I have to accept that a write up of a Radical Walk will never be along the lines of, “meet outside the Bishopsgate Institute, turn left into Artillery Row, proceed in a southerly direction to Middlesex Street, note the estate on the corner, here is the heart of the East End; it’s quite some distanceContinue reading “Fragment of a Radical Walk”
Category Archives: London
Empire of Corruption: A Radical Walk
Empire Latin: related to imperare, whence imperator, Emperor, 1. Supreme and extensive political domain2. Absolute sway, supreme control3. Emperorship – 1606 Corruption 1. The destruction or spoiling of anything, esp. by disintegration or decomposition, putreficatio – 17182. Infection, infected condition; also contagion, taint – 15983. Decomposition or putrid matter – 15264. A making or becomingContinue reading “Empire of Corruption: A Radical Walk”
Where are the Socialist Voices?
This is based on a Radical Walk that took place on Sunday 8 June 2025 as part of the London Festival of Architecture. It’s a longer than usual blog pieces because I get regular messages from people who say they would like to come along but for various reasons they can’t. So this is forContinue reading “Where are the Socialist Voices?”
No More Buildings
The Labour government has recently announced plans to build 1.5 million homes. Keir Starmer has promised ‘shovels in the ground and cranes in the sky’, suggesting that this is the only way to create that most mysterious place, the future. All this digging of trenches, pouring of concrete, chopping down of trees and no doubtContinue reading “No More Buildings”
Karl Marx in Soho, 1851
A dozen sheets of paper, printed with double-spacing. It’s easier to read. It is a collection of streets in Soho, and Dean Street in particular. A list of dates of buildings and their uses, trades and occupations and the details of the 1851 census. At number 28 Dean Street is recorded Charles Mark, his wifeContinue reading “Karl Marx in Soho, 1851”
In the Court of King Capital
The Canary Wharf development on the Isle of Dogs is one of several excellent places to study Marxism. The key ingredients of the recipe to cook up ‘Capital’ are all easily found. The exploitation of labour, the bringing together of large quantities of raw materials, money, and the division of society into two main classesContinue reading “In the Court of King Capital”
The last train to paradise
Waking up too early with the flickering remnants of a cinematic dream. A replication of an earlier version. Dreams become part of our memories and like all memories are deeply within our conscious and unconscious mind. I have experienced this particular dream many times before. It’s about loss. It always has the same ending. TheContinue reading “The last train to paradise”
Memory of a London Radical Book Fair
Nature has had enough. There’s been plenty of warnings but the endless line of SUVs never stops, the dumping of waste in the sea, the smoke-stack chimney chemicals into the air, plastics everywhere, in the deepest parts of the oceans, in the highest part of the mountains, in the food, in the bodies of theContinue reading “Memory of a London Radical Book Fair”
The Domination of Capitalist Relations of Production over the Spontaneous Possibilities of Life
Did London once feel like a more proletarian city? There are still many proletarians. But where is the new working class in the new proletarian city? There are no large organised industries in manufacturing or warehousing. The public sector retains some union organisation, universities too; and transport. But there is little sign of organisation orContinue reading “The Domination of Capitalist Relations of Production over the Spontaneous Possibilities of Life”
Refugees on the Train
There were refugees on the train. They’re coming from everywhere. They looked tired. The air of exhaustion that living on the road for months creates. Towns and villages bombed. No one can remember when the war started or where. Was it British jets bombing farms and factories in Libya or the United States carpet bombingContinue reading “Refugees on the Train”
Commodity Fetishism 