Tenth Anniversary Special - May 2024 Issue
Welcome to the May 2024 Issue of The Norwich Radical! This issue marks our tenth year since two UEA students, Cadi Cliff and Chris Jarvis, came up with the idea for our publication. Which means we have a slightly different format, including a video piece, along with regular article formats.
Specifically, the issue includes two major celebratory pieces: a roundtable conversation between co-founders Cadi Cliff and Chris Jarvis, and current co-editors Alex Valente and Rowan Gavin - in video, article, and full unedited transcript version - and a collection of highlights from the last ten years.
It also includes our 'regular' contributions to the pocket of radical writing trying its hardest to withstand the calcification of reactionary politics (and with a snap election looming, radical politics is truly all that is left to turn to). Jonathan Lee provides a thoughtful piece on the closure of the steelworks in Port Talbot, and what its resistance means for organised labour movements. Rowan Gavin offers our most ambitious, and most needed, explainer yet: the full scale of why no one should ever listen to or work with the Socialist Workers Party (SWP), and the danger they pose to younger activists. Tom Martin discusses the Cass Review and its failings as a document, revealing its anti-trans agenda. An anonymous local trans writer covers the recent attempt at TERF politics in action in Norwich, specifically around Norwich Millennium Library and UEA Sportspark.
THE NORWICH RADICAL 10TH ANNIVERSARY EDITORS' CHAT
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10TH ANNIVERSARY HIGHLIGHTS
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YOU SHOULDN'T WORK WITH THE SWP. THIS IS WHY.
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ALL OUT: PORT TALBOT'S LAST STAND IN DEFENCE OF ORGANISED LABOUR
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UNDERSTANDING THE CASS REVIEW: THE SCIENCE OF GENDER AFFIRMING CARE
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PUBLIC PLACES NEED SAFE SPACES
by Alex Valente
Ten years ago, in May 2014, university students Cadi Cliff and Chris Jarvis had an idea for a progressive magazine combining analysis of politics and arts, bringing together voices from the left side of the political spectrum. In May 2024, we - Cadi, Chris, myself and my fellow current Co-Editor Rowan Gavin - linked up for a conversation reflecting on the decade that has passed since. Check out the video below to see our conversation in full. You can also find a transcript here. What follows is an editorial summary of the best bits of an hour of entertaining and thoughtful chat between Radicals.
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by Alex Valente & Rowan Gavin
Since The Norwich Radical was founded in May 2014, we have published almost 2000 articles (we’re about 20 short at the time of writing), hosted four conferences, held workshops, attended events and stalls across Norwich and Norfolk, become a workers’ co-operative, and changed the publication into a periodical. We talked at length with co-founders Cadi Cliff and Chris Jarvis about our journeys with the publication in our roundtable Editors' Chat but we also wanted to offer a retrospective on these past ten years. Specifically, we wanted to spotlight the nuggets of radical writing, the steps in liberation politics, and the words of those who made The Norwich Radical what it has been, is, and will strive to be for as long as it resists.
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by Rowan Gavin
Why do so many organisations and activists refuse to work with the Socialist Workers Party (SWP)?
Because it is still led by many of the same figures who attempted to cover up a sexual assault scandal known as the ‘Comrade Delta’ incident just over ten years ago.
Because it operates a widespread strategy of organisational capture of other activist groups, attempting to infiltrate them and get SWP members into leadership positions.
Because accounts from former members present a consistent picture of an internal culture characterised by gaslighting, bigotry and the repression of dissent.
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by Jonathan Lee
On 15th September 2023, Tata Steel announced the effective closure of Port Talbot Steelworks in South Wales. They declared it would shut down the last two operating blast furnaces and replace them with an electric arc furnace at a loss of nearly 3000 jobs. The decision would also mean the closure of smaller linked industrial plants at Llanwern and Trostre. Amidst looming strike action, industrial blackmail over redundancy packages, and a town on the brink of intergenerational ruination, now more than ever is the time for a principled stance by steelworkers in defence of the right to go out and earn a dignified living.
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by Tom Martin
On April 10th, the final version of the Cass report was released. The review was commissioned by the NHS to evaluate the state of gender affirming care for children in the UK. Most UK media has portrayed it as a final settling of the science, showing a damning lack of evidence for the current medical approach to managing trans children. This daunting and dense 388 page document seems to have been universally accepted by politicians in both major UK parties, with both the PM and the Shadow Health Secretary quickly saying they would carry out all the report’s recommendations.
But if we dig a little deeper into the report, it is clear that the science behind it isn’t as unshakeable as many UK media outlets would have you think. So let's break down the Cass Review, to examine its limitations and evaluate why blindly following these recommendations may not actually be in the best interest of trans children.
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by transonymous
A recent art exhibit in the Millennium Library, as part of this year's Trans Day of Visibility, provided the Conservative leader of Norfolk County Council, Kay Mason Billig, with the opportune moment to go fan the flames of trans panic.
Billig was egged on by activists from the Norwich Woman's Rights Group. The group who, upon a quick glance of their Twitter account, seem to see it as their mission to rid our city of the foretold transgender bogeyman.
The artwork in question provided honest portrayals of transition, including a trans-masc person taking testosterone and another with mastectomy scars. Complaints were posted on the platform Mumsnet, claiming that the exhibit “glorified self-harm”, which in turn led Billig to take her newly found concerns to library bosses. Against the wishes and interests of library staff, the exhibit was removed, along with an unrelated “Trans Friendly Space” poster provided to the library by Norwich Trans Pride.
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Ten years is a long time, but we've plenty more where they came from. Stay Radical.
In Solidarity,The Norwich Radical Team
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