Oliver Eagleton
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Articles by Oliver Eagleton
Country-Fried Ulster
On a stormy Sunday in January, I decided to visit my local megachurch, a sprawling slate-gray complex called Green Pastures in the Northern Irish town of Ballymena, where hundreds gather every week to be washed in the blood of the lamb.
Populizam kao prazan pojam
Dok se dva kraja političkog spektra udaljavaju jedan od drugog, desnica pobeđuje širom zapadnog sveta, a levica nikako da se oporavi od uzastopnih poraza. Možda je sada dobar trenutak da potražimo bolji opis ove neravnoteže moći i načina da se ona ublaži. Pravu prirodu populizma teško je razdvojiti od napetog diskursa koji ga okružuje. Populisti pridaju ogroman značaj jeziku: oni imaju zvučne slogane i obraćaju se direktno „narodu“.
‘Populism’: we used to know what it meant. Now the defining word of our era has lost its meaning
“Populism” may well have been the defining word of the previous decade: a shorthand for the insurgent parties that came to prominence in the 2010s, challenging the dominance of the liberal centre. But no sooner had it become the main rubric for discussing both the far left and far right than commentators began to question its validity: worrying that it was too vague, or too pejorative, or fuelling the forces to which it referred.
Populism: we used to know what it meant. Now the defining word of our era has lost its meaning
“Populism” may well have been the defining word of the previous decade: a shorthand for the insurgent parties that came to prominence in the 2010s, challenging the dominance of the liberal centre. But no sooner had it become the main rubric for discussing both the far left and far right than commentators began to question its validity: worrying that it was too vague , or too pejorative , or fuelling the forces to which it referred.
U.K. Chancellor Rachel Reeves Unveils Budget of Last Resort Original
Weeks of chaos came to a head today in Britain. The government of Prime Minister Keir Starmer unveiled its Autumn Budget after it floated, then abandoned, an election manifesto-busting income tax rise to plug a £30 billion fiscal black hole. The controversy has not helped the least popular Prime Minister on record, prompting talk of a leadership challenge as the far-right Reform tops the polls and the upstart Greens draw even with Labour.
Rachel Reeves’s housing scandal was a small administrative error, but a big political mistake
Rachel Reeves during a visit to Berkeley Homes’ Glasswater Locks Development in Birmingham in September 2025. Photograph: Jonathan Brady/PA At first glance, the story might seem trivial: a bureaucratic slip-up with few tangible consequences which will soon recede from the headlines. To be sure, the scandal over Rachel Reeves’s housing situation is no Watergate.
Rachel Reeves’s housing scandal was a small administrative error, but a big political mistake
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Socialist Politics Can Break Through to Asian Immigrants
Two Chinese Communist Party intelligence officers sit across from each other in a windowless room, incense smoke curling up from a ceramic vessel. They’re discussing their newest asset, US congressional candidate Jay Chen. “This Jay Chen for American Congress, he’s perfect for China,” one of them says.
La deportación como estrategia de clase en EEUU
Esta NO es todavía la “mayor operación de deportación de la historia de EEUU”. Durante los primeros cien días de su administración, Trump no logró aumentar la tasa de expulsiones de Joe Biden y se vio obligado a ocultar o inflar las cifras oficiales para salvar las apariencias. Las deportaciones masivas pueden perjudicar tanto a las grandes empresas como a los trabajadores.
La deportación como estrategia de clase
Fuentes: Revista Jacobin Am√©rica Latina - Ilustraci√≥n de Chantal Jahchan Esta NO es todav√≠a la ¬ęmayor operaci√≥n de deportaci√≥n de la historia de Estados Unidos¬Ľ. Durante los primeros cien d√≠as de su administraci√≥n, Trump no logr√≥ aumentar la tasa de expulsiones de Joe Biden y se vio obligado a ocultar o inflar las cifras oficiales para salvar las apariencias. Las deportaciones masivas pueden perjudicar tanto a las grandes empresas como a los trabajadores.
Why Tony Blair just can’t kick the habit of imperial interference in the Middle East
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Why Tony Blair just can’t kick the habit of imperial interference in the Middle East
Tony Blair leaves a UN-run school sheltering Palestinians in Gaza City, February 2015. Photograph: Imago/Alamy “There are two types of politician,” Tony Blair observed in 2012. “Reality creators and reality managers.” While postwar politics was generally a matter of steady management, he claimed, the emerging order called for more creativity, “both in the economy and foreign policy”. Only a particular type of visionary leader was fit for the task.
Your Party
This book will be shipped when it is published on 11 November 2025. This book will be shipped when it is published on 11 November 2025. First book on Your Party sees leading figures make the case for the new party and debate the big issues it faces. Your Party sets the agenda for Britain’s major new political outfit, which over 750,000 people have already registered to support.
Deportation as Class Strategy
By making immigration the defining issue of the 2024 election, Donald Trump simultaneously created two political liabilities for his incoming administration. First, it was unclear whether he could fulfill his promise to launch the “largest deportation operation in American history,” vowing to expel at least a million people each year while “sealing the border” through […] Sorry, but this article is available to subscribers only. Please log in or become a subscriber.
The Alternative
Zarah Sultana is among Britain’s most prominent socialist leaders. Born in Birmingham in 1993, she became politically active in the student movement and later in the upsurge of Corbynism: serving on the national executive of Young Labour, working as a community organiser for the party and eventually running for parliament, where she now represents Coventry South.
Construyendo el partido de la izquierda en el Reino Unido: entrevista a Zarah Sultana (3)
Zarah Sultana es una de las líderes socialistas más prominentes de Gran Bretaña. Nacida en Birmingham en 1993, comenzó su actividad política en el movimiento estudiantil y más tarde se sumó al movimiento desencadenado por el auge del corbynismo: formó parte de la ejecutiva nacional del Young Labour, trabajó como organizadora comunitaria para el partido y finalmente se presentó a las elecciones parlamentarias, donde ahora representa a Coventry South.
The Labour right wants Wes Streeting in No 10. Why? What does he really stand for?
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The Labour right wants Wes Streeting in No 10. Why? What does he really stand for?
The health secretary, Wes Streeting, during a visit to NHS National Operations Centre in London on Friday 25 July 2025. Photograph: Jordan Pettitt/PA Just over a year after Keir Starmer entered Downing Street, his political survival already looks uncertain. Perennially indecisive, unpopular with the public and unable to pass major legislation without rebellions, the prime minister has reportedly been put “on notice” by senior figures within his party.
Construyendo el partido de la izquierda en el Reino Unido: entrevista a Andrew Murray (2)
El número de personas que se han inscrito en el nuevo partido de izquierda británico ha superado las 650.000, una cifra que eclipsa la afiliación de cualquier otra formación presente en Westminster. En estos momentos se están desarrollando los trabajos preliminares para proceder a la organización de su conferencia fundacional, que probablemente se celebrará en noviembre y durante la cual los inscritos e inscritas decidirán su programa inicial y elaborarán algunas de sus estructuras democráticas.
Construyendo el partido de la izquierda en el Reino Unido: entrevista a James Schneider (1)
Durante los últimos meses, varios grupos de la izquierda organizada británica han debatido la formación de una nueva organización política nacional bien bajo la forma de un partido político o bien bajo la de una alianza electoral. Las razones para crear una institución de este tipo no podrían estar más claras. El actual gobierno laborista se caracteriza por su deferencia hacia los intereses corporativo-empresariales, por su complicidad con el genocidio y por la represión de la disidencia.
A New Party of the Left
More than half a million people have signed up to the call by Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana for a new left party. This is unprecedented and we should understand that this new development will reshape British politics in the months and years ahead. What is driving this? Such a huge political development does not arise out of thin air.
How Keir Starmer Squandered His First Year as Britain's PM
Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer answers questions during a press conference on Aug. 1, 2024. Credit - Henry Nicholls—AFP/Getty Images It was a moment that will remain etched in British minds. Finance minister Rachel Reeves became tearful in front of the entire nation on Wednesday, almost exactly a year after Labour took office with a huge majority in parliament.
Portrait of the Trader as a Young Rebel
A weak Left, struggling to navigate a hostile media environment, must sometimes rely on proxies to transmit its ideas. It often falls to fellow travelers with more establishment credibility to advance dissenting positions in mainstream outlets.
Cameron Quits Foreign Secretary Role As Rishi Sunak Names New Interim Shadow Cabinet - Live - The Independent
Lord Cameron has stepped back from frontline politics after last week’s election defeat but will keep his House of Lords seat for life.
Starchy Starmer - Village Magazine
Starchy Starmer By Suzie Mélange It doesn’t sound much fun but Surrey-Kent isn’t Acapulco PROFILE: AIN’S BRIT BUREAUCRATIC INCOMING PM Keir Starmer, a bureaucrat who looks at government as a problem to be solved by missions, pledges and steps which shift INTERNATIONAL it’s SIR K eir Rodney Starmer was born in Southwark South London in 1962, named after the first Labour leader Keir Hardy, a hero of his toolmaker father though audiences have started to ridicule the repeated references.
General Election 2024 London Seats: Who Will Be My MP In Poplar And Limehouse - Evening Standard
Save How To Lose A Referendum: The Definitive Story of Why The UK Voted for Brexit for later
Britain's Next Prime Minister Has Shown Us Who He Is, and It's Not Good Original
The outcome seems predestined. The British Conservative Party, moribund after 14 years in office and struggling to defend its record of routine corruption and economic mismanagement, is heading into Thursday's general election with the backing of just 20 percent of the electorate. The opposition Labour Party, having run a colorless campaign whose main aim was to channel frustration with the government, is projected to win a huge parliamentary majority.
Keir Starmer, Britain’s Next Prime Minister, Has Shown Us Who He Is - The New York Times
You have been granted access, use your keyboard to continue reading. By Oliver Eagleton The outcome seems predestined. The British Conservative Party, moribund after 14 years in office and struggling to defend its record of routine corruption and economic mismanagement, is heading into Thursday’s general election with the backing of just 20 percent of the electorate.
‘We Need Leadership’: Alistair Carns On Leaving The Military To Become A Labour MP - The Independent
Alistair Carns’s decision to leave the Royal Marines after 24 years’ service to stand for Labour in the coming election came as a huge surprise. The colonel, who won the Military Cross in Afghanistan, was widely viewed as someone who would rise very high in the armed forces.
General Election Polls: Are Labour Or The Conservatives On Track To Win In July? - The Independent
Prime minister Rishi Sunak has settled on 4 July for the general election after months of speculation but while the economic news is good, with inflation coming down, the polls are still heavily against the Tories. Though the public is unclear on why the snap election was called, a quarter of people believe that the prime minister was hoping to benefit from improved inflation figures, according
Tory Fury As Sunak Allies 'Parachuted' Into Winnable Seats - The Independent
Rishi Sunak’s allies have been accused of “operating a chumocracy” in ”parachuting” special advisers and people close to the inner circle around the prime minister for winnable seats in the general election. David Goss, the prime minister’s deputy political secretary, became the latest high profile figure from Downing Street to be selected for a winnable seat in Wellingborough and Rushden, recently lost to Labour in a gruelling by-election.
Oliver Eagleton, Stakeholder Capitalism, Again, NLR 146, March–April 2024
Speculation about the character of Ukania’s incoming Labour government tends to be projective. For the self-described Marxist Paul Mason, Keir Starmer’s outlook is ‘socialist and internationalist’, for the New Statesman’s George Eaton it is informed by a ‘quiet radicalism’, for the centrist political scientist Steven Fielding it is ‘soft corporatist’, while for the Blue Labourite Maurice Glasman it is ‘profoundly conservative’.
Oliver Eagleton, Stakeholder Capitalism, Again, NLR 146, March–April 2024
Speculation about the character of Ukania’s incoming Labour government tends to be projective. For the self-described Marxist Paul Mason, Keir Starmer’s outlook is ‘socialist and internationalist’, for the New Statesman’s George Eaton it is informed by a ‘quiet radicalism’, for the centrist political scientist Steven Fielding it is ‘soft corporatist’, while for the Blue Labourite Maurice Glasman it is ‘profoundly conservative’.
Joe Biden’s Unconditional Support for Israel Risks Creating a Regional War
As Gaza is razed to the ground, President Joe Biden has asserted what he takes to be the United States’ two geopolitical priorities: to provide unconditional support for Israel and to prevent the war from widening across the region. So far he has pursued these aims in tandem — disbursing $14 billion to assist the Israeli slaughter while trying to deter intervention from outside actors. But as the developments of the past week have shown, such objectives are not easily reconciled.
Oliver Eagleton, Therborn’s World-Casting, NLR 144, November–December 2023
The Left against Dialectics?
Imperial designs: The United States and Israel’s war on Gaza
First published at New Left Review. Since the Al-Aqsa Flood on 7 October and the ensuing assault on Gaza, the Biden administration has performed what is euphemistically described as a ‘balancing act’. On the one hand it praises the collective punishment of Palestinians; on the other it warns Israel against overreach.
Diseños imperiales: Estados Unidos en Gaza - El Salto - Edición General
Desde la operación Al-Aqsa Flood perpetrada por Hamás el 7 de octubre y el consiguiente asalto a Gaza, el gobierno de Biden ha realizado lo que se describe eufemísticamente como un «acto de equilibrio». Por un lado, alaba el castigo colectivo de los palestinos; por otro, advierte a Israel contra sus extralimitaciones.
Oliver Eagleton, Imperial Designs — Sidecar
Since the Al-Aqsa Flood on 7 October and the ensuing assault on Gaza, the Biden administration has performed what is euphemistically described as a ‘balancing act’. On the one hand it praises the collective punishment of Palestinians; on the other it warns Israel against overreach. Its support for aerial bombardment and targeted raids is steadfast, but it has posed ‘tough questions’ about the ground invasion that started earlier this week: Is there an achievable military objective?
What Explains Britain’s Authoritarian Turn?
For onlookers, Britain’s repressive turn is something of an enigma. Why are restrictions being tightened — on public protest, journalism, trade unionism — in a country where civil unrest is virtually absent? What could an establishment, in bipartisan agreement about every fundamental economic and geopolitical issue, have to gain from waging a war against an enemy too weak to fight back?
Verso
The China Question Toward Left Perspectives Edited by Eli Friedman, Kevin Lin, and Ashley Smith -1 Ebook Ebook $1.99 November 2022 / 9781804293010 Not available Where to buy —Apple iBooks Is there a “Left perspective” on the US-China rivalry? The US-China conflict is no straightforward Great Power rivalry.
Verso
Heretical Aesthetics Pasolini on Painting by Pier Paolo Pasolini Edited by Alessandro Giammei and Ara H. Merjian -1 0 Paperback Paperback $24.95$17.4630% off 176 pages / August 1, 2023 / 9781804291283 Available for pre-order. This item will be available on August 1, 2023.
Liz Truss Doesn’t Care About Stopping the War in Ukraine
As the battle for Ukraine rages on, raising the stakes of great power politics – and with them the possibility of nuclear conflict – it’s worth pausing to ask how we allowed this disastrous situation to unfold. Was armed confrontation the unavoidable result of Russia’s regional designs, or was there a diplomatic escape hatch? Were both parties always determined to fight over every inch of territory in Donbas and Crimea, or could they be convinced to compromise?
Oliver Eagleton, Tory Fractures — Sidecar
On 20 July, when the field of UK prime ministerial contenders was whittled down to Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss, an unnamed Conservative MP briefed that party members would now be forced to decide between a ‘backstabber’ and a ‘moron’. This was a fair assessment. Whoever wins the leadership election will be no more fit for office than their toppled predecessor. But its outcome will nevertheless have major implications for Britain’s macroeconomic direction.
Labour’s Civil Wars: How Infighting Has Kept the Left from Power (and What Can Be Done About It)
Patrick Diamond and Giles Radice begin their thought-provoking book with the biblical adage that ‘if a house be divided against itself, that house cannot stand’. They assert that this ‘provides essential counsel for any political party that aspires to win elections and govern in a liberal democracy’. This axiom, of course, holds true for all political parties.
Verso
We Organize to Change Everything Fighting for Abortion Access and Reproductive Justice Edited by Natalie Adler, Marian Jones, Jessie Kindig, Elizabeth Navarro, and Anne Rumberger -1 An urgent collection on losing Roe v. Wade, struggling to provide abortion across the Americas, and how we can rebuild a fighting movement for reproductive justice The likely loss of a federal right to abortion in the United States is horrifying.
Verso
Proletarian China A Century of Chinese Labour Edited by Ivan Franceschini and Christian Sorace -1 0 Paperback Paperback with free ebook $44.95$31.4630% off 880 pages / June 2022 / 9781839766336 Available for pre-order. This item will be available on June 2022. A century of complex relations between Communists and workers in China In 2021, the Chinese Communist Party celebrated a century of existence.
Don’t Ignore Biden’s Shadow War
As casualties mount in Donbas, it is worth pausing to reflect on Vladimir Putin’s persistent refusal to declare war on Ukraine, despite the recent predictions of western commentators. For ordinary Russians, describing the ongoing events as a “war” rather than a “special operation” can result in a 15-year jail sentence. In one sense, this penalty reflects the immediate needs of the Kremlin propaganda machine – to boost morale and avoid the impression of an intractable conflict.
Who Is Keir Starmer?
OE Part of what I tried to pinpoint about Starmer’s politics in the book is his long-standing Atlanticist commitments. This is something that I think also goes back to his time as director of public prosecutions, when he worked with the US Department of Justice and the State Department on overseas work for the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS). What he was essentially trying to do was export a network of CPS lawyers to support both UK and US foreign-policy interests.
Verso
The Starmer Project A Journey to the Right -1 0 Paperback Paperback with free ebook $19.95$13.9630% off 240 pages / June 7, 2022 / 9781839764622 Available for pre-order. This item will be available on June 7, 2022. Forensic political biography of the Labour Party leader Hailed as a human-rights champion and political outsider, what sort of politician is Keir Starmer really, and what mark is he making on the new politics of Labour?
Why Can’t Starmer Just Be Like Blair?
Comparisons between Keir Starmer’s Labour and its Blairite forerunner are common, not least because the current leader spends most of his waking hours courting them. Starmer has filled his top team with dusty ornaments from the long nineties, adapting both his rhetorical style and political priorities to their directives.
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