The Norwich Radical - January 2026 Issue
Media we loved in 2025, the troubles of the SWP, and an analysis of RJ Arhipov's Visceral.
Welcome to the January 2026 Issue of The Norwich Radical! In a month as dramatic as this one, the pressure is on modern media to be constantly moving, dragged from one statement, one atrocity, one conference to the next, continually refilling the perforated algorithmic bucket to keep the churn of fear, anxiety and outrage swirling. We do things a little differently here.
This month we bring you a slightly abridged issue to start 2026. That's certainly not for lack of potential topics - we hear more every day about this new world order we seem to have entered. But we move at the speed of our people, not the speed of the news. Many of our regular writers didn't have capacity to produce full pieces for this issue, and that's ok with us. In fact it's part of our model: as a volunteer-run workers' cooperative, we put our staff's time and welfare above all else.
If that model sounds good to you, or if you'd like to see your work published on a small but independent and principled platform, you can volunteer with us as a writer, editor or artist, or pitch a one-off piece, by contacting thenorwichradical@gmail.com. Alternatively, you can support our work financially by visiting our Steady page to set up a recurring donation.
This month, our Co-Editor Rowan Gavin returns to the thorny subject of the disgraced Socialist Workers' Party and its continued involvement on the left, paying particular attention to its plans for working within Your Party as that new political entity tries to shrug off the controversies of 2025 and emerge more fully onto the political stage. New contributor Eve Hilton brings us reflections on the 2018 RJ Arkhipov poetry collection Visceral: The Poetry of Blood, the first entries in which were infamously written in the poet's own. And, as the first month of 2026 comes to an end, we take a moment to reflect on the year past with a selection of short media reviews and recommendations from our regular contributors - music, films, games, you name it!
January 2026 Issue - Contents
—
RJ ARKHIPOV’S VISCERAL AND THE BIOPOLITICS OF BLOOD
—
FRIENDS DON’T LET FRIENDS JOIN THE SWP
—
THINGS WE LOVED IN 2025
by The Norwich Radical Contributors
In an attempt to start the new year on a positive note, we at the Norwich Radical decided to bring together various contributions from the team looking back at media and arts we enjoyed from 2025. The brief, again, was simple: a few hundred words at most, make it clear what type of media you’re spotlighting, and give it a radical angle if you can, even if the angle is ‘utterly selfish self-care in uncaring times’; the one other note was that the chosen works did not have to be from 2025, simply something we came across and enjoyed during the past year.
Contributors have chosen a variety of works from 2025, ranging from music to printed word, whole albums to single tracks, books to comics, gigs, films, TV series and games. It’s an eclectic collection showcasing the tastes and interests of the Norwich Radical team, and the ways in which we find what supports us, what inspires us, and what keeps us going when everything else feels too bleak.
RJ ARKHIPOV’S VISCERAL AND THE BIOPOLITICS OF BLOOD
by Eve Hilton
In the opening page of his poetry collection Visceral: The Poetry of Blood, Welsh poet RJ Arkhipov offers two definitions of the word ‘visceral’. The first: pertaining to viscera, the internal organs in the main cavities of the body. The second: relating to deep inward feelings rather than to the intellect. Arkhipov establishes these two meanings as concurrent in the most literal sense: the first poems of the collection were—famously and controversially—written in his own blood.
FRIENDS DON’T LET FRIENDS JOIN THE SWP
by Rowan Gavin
The Socialist Workers Party (SWP) is rightly maligned by many for its interventionist organising tactics. Ex-member testimonies from decades ago through to today report an internal culture of abuse, harassment and gaslighting coming right from the top. It has never taken proper accountability for the attempted coverup of sexual assault committed by a former national secretary, known as the Comrade Delta scandal, which took place over 12 years ago.
Now, its leaders have identified the emergence of Your Party as an opportunity to increase their influence on the British left. While the nascent new left-wing party struggles to grow beyond its early crises, its members should be vigilant against the risks the SWP poses to their safety and that of their more vulnerable peers.
As always, wherever you're reading us, we hope you're able to stay safe and well, and to advocate for those in your communities to whom safety is denied.
Solidarity, and fuck ICE,
The Norwich Radical Team
