Welcome to the March 2025 Issue of The Norwich Radical! We find ourselves inching closer to spring, a time of renewal, rebirth, and rejuvenation. Many of us are already tired, and have been for some time, but there is still good work to be done - and much already being done.

Writing about local issues gets harder by the day, as the news cycle - dominated by Western countries, the US above all - churns and whirs without respite, constantly grinding down attention and morale. More and more people and communities are affected by the actions of rising authoritarians and their enforcers. At the same time, more examples of those communities responding in kind are emerging, and we are seeing direct action against oligarchs, police states, and their lackeys throughout the globe.

We find ourselves not always able to write about the macro-issues of our times, not with the depth and care that they deserve. We can still, however, focus on the smaller, local issues like the work done by the Just Urban Alliance, who present their vision for housing and community building, in both Great Yarmouth and Norwich; co-editor Alex Valente lets his interests take the best of him, and writes about radical messages in mainstream media property Star Wars, in preparation for a final season of Andor; Silvana Lamb returns with a Marxist critique of the recent Nosferatu remake, urging us to learn from and move beyond metaphors into action; and finally, Howard Green gives us a summary and analysis of the recent elections in Germany, and what we can learn from it on the European political stage.

You can support our work financially by visiting our Steady page to set up a recurring donation. If you'd like to volunteer with us as a writer, editor or artist, or to pitch a one-off piece, you can reach us at thenorwichradical@gmail.com.

March 2025 Issue - Contents

HOUSING JUSTICE IN NORWICH AND GREAT YARMOUTH

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NEMIK: A STAR WARS STORY; OR, REWATCHING ANDOR IN 2025

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NOSFERATU (2024): A MARXIST CRITIQUE OF CAPITAL, CRISIS, & REPRESENTATION

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UNCERTAINTY AT THE FOUNDATIONS: THE 2025 GERMAN FEDERAL ELECTION

HOUSING JUSTICE IN NORWICH AND GREAT YARMOUTH

by Just Urban Alliance

The ideas, values and proposals presented here were originally published in zines by the Just Urban Alliance, a research initiative based at University of East Anglia led by Kavita Ramakrishnan, Casper Laing Ebbensgaard and Ella Rayment. They are the culmination of two collective discussions around housing challenges and in/justice held in Norwich and Great Yarmouth in 2024.

Together, these ideas present an initial vision for housing justice in these two Norfolk communities. The Just Urban Alliance is now working with existing organisations that are working to build solutions to housing issues – including Norwich ACORN, Norwich Renters Collective and Shelter – as well as individuals from local communities, to bring together campaigning and research infrastructure for housing justice.

NEMIK: A STAR WARS STORY; OR, REWATCHING ANDOR IN 2025

by Alex Valente

I have no love for Disney. I have soured on most big franchise properties, including the juggernaut space fantasy that is Star Wars. I am exhausted, like many, by stories that mirror and revolve around US-based discourse and history, by US cultural imperialism lording over popular culture, and by its most overt operative, The Mouse. It feels like nothing can happen outside of the US without something happening within the US that everyone in mainstream media latches onto, and that spills into cinema, television, and several other cultural industries.

And then, in 2022, along came Andor: A Star Wars Story. A prequel series to a prequel film – Rogue One – with a troubled production and release. A series steeped in the Star Wars universe, and yet so unlike anything Star Wars has produced since its shaky allusions to the Vietnam war during George Lucas’ first trilogy.

I loved it. Many people did. Some, inevitably, got very angry about what it had to say. Now, with a second season due for release in April 2025, and with the creeping encroach of fascism across the world, I decided to watch it again. For comfort, perhaps, or solace.

NOSFERATU (2024): A MARXIST CRITIQUE OF CAPITAL, CRISIS, & REPRESENTATION

by Silvana Lamb

Robert Eggers’ Nosferatu (2024) reinterprets one of cinema’s foundational horror narratives, infusing it with contemporary aesthetic and psychological depth while preserving the haunting minimalism of F.W. Murnau’s 1922 original. However, beyond its technical and artistic achievements, the film warrants rigorous ideological scrutiny, particularly through the
lens of Marxist critique. Nosferatu functions as an allegory for the dynamics of capital accumulation, systemic exploitation, and the ideological apparatuses that sustain bourgeois hegemony. The horror it evokes is not merely supernatural but deeply structural, mirroring the lived terror of economic subjugation and class domination. This analysis includes spoilers for the film.

UNCERTAINTY AT THE FOUNDATIONS: THE 2025 GERMAN FEDERAL ELECTION

by Howard Green

The dust has settled on the most recent German federal election. The results delivered the second most-feared outcome: further socio-political stagnation under the leadership of the right-wing Christlich Demokratische Union (CDU), most likely with the collaboration of Starmer-esque opportunists within the Sozialdemokratische Partei (SPD). Thankfully, the far-right populist hot topic party Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) have not yet earned a place in government – but they were not as far away as we might like.

Local action, grassroots action, mobilising on a small level is what we currently have to feel anchored in a world that keeps attempting to wash everything and everyone away - recently and increasingly much more literally than figuratively. Find your anchors where you can, create them if you cannot. None of us are alone in this.

In Solidarity,
The Norwich Radical Team

Next Issue: May 2025