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When Labour lost the Copeland by-election on 23 February 2017 the media went into overdrive to blame Jeremy Corbyn. Thankfully Labour held its seat in the Stoke-on-Trent by-election on the same day, beating UKIP. In Stoke the challenge from UKIP’s fantasist-in-chief Paul Nuttall united Labour’s hard and soft lefts with some on the right of...

Three recent arguments over cultural representations of anti-racist struggle expose a willingness to distort or ignore real historical events in order to fit with current ideas, writes Ken Olende.

Rhiannon Giddens first made her name with the Carolina Chocolate Drops, who played string-band music, heavily relying on the banjo and fiddle. The band formed after the first Black Banjo Gathering in North Carolina in 2005 and helped to reclaim a lost tradition of African-American country music. Their music reached its peak in 2010 with...

I would like to thank John Mullen for reading my article “Rage against police racism rocks France” (March SR) and for taking the time to respond to it. John is absolutely correct to point out that the question of Islamophobia is far from solved when it comes to the radical left in France; however, he...

Two years ago Kendrick Lamar delivered one of the landmark albums of the decade. To Pimp a Butterfly combined the brilliant, imaginative musicality of artists such as Kamasi Washington, Flying Lotus and Thundercat with Lamar’s sharp observations about the “post-racial” society that Barack Obama’s presidency had supposedly ushered in. One of its stand out tracks...

In the picture accompanying Alan Gibson’s excellent article on the redirection of the Bolsheviks’ policy to the First World War (“How Lenin set the course for October”, April SR), there is a picture of Lenin descending from a train at the Finland Station. Behind him is a moustachioed, flat capped figure. Who he? I recall...

Partisan Coffee House Four Corners gallery, Bethnal Green, London, 5-27 May The Partisan Coffee House was founded by radical historian Raphael Samuel and cultural theorist Stuart Hall in 1958 in Soho. It was the spiritual home of the New Left and among its clientele were activists, writers, artists and intellectuals. In its short existence it...

Sally Campbell spoke to Dave Sherry, author of new book Russia 1917, about how the Russian Revolution is relevant today and why its mass democratic nature is still hidden in the mainstream narrative.

Part eight of our history of the Wobblies celebrates the great contribution of radical songwriter Joe Hill.

Darcus Howe, who died last month, was a central figure in the radical black movement in Britain. He developed his politics from his roots in Trinidad through the fight against the National Front and the Mangrove Nine campaign against police harassment. Christian Høgsbjerg tells the story of his life.

From Theresa May’s choice of trousers to the horror of sweatshop labour, fashion is intimately entwined with capitalist relations of production and always has been, writes Anthony Sullivan.

One thing I learnt from this book is that the military are the biggest employers of musicians in Britain. As someone who expends a fair bit of effort supporting and promoting music, I know the struggle and sacrifice of new and exciting musicians just to get by. As a teacher, I am also well aware...