2019 is drawing to a close, but the turmoil and trauma of this turbulent year show no signs of abating. As we wrote on the cold, miserable and particularly unfortunate morning of Friday the 13th, 

“in the coming months and years, many in this country and elsewhere will suffer under a Tory government led by a racist liar. Social services will be dismembered. Workers’ rights will be eroded. Vulnerable people will face violence at the hands of increasingly aggressive immigration authorities and police. All of which will be sanctioned, incited, and protected by the country’s highest authorities and institutions.”

The turn of a decade is an important time to review, to remember what the good fight is actually about, and what type of work is expected from us, as people, as a community, as a society. As Sarah Edgcumbe wrote recently, “we are not in competition with each other – we are up against the greed and entitlement of society’s most wealthy, and divided we have fallen”. At The Norwich Radical we have worked to cover the lead up to the election - and the changing landscape of national and international politics - from as varied a perspective as possible, choosing to elevate the voices of the targeted and the oppressed, of the unspoken and the overlooked. We will continue to do so in the new year.

Unfortunately, the convergence of many factors, recent events included, have led us to make a difficult decision about our conference, War of Words. In 2020, War of Words will be on hiatus while we attend to other internal priorities. Fear not: we will return in 2021, with a new format, new speakers, and possibly a new venue, too!

Also in 2020 we will be looking to add new voices to our current editorial and writing team, with a new round of recruitment beginning in late January. Now more than ever, institutions in the media need to be held accountable for having aided and abetted the rise to power of the worst elements of our society.

We won't spend any more time here wallowing, but we do want to remind everyone to take some time to recharge, to regroup, to find some space to feel human again before rolling up your sleeves and getting to work. If you’re looking for direction, we highlighted some steps to take in our General Election reflections.

After all, as section editor Rowan Gavin wrote about the recent UCU strike action:

“We are the outrage, and the laughter. We are here to fight the power. We are power.”