Blog

In the aftermath of the assassination of Samuel Paty, Jacques Ranciere demands that we rethink the relationship between the state, secularism and the freedom of expression.

This open letter, signed among others by Virginie Despentes, Adèle Haenel, Annie Ernaux, Jean-François Bayart and Alexis Jenni, deplores the fact that the link between Western military interventions and terrorist attacks is never questioned.

Jean-François Bayart, professor of political sociology, argues that the denunciation of ‘Islamo-leftism’ rests on a misunderstanding of history and reveals the consolidation of a ‘republican McCarthyism’ at the heart of the state and the media.

Where did the future go? Anton Jäger and Daniel Zamora on the short-sightedness of calls for a universal basic income. Part II of the Verso Roundtable on Automation and the Future of Work. 

On 8 October 2019, riot police and other armed security forces violently evicted what had come to be known as L’Amassada, a ZAD (Zone-to-Defend) occupation in Saint-Victor-et-Melvieu in southern France. The following, written a year after the eviction, outlines the goals, structure, and accomplishments of the occupation as well as the political and environmental context of ongoing ZAD struggles against the economic and ecological destruction required by “green” development. 

The last friday of November every year has, in recent decades, become known as 'Black Friday', the busiest shopping day of the year. This year, coming in the middle of a global pandemic that for most people has dramatically shrunk the size of their physical and social orbit, the consumerist highs of the holiday season will be particularly stressful. Tansy E. Hoskins looks at the need, this year more than before, to move beyond capitalism's drive to consume.

Craig Gent analyses the role of unions and potential for social movements in creating a workers' future without scarcity. Part of the Verso Roundtable on Automation and the Future of Work. 

Introducing this month's Verso Roundtable, a series of three articles in conversation with Aaron Benanav's new book Automation and the Future of Work.

Neoliberalism remains a watchword of our time. But how should we make sense of the multiplying theories of its emergence, meaning, and effects? And is it possible to speak not only of an anti-democratic neoliberalism from above, but the opening up of new spaces of popular opposition to neoliberalism that have opened up from below? 

Gavin Walker on his new edited volume on the story of Japan's forgotten '68 in a global context and its relevance to contemporary struggles.

From the trial of the Mangove 9 to this summer's BLM protests, Ife Thompson outlines how the role of radical Black lawyers has been not just essential in the struggle for justice but also in transforming the UK legal system

Verso talks to the organisers of the ECHO library, a mobile resource for displaced people in Greece, to learn more about their work and how to support it.