This month’s issue looks at forgotten people. There are people that our rulers would like us to forget, like the miners who fought the Thatcher government, the refugees held in detention and threatened with deportation or the Palestinians who are still struggling for freedom under the oppressive apartheid regime of the Israeli state. Then there are individuals we may have forgotten, and it is important to remember their names and their contribution to society.
The people of Northern Ireland know what it is like to be forgotten. But the contradiction between the terms of the Good Friday Agreement and the Northern Ireland Protocol that is part of Brexit deal our government agreed with the EU means they cannot be ignored.
One thing the Tories and Labour agree on is that Class is no longer an issue as they argue over the best way to manage capitalism. But proposals for mass sackings of civil servants could be the spur to mass action by civil service unions as working-class struggle once more takes centre stage.
Forgotten people are not just an accident or oversight of history. Dave Middleton has written a timely article on how ruling class ideas dominate in society until they are challenged by struggles from below. But when struggle is at a low ebb even the best of us can lose our bearings. Luke Andreski has written an article on what we can do to anchor ourselves in the truth. Like everything in the magazine this month, it comes highly recommended.
One of the reasons we set up Critical Mass was to challenge that ruling class narrative and provide a platform for socialists whose voices are ignored by mainstream media outlets. This month we welcome a new contributor, Amber Goth, whose heartfelt attack on the oligarchy reminds us that the history and the analysis that helps us to understand the world is not enough. We also need to take inspiration from the past and marry it to the compassion and the anger that brings us together to act to change the world.
