Review | Reasons to Rebel
A review of Sheila Rowbotham’s latest book which recounts her experiences as a socialist feminist activist in the 1980s.
Agitating with Art: the Artivists at Work story so far
Artwork – not just ‘great art’ but cartoons and doodles – can add life and vibrancy to political messaging, and give people a mirror in which to recognise their own hopes and frustrations.
A tale of two towns
Colin Revolting looks at events in Deptford and Eltham after the 2011 shooting of Mark Duggan
Bollocks to the Poll Tax
Colin Revolting remembers the day 30 years ago when one of the biggest marches ever turned into a mass riot which sunk the Tory flagship Poll Tax policy and took Prime Minister Thatcher down with it.
Review: Sorry We Missed You
Colin Revolting reviews director Ken Loach’s latest film, which centres on the family of two workers in the gig economy
Review | Never Again
Colin Revolting reviews Never Again by David Renton, the story of the fascist National Front and the campaign which stopped it in its tracks.
How students supported the miners’ strike: an activist remembers
On 6 March 1984, the walkout at Cortonwood Colliery signalled the beginning of the 1984-85 miners’ strike. Colin Revolting remembers how he and his fellow students supported the miners.
Academies suck… money and life out of our schools
A key dispute in the battle against education privatisation has been unfolding at John Roan school in Greenwich. Support staff will be on strike again next week.
A Kestral for a Knave: fifty years on
Barry Hines’s book A Kestrel for a Knave, which became the film Kes, was published fifty years ago this year, but it remains as relevant as ever.
Welcome to The Jungle
Colin Revolting and his son were moved to tears by the new play The Jungle, currently showing at the Playhouse Theatre in London’s West End.
Music as a force for change: an interview with Redskins’ Martin Hewes
An interview with Martin Hewes of the Redskins, to some the true inheritors of the Clash’s crown as the radical rockers
Rocking Against Racism and other irrational ideologies
The first Rock Against Racism carnival took place forty years ago, on April 30 1978.
University picket lines – a place of learning
Footage from Goldsmiths college picket line where staff and students talk about their experience of striking so far.
Hacking the Spectacle: an interview with Darren Cullen
Cullen uses the language of advertising to make art taking aim at militarism and consumerism
There is no revolution without love
The film Reds tells the story of John Reed and Louise Bryant’s experiences of the Russian Revolution.
Reflections on ‘The Fall’
Colin Revolting gives his thoughts on The Fall, an extraordinary play about a protest movement in South African in 2015-16 which has had an enormous impact in the West.
Keep On Keeping On! – the Redskins and me (part 2)
In the second part of his recollections on the Redskins, Colin Revolting recalls being a revolutionary during the miners’ strike and its aftermath during the Redskins’ growing popularity, including TV appearances, being attacked by fascists and touring against apartheid with their radical rock and soul music. (To read the first part of Colin’s reflections, click […]
Take no heroes – only inspiration: the Redskins and me
Colin Revolting recalls how he became a revolutionary and the role in the process played by the music of the Redskins, a band who gained a notable amount of popularity in the 1980s for their blistering, punked-up version of unabashedly radical soul music. If you type ‘Neither Washington nor Moscow’ into a search engine the […]
Video: Redskins – A flame that can’t be dimmed
This ten minute film pays tribute to the revolutionary rock and soul band Redskins.
The Political Power of Music: in conversation with Dave Randall
Colin Revolting speaks to musician and activist Dave Randall about his experience of ‘mixing pop and politics’ and the journey which led him to write Sound System – The Political Power of Music. Interview transcribed by William Cleary. What was the journey that led you to write Sound System? I felt, when I was a young musician, that […]
Video: Anti-Trump voices
Many people protesting and marching against Trump are doing so for the first time. Who are they? What are they saying? What motivates them? What do they want the revolt against Trump and May to look like? What should we all be doing? On the anti-Trump protest on 20 February, Colin Revolting and Tony Aldis […]
Anarchy in the UK? The politics and people that produced punk rock
For the 40th anniversary of the birth of punk, Colin Revolting considers its origins and influences. The student butterfly that flapped its wings in Paris, May 1968 lead to an earthquake which shook factory walls across western Europe in the 1970’s. Out of the dust emerged an ugly snarling rodent called punk rock. The 1970s […]
Dario Fo: playwright, performer and revolutionary
Colin Revolting and friends pay tribute to Dario Fo who died this week at the age of 90. Dario Fo was a great playwright of the years of unrest and rebellion in the 1960s and ’70s. His plays such as Accidental Death of an Anarchist and Can’t Pay? Won’t Pay! were hilariously cutting critiques of life under […]
Letters from an anti-fascist fighter in Spain
Following the Battle of Cable Street, Scottish communist Jim ‘Jock’ McKissock travelled to Spain to fight against fascism 80 years ago. He wrote letters to his comrades in back in London. They were passed by one of those long-standing communists in the 1970s to Colin Revolting’s father and he found them among his father’s piles of […]
Homage to Catalonia: the working class in the saddle
In a series of articles marking the anniversary of General Franco’s military coup against the Republican government of Spain Colin Revolting revisits George Orwell’s masterpiece of revolutionary reportage.
Can we afford to laugh at ourselves in Broken Britain? A review of The Suicide
In the bleak years of Stalinist Russia Nikolai Erdman wrote a grim satire about a man planning to take his own life. In the bleak years of neoliberal Britain Suhayla El-Bushra has updated the play. Colin Revolting asks whether it survives the resurrection. Unemployed and now struck off benefits, Sam (Javone Prince) is stuck in […]
Kes: a tale for our times. Remembering Barry Hines.
Barry Hines, the author of such books as A Kestrel for a Knave, which became the film Kes, has died aged 76. Colin Revolting offers an appreciation of his seminal work.
John Roan Resists: Kick-starting a community campaign
Fighting against the academisation of a London school, by Colin Revolting with Juliana J. Recipe for a community campaign: Ingredients: a small group of parents and teachers passionate about comprehensive education. Mix them together in a pub or similar receptacle. Whisk up ways to spread the word of ‘academisation’ of their school – i.e. word […]
Pilfering, pranks and working-class pride – a review of the BBC’s ‘Cradle to Grave’
The BBC sitcom Cradle to Grave is a sympathetic and engaging portrait of working-class London, set at a key time for class struggle. Colin Revolting reviews.
“You can’t organise a riot”: racism, riots and arrests in 1981
In memory of John “Brad” Bradbury of the Specials who topped the charts with Ghost Town whilst Britain burst into flames of riots and racism in 1981 – Colin Revolting remembers how anti – racists danced to the Specials and fought against racism and unemployment. January A fire at a house party in New […]