poet, textile designer and soon-to-be socialist, said: 'I do not want art for a few, any more than I want education for a few, or freedom for a few.' In an unequal society in which the elites and middle classes had the time and money to spend on the arts, while the working classes toiled away for them, Morris imagined a community where art was available for all and could be found in one's work (or craft). It was a grand vision, influenced by Karl Marx and John Ruskin, but one that he was ultimately unable to achieve in his lifetime. Morris's life was one of contradictions: a radical socialist who was simultaneously a successful businessman designing wallpapers and upholstery for middle class houses and earning £1,800 a year for his troubles (enough to afford his family six servants). In many ways contradictions have followed Morris into the afterlife. A man who warned patrons against his imitators and argued that 'machines can do everything – except make works of art', is now being imitated by generative artificial intelligence with the resulting products being passed off as art on Etsy and Temu. In a world where Morris's designs are divorced from his radical thinking and his patterns have come to symbolise a return to traditional Victorian values or thoughtlessly adorn cheap mugs, there is one contemporary object that perfectly embodies all that Morris stood for. In 2023 Walthamstow FC, the William Morris Gallery, Wood Street Walls and Admiral Sportswear collaborated to create Walthamstow FC's 2023-25 home and away kits. It was the first time that a museum had collaborated with a football club on a kit and the result was one of the best kits of the year, anywhere. Now, I like this kit for a few reasons. First, I've lived in Walthamstow all my life. I don't mean to brag but the first game I ever attended was a Walthamstow FC game (or Waltham Forest as they were known then). Seeing my local club's kit and learning about its ambition to create a women's team using the money raised from kit sales filled me with a great sense of pride. Second, there was something poetic about a side in the eighth tier of English football showing billionaire-backed Premier League outfits how to properly design a football kit. Forget the first kit, copy and pasted from last season; the away kit, a retro remake of the classic 1980s kit; the third kit, a neon number that nobody wears; and the limited edition fourth, a collaboration with a fashion house desperate for a piece of the sweet football pie. Instead, tell a story about a hometown hero and pay homage to football heritage by teaming up with the creators of the first replica football kit. Third, and most importantly, the kit is something Morris would probably have approved of. What better way to make art accessible to all than through the game of the people? Given the game's working class roots, the Walthamstow FC kit has achieved what Morris could never quite do in his lifetime: make art that is carefully crafted yet affordable for the masses. 'Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful,' Morris said. A shirt that functions as a football kit and a fantastic fashion piece ticks both boxes. So, I decided to direct a documentary about it. Made in Walthamstow explores the history of replica football kits, the significance of Morris and the power of community in Walthamstow. Featuring the major players in the project – from Hadrian Garrard, the director of the William Morris Gallery, to local MP Stella Creasy – the documentary is a celebration of all it means to be from Walthamstow. It was a real labour of love and not in the William Morris sense of the phrase. I funded the film, shot the interviews, edited the footage and organised screenings at the William Morris Gallery, Orford House and Forest School. It was all worth it for a story so close to my heart. And, just as Morris would have wanted, the documentary is out now, available for all to see.
Hindustan Times
2 days ago
- Business
- Hindustan Times
Doctors, teachers and junior bankers of the world, unite!
The best place to consider class consciousness in Britain today is beneath the canvas of a £283-per-night ($381) yurt at Hay Festival, a literary jamboree in Wales. Revolutionary fervour is building among those who 'glamp', as if someone had given Colonel Qaddafi a subscription to the London Review of Books. Class consciousness is a simple concept. Before an oppressed class can throw off their shackles, they must know how hard they have it. Karl Marx had workers in mind when he devised it. Increasingly those who are most aggrieved in British society are not those at the bottom but those stuck in the middle. Overtaxed by the state, underpaid by their employers and overlooked by politicians, middle-class consciousness is growing. It started with Brexit. For many in the middle class—the relatively well-off, well-educated band of voters who make up about a third of the country—this was a radicalising moment. Comfortable lives were rudely interrupted by politics. Marches against Britain's departure from the eu represented the 'id of the liberal middle classes', argues Morgan Jones in 'No Second Chances', a forthcoming book about the campaign to undo Brexit. Britain's middle class is less disparate than it seems. The banker and the bookseller have much in common. Even those in normal jobs now face high marginal-tax rates. Strangely, the Conservatives bequeathed an overly progressive tax system to Labour. Direct taxes on median earners have never been lower; those who earn even slightly above are hammered. What ails a junior banker today will haunt a teacher tomorrow. If teachers accept a proposed 4% pay rise, the salary of the median teacher will hit £51,000—shunting them into the 40% tax bracket. A tax bracket designed for the richest will soon hit a put-upon English teacher watching 'The Verb', Radio 4's poetry show, in a tent near the Welsh border. It should be no surprise that middle-class unions are now the most militant. Resident doctors—formerly called 'junior'—were offered 5.4% by the government, but the British Medical Association has called a strike ballot. It wants almost 30%. This would be its 12th strike since 2023. Labour had tried to buy goodwill by agreeing a pay rise worth 22% in 2024. It did not work. 'Bank and build' is the mantra of the middle-class Mensheviks. Before their stonking pay rise, doctors liked to point out that some young doctors earned less than a barista in Pret A Manger. It was a delicate point. Everyone likes doctors; no one likes snobs. Yet it is a grievance that afflicts an increasing number of middle-class workers. Graduate salaries are often squished in real terms while the minimum wage cranks ever higher. Cleaners and barmen enjoy better pay thanks to the state; middle-class jobs are left at the mercy of the market. The gap between a publisher on a jolly in the Welsh countryside and the person serving them gourmet macaroni cheese is shrinking. Some do not like this. The history of class in Britain is the history of status anxiety. Partly, middle-class consciousness is a defensive move. When Labour looks to raise money, broad-based tax rises are ruled out. That means niche attacks on the middle classes are in. Pension pots are a tempting target. The Treasury gazes longingly at ISAs, the tax-free saving accounts that are a tremendous bung to middle-class people. Middle England feels about ISAs the same way rural America feels about shotguns. Being ignored and, at times, abused by politicians is a new sensation for the middle classes. For decades, their wants and needs drove political debate. As recently as 2017, entire books were written about the exclusion of the working class from British politics, arguing that the middle classes had a monopoly on political attention. Brexit inverted this deal. Now every major party (except the Liberal Democrats, who speak for England's most prosperous corners) falls over itself to offer something to an imagined working-class voter. If Brexit taught anything, it was that voters in want of attention eventually throw a tantrum. Aux barricades, doc It is easy to mock the middle class. Perhaps the well-off whingeing about their tax burden, or taking to the streets because a holiday in Europe is now less convenient, is inherently ridiculous (much like spending £283 on a night in a yurt). Politicians can overlook such voters only for so long. It is hard to rule without them; they are simply too numerous to ignore. From the grumpy Remainer to the junior banker scouring Reddit for ways to cut his tax bill to the doctor on the picket line, middle-class consciousness is spreading. Few are content—least of all those in a luxury tent. Get 360° coverage—from daily headlines to 100 year archives.
Focus Malaysia
2 days ago
- Business
- Focus Malaysia
Workers are in greater jeopardy now due to speedy technological changes
WORKERS of the world, unite! You have nothing to lose but your chains! This was the revolutionary message of Karl Marx, the founder of Communism. Workers today face enormous challenges in a fast changing world, which is far from the dream of a workers' utopia. The speed at which technology continues to grow is a major threat to workers' survival. With AI and robotics and other technological advancements the future of workers in a vast array of employment is in jeopardy. Many industries have downsized and the number of workers have been reduced drastically. Workers have to find other ways to survive such as re-skilling or re-education to fit into new jobs. One cannot anticipate how much of a disruption the US President Donald Trump's tariffs are going to cause with a paradigm shift as most of the high tariffs are in categories which employ large numbers of workers. Unemployment could be unleashed in numerous industries and countries. Trump's tariffs are going to destabilise various economies which hitherto have only slightly recovered from the Covid-19 pandemic, during which most countries experienced a lockdown for a few months. Many countries were destabilised and their economies were greatly affected. In the last few years many nations started recovering and ensuring economic stability when the Russia-Ukraine war suddenly broke out and disrupted economies due to high energy prices and Western economic sanctions. Additionally, the conflicts and tension in the Middle East could escalate and many economies will be affected. All these spell risks and threats to workers' wellbeing and employment security. There is also the new danger of climate change and heat waves causing catastrophic consequences for workers in agriculture-related industries. These industries are reeling from the damage to crops and infrastructure destabilising the producers with crop failures, price increases and shortages. A large number of the work force in many developing countries are engaged in agriculture and related occupations. Natural disaster are causing a huge dent in national coffers and resources, which could otherwise be used for workers' social and retirement benefits. The cost of living has gone up everywhere and low-income workers are finding it difficult to make ends meet, and are dependent on government hand-outs. Apart from these, the heydays of trade unions are over and in most countries they have been in serious decline in the last few decades since the end of the Soviet Union and Eastern European communist countries. Politically, pro-workers parties of the past have been effaced by new parties that champion a wide range of interests from immigration to environmental issues. Now China and Vietnam are the main model for workers in the Global South and even in the West. In many countries trade unionism is in decline due to the changes brought about by the evolving nature of capitalism and government legislation against exploitation as well as the imposition of the minimum wage scheme and other welfare benefits for workers. Despite all these a huge number of workers still live in poverty and the gap between the rich and poor has widened much. Both countries and industries are caught off guard by the speedy changes and trends of the present times. The plight and challenges facing workers continue to grow in an unstable and unpredictable global environment and the dream of a workers' paradise as envisaged by Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, Vladimir Lenin and Mao Tse-tung has yet to be realised. – May 1, 2025 V. Thomas is a Focus Malaysia viewer. The views expressed are solely of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Focus Malaysia. Main image: SPH
Yahoo
5 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
Book excerpt: 'The War at Home: Minnesota During the Great War, 1914-1920'
Black men depart Duluth's Union Station for St. Paul to join Twin Cities draftees for the journey to the segregated Camp Dodge. (Photo courtesy of University of Minnesota Duluth, Kathryn A. Martin Library, Northeast Minnesota Historical Collections) When I was young my grandfather told me that he emigrated from Austria-Hungary as a teenager in 1907 to avoid being drafted into the army of the Habsburg Empire. Like many Europeans, he was trying to avoid the big war that seemed to be coming. As it turned out, migrating to Chicago was not enough. In 1917, the United States declared war on Germany and conscripted men to fight in Europe, requiring all men 21 to 30 to register. My grandfather showed up on June 5, 1917, the national registration day. According to family lore, he would have done anything, even broken his arm, to avoid being drafted. Fortunately, his draft board exempted him because he was married and had a 4-year-old son. Unfortunately, his wife died in November 1918, a victim of the influenza pandemic that spread across the country largely through the army's huge training camps. My grandfather's experience was my first glimpse of the wrenching impact of World War I on individual Americans. People 'make their own history,' Karl Marx observed, 'but they do not make it just as they please.' We are born into a specific set of geographic, social, cultural and economic circumstances that open opportunities, at least for some, but also puts limits on individual lives — limits that for many are stark and brutal. The impact of world-changing events on individuals comes into sharp focus during times of massive social upheaval, like periods of invasion or total mobilization for war. Leo Tolstoy famously demonstrated this in 'War and Peace.' Once Napoleon decided to invade Russia with a huge army, the lives of every Russian in his path would never be the same. A century later, Vasily Grossman, another great Russian writer, wrote two massive novels showing how Hitler's army, even larger than Napoleon's army, trampled on the personal life of every Soviet citizen, particularly those of Jewish ancestry. The impact of World War I on Europeans needs no introduction. The armies of the belligerent states suffered more than 30 million casualties, of which about 10 million were fatalities from combat or disease. The wounded were often permanently disabled or horribly disfigured. Millions of civilians also perished, often the victims of war crimes. Postwar Europe was a continent of mourners, especially the 3 million war widows. Personal lives were thrown up for grabs by the collapse of the Russian, German, Habsburg and Ottoman empires. Even victorious countries like Britain and France limped into the 1920s in debt and clinging precariously to their empires. The stage was set for fascism, which also came to have a profound impact on individual lives. Americans also experienced serious disruptions in daily life during World War I, even though our country entered the war late and suffered only a small fraction of the casualties sustained by Europeans. Citizens faced a massive propaganda campaign to build support for the war, as well as food rationing, aggressive Liberty Bond drives, government-sanctioned vigilantism, prosecutions under the Espionage Act for dissenting speech, and of course, the drafting of young men, many of whom had recently arrived from Europe to escape conscription. There was no avoiding the war even half a world away from the Western Front. When the conflagration broke out in Europe in 1914, Americans were living through a wrenching transition to a new, centralized form of industrial capitalism, dominated by corporations rather than entrepreneurs, where 'trusts' held near monopolistic power in banking, mining, steel and transport. Industrialization stimulated relocation, immigrants continued arriving from Europe, and Black Americans began the Great Migration to northern cities. Economic inequality reached astounding levels, with men like Carnegie and Rockefeller rich beyond belief while millions lived at subsistence levels. As passionately divided as Americans were about the war, it was hardly the only source of tension. The United States entered World War I during a contentious period when farmer and worker militancy challenged entrenched economic power, the elected mayors in several cities (including Minneapolis) were Socialist Party members, Black Americans struggled against Jim Crow and white nationalist terrorism, women were in their final surge toward suffrage, and millions campaigned for 'prohibition' in the belief that alcohol was a fundamental source of the country's problems. As David Kennedy wrote in his indispensable book on the American home front, 'Americans went to war in 1917 not only against Germans in the fields of France but against each other at home.' What happened on the home front, he continued, 'was a deadly serious contest to determine the consequences of the crisis for the character of American economic, social and political life.' Over a century later many find it hard to believe that relatively peaceful and well-mannered Minnesota was an explosive hotspot in this 'war at home.' Exploring Minnesota's history from the beginning of the European war in August 1914 through the 1920 election provides a unique vantage point from which to assess the impact of World War I on American society. Those years in Minnesota were marked by bitter political polarization, ethnic intolerance, a flagrant disregard for democratic norms and the rule of law by business leaders, and intense conflicts sometimes punctuated by violence. This was partly the result of timing. The controversial declaration of war on Germany coincided with an intense period of battles between Minnesota's grain milling industry, mining conglomerate, big banks, and railroads on the one hand — and the organizations representing farmers and workers on the other. The success of the Nonpartisan League in organizing farmers and the influence of the Industrial Workers of the World among miners and loggers sent shock waves through the state's business elite. As a result, ongoing economic, social, and political conflicts merged with new ones generated by the war and the draft. Soon, editors of German-language newspapers were investigated as possible spies, farmers arguing for market equity were attacked as 'disloyal,' and workers trying to get union contracts were branded as 'Bolsheviks.' As war was declared, the Legislature created the Minnesota Commission of Public Safety and gave it nearly unlimited power until the armistice. The commission consisted of Gov. Joseph Burnquist, the attorney general, and five men appointed by the governor, mostly conservative businessmen. John McGee became the dominant personality in this powerful body, and until the war ended, the most powerful man in Minnesota. McGee was the oldest son of Irish immigrant farmers, and he became a successful Minneapolis lawyer representing banks and railroads. He set a tone of uncompromising nationalism and maintained that anything less than 100% support for the war effort was treasonous. McGee focused on building the Home Guard, an armed force available to enforce 'loyalty,' curb the growing political power of angry farmers, and block trade unions trying to break through employers' resistance to collective bargaining. For McGee, the most dangerously disloyal man in the state was Charles A. Lindbergh, Sr., the Little Falls lawyer who in 1914 was elected to his fifth consecutive term in the United States Congress. Lindbergh, the only son of Swedish immigrant farmers, had emerged as a leader of the Minnesota Republican Party's progressive wing. While in Congress, he fought a determined battle to limit the power of Wall Street bankers. Lindbergh's radical populism put him in the same camp as Robert La Follette, known as 'Fighting Bob,' the fiery senator from Wisconsin. Having left Congress, Lindbergh accepted the nomination of the Nonpartisan League to run against Joseph Burnquist in the 1918 Republican primary for governor. Their electoral battle was the climax of the war for the Minnesota home front, and the most violent campaign in Minnesota history. Lindbergh is one of the most important figures in Minnesota political history but largely forgotten, eclipsed by the fame of his aviator son who bears his name. * * * Although Minnesota's home front experience was the product of a particular confluence of events and personalities, the issues it raises have not been left safely in the past. Studying this history can alert us to how extreme economic inequality can warp democracy, how patriotism can be used to suppress fundamental rights, how politicians can harness racism and anti-immigrant nationalism to further their agendas, and how the wealthy sometimes resort to authoritarianism when their power is threatened. Hopefully exploring these years of sharp polarization can help us navigate our own perilous times. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
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Business Standard
23-05-2025
- Politics
- Business Standard
DU Executive Council's curriculum changes spark protest from faculty
Delhi University's Executive Council (EC), in its 1,275th meeting on Friday, approved sweeping changes to the syllabus across departments including Psychology, Sociology, and English. It also cleared new academic programmes in journalism and nuclear medicine, introduced uniform rules on teacher seniority, and took key administrative decisions. Curriculum revamp: Psychology and Sociology The elective paper Psychology of Peace will no longer include case studies on conflict. Instead, it will incorporate Indian epics to illustrate peace and conflict resolution. A unit on dating apps has also been removed from the Relationship Science paper. In Sociology, foundational theorists such as Karl Marx and Thomas Robert Malthus have been dropped from the Population and Society paper. A section on Sociology of Food has also been omitted. The Sociology of Law paper will now focus more on Indian authors, particularly those writing on religion. The meeting saw sharp opposition from elected EC members, who decried the revisions as 'ideological interference' and an erosion of academic independence. Particularly contested were the removals of case studies on Kashmir, Palestine, India-Pakistan tensions, and the Northeast, which were replaced with references from religious texts such as the Mahabharata and Bhagavad Gita. EC member Rudrashish Chakraborty, Associate Professor at Kirori Mal College, called the changes 'an abject compromise on course quality' and 'a complete disregard for disciplinary expertise.' He warned that such ideological impositions could diminish Delhi University's global academic credibility. New academic programmes and structural reforms The university will introduce a two-year M.A. in Journalism, to be offered by both the Hindi and English departments. A BSc in Nuclear Medicine Technology will also be launched at the Army Hospital (R&R) under the Faculty of Medical Sciences, specifically for qualified Armed Forces Medical Services personnel. The EC also approved a uniform policy for determining teacher seniority—prioritising age when qualifications are equal, followed by Academic Performance Indicator (API) scores. EC member Aman Kumar told PTI that Vice Chancellor Yogesh Singh has constituted a nine-member committee to examine a Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) notification mandating periodic reviews of employees aged 50 and above, which may result in compulsory retirement. The panel will assess its impact on DU staff. NEP rollout and national alignment Registrar Vikas Gupta addressed queries around the new four-year undergraduate structure introduced under the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020. He assured members that students will benefit from multiple exit and re-entry options, with official certifications at each stage. The meeting began with a tribute to the victims of the recent Pahalgam terror attack. A resolution was passed expressing support for the Centre's counterterrorism initiative, Operation Sindoor. Academic autonomy in focus Despite the administration's emphasis on modernisation and national priorities, critics warned the curriculum overhaul could undermine the university's academic standing. 'These decisions may serve short-term political objectives, but they will harm Delhi University's long-term academic integrity,' Chakraborty said.
