An examination of the Ranters, one of the most radical groups to emerge during the English Civil War. Taken from issue 74 of Organise!, the Anarchist Federation's magazine.
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THE annual commemoration marking Levellers’ Day had to be shifted into cyberspace this year, but the online event was passionate, inspiring and did a grand job in celebrating our revolutionary heroes.
There were rallying speeches, a moment of prayer and reflection, calls to action from contemporary campaigners, and music both rousing and melancholy.
The full day’s programme was curated by a group including the International Brigade Memorial Committee in Oxford and the TUC London East and South East.
The packed event brought together some 20 speakers and performers to mark the day, May 17 1649, when three soldiers were executed on Oliver Cromwell’s orders in Burford churchyard, Oxfordshire.
Satire or propaganda? The Trump baby
Credit: Carlos Barria
As one Trump leaves, another arrives. This month, the Museum of London will welcome the Trump Baby – a large balloon of the former US president in a nappy, described by the director as capturing “a particular moment of resistance” – into its collection. It’s a reminder of one of the more depressing effects that the left’s loathing of the political characters and events of recent years – Trump, Brexit – has produced: an epidemic of terrible art.
The problem began with Tony Blair. His “Cool Britannia’ idea, which is now more than 20 years old, sought to promote the island as a nation of artistic geniuses, which, at certain historical moments, might have some merit to it. But you need look no further than the stodgy repetitions of Britpop to realise it is certainly not universally true. Nevertheless, with the opening of Tate Modern in 2000, the elevation of art into national religion was complete: wh