My next post on Substack: Berkman, Goldman and the correct method of revolution
I’m now regularly posting on Substack. Please join me there. This is my latest post. I won’t be putting all my future posts up here on this site. If you subscribe, you will be notified of all future posts by email. And it’s free or paid, up to you. Alexander Berkman was an anarchist who […]
The Rojava revolution: a video introduction
A few years ago I visited Rojava in North East Syria to witness for myself the extraordinary revolution of self-government, often led by women, following the ideas of Murray Bookchin and Abdullah Ocalan, leader of the PKK. The visit was filmed for the documentary, Accidental Anarchist. But the producers have just cut this segment from […]
Gaza and the erosion of the rules-based international order: A conversation with Carne Ross
Published in Vashti, 1 May 2024 Vashti is an independent online magazine offering Jewish perspectives on debates confronting the contemporary British left. In supporting Israel’s collective punishment of Gaza’s civilians for the heinous acts perpetrated by Hamas on October 7th, Western powers have brazenly dispensed with key pillars of the very same liberal world order they purport […]
Gentle Anarchy – My new blog on world events
I’ve started a regular newsletter or blog on Substack. I talk about world events from a radical perspective, but also with an insider’s knowledge as someone who was once very much at the heart of government. I’ve worked on political change all over the world, and written about it for twenty years. I’ve advised small […]
Twenty Years since my Resignation: some hard lessons
It is twenty years since I resigned from the Foreign Office over the Iraq War. I remember well the day I wrote to the Foreign Secretary, attaching my secret evidence to the Butler Inquiry as the reason. The government had lied about Iraq’s WMD (which I had worked on for many years), ignored alternatives to […]
Israel/Iran/Gaza
I appeared this weekend on Al Jazeera’s Inside Story show discussing Israel’s attack on the Iranian consulate in Syria and the risks of broader regional conflict. This discussion took place on 13 April, before Iran’s drone and missile attacks on Israel during the night of 13/14 April. For my comments on Israel/Gaza etc, please see […]
A talk with Douglas Rushkoff
I recently had a conversation with Douglas Rushkoff, a theorist of post-capitalism, especially in tech and media. It was a joyous exploration of ideas. Our talk touched on the origins of the relationship between capitalism and government, the financial crisis, cooperative banking, alternative currencies, resilience in the ecological collapse, democratic confederalism (of Bookchin and Ocalan), […]
Demanding Democracy: Speech at Stir to Action festival, 18 May 2023
Thank you to Jonny Gordon-Fairleigh for inviting me and to Cooperative and Community Finance for sponsoring this event. We think we know what democracy means. I used to think that. I was once a servant of Britain’s so-called democracy, a diplomat who represented this country to the outside world. I started as a British diplomat […]
Ukraine: the requirements of a peace deal
This is the text of a speech I gave on 29 April to the OxPeace Conference on Ukraine. The speech underlines the need for all of Ukraine’s populations, including in the Donbas and Crimea, to be consulted in any possible peace deal, distant though that may currently seem: Speech to OxPeace Annual Conference, 29 April […]
Anarchy is Love
The excellent DOPE magazine now has its own website, which means you can see my article ‘Anarchy is Love’ in issue no.9 here – https://www.dopemag.org/issue9