Author Archives: Kenan Malik

AGAINST IMMIGRATION – AND THE WORKING CLASS

August 21, 2024 by Kenan Malik

This essay, on why many of those hostile to immigration who claim to be supportive of the working class are not, was published in the Observer on 18 August 2024 under the headline “Defending working-class interests requires more than simply opposing immigration”. “Immigration harms British workers. We must restrict immigration to improve working-class lives.” That is the subtext – and often the explicit text – of the argument from those who are hostile to immigration or wish drastically to reduce numbers. It […]

Categories: Britain, Class, Politics, Race & Immigration • Tags: anti-union laws, benefits, exploitation, flexible labour market, immigration, inequality, nigel farage, poverty, social care, suella braverman, trade unions, uk riots 2024, working class

THE WARPING OF WORKING-CLASS GRIEVANCES

August 14, 2024 by Kenan Malik

This essay, on the roots of the summer riots in England, was published in the Observer on 11 August 2024 under the headline “The roots of the UK’s unrest lie in the warping of genuine working-class grievances”. “The British soul is awakening and stirring with rage at what these people are doing,” the Spectator’s Douglas Murray told former Australian deputy prime minister John Anderson. The comment might sound like a response to the recent riots, but was actually recorded last year (the edited […]

Categories: Britain, Class, Race & Immigration • Tags: axel rudakubana, conservatives, douglas murray, english riots 2024, identity politics, immigration, islam, john anderson, liberalism, matthew goodwin, muslims, southport killings, southport riot, uk riots 2024, white decline, white identity, working class

WRESTLING WITH AMERICA’S DEMONS – AND HIS OWN

July 31, 2024 by Kenan Malik

This essay, on the significance of James Baldwin, was published in the Observer on 28 July 2024 under the headline “James Baldwin taught us that identities can help us to locate ourselves. But they trap us too”. James Baldwin was about 10 when he first read Charles Dickens’s A Tale of Two Cities. The character in the novel that most spoke to him was not the virtuous aristocrat Charles Darnay or Sydney Carton, the dissolute lawyer turned hero, but Thérèse Defarge, a woman […]

Categories: Culture & Books, Philosophy & Ethics, Race & Immigration • Tags: african americans, black identity, black power, civil rights movement, freedom, harlem, identity politics, james baldwin, nikki giovanni, orilla miller, paris, racism, richard wright, toni morrison, usa, whiteness

POPULISM WITH A FEUDAL TOUCH

July 24, 2024 by Kenan Malik

This essay, on why JD Vance’s populism has little to offer the working class, was published in the Observer on 21 July 2024 under the headline “Aristopopulists like JD Vance can offer only empty promises to the working class”. “The tragedy of Trump’s candidacy is that, embedded in his furious exhortations against Muslims and Mexicans and trade deals gone awry is a message that America’s white poor don’t need: that everything wrong in your life is someone else’s fault.” That was JD Vance, Donald […]

Categories: Class, International, Politics • Tags: anti-union laws, aristopopulism, donald trump, elite politics, gop, hillbilly elegy, jd vance, patrick deneen, populism, republican party, sean o'brien, teamsters

WHAT IS THE MUSLIM VOTE?

July 17, 2024 by Kenan Malik

This essay, umpacking the meaning of the “Muslim vote” , was published in the Observer on 14 July 2024 under the headline “Muslims aren’t single-issue voters. Gaza was a lightning rod for their disaffection”. Should we celebrate or fear the “Muslim vote”? The success of independent candidates running on pro-Palestinian tickets, four of whom were elected, overturning huge Labour majorities, has led to a debate about the role of Muslims in British politics. On the one side are radical Islamic groups, including the Muslim Vote (TMV), a […]

Categories: Atheism & Religion, Britain, Politics • Tags: anti-muslim hatred, british elections, british jews, british politics, general election 2024, hyphen magazine, identity politics, islam, jake wallis simons, labour party, luke tryl, muslims, palestine solidarity, rushdie affair, sectarian voting, the muslim vote, uk 2024 election, working class

THE RULE OF THE OLD

July 10, 2024 by Kenan Malik

This essay, on contemporary gerontocracy, was published in the Observer on 7 July 2024 under the headline “Biden, Putin, Xi, Modi: what is it that keeps old ideas, as well as old people, in power?”. “States when they are in difficulties or in fear yearn for the rule of the elder men”, wrote Plutarch, the first-century Greek historian and philosopher, as he pondered “whether an old man should engage in politics”. Only the old, he believed, possessed the wisdom granted by age, […]

Categories: International, Politics • Tags: aaron reeves, class politics, donald trump, gerontocracy, joe biden, plutarch, sam friedman, samuel moyn

JULIAN ASSANGE AND THE MESSY FIGHT FOR FREEDOM

July 3, 2024 by Kenan Malik

This essay, on Julian Assange and press freedom, was published in the Observer on 30 June 2024 under the headline “Julian Assange is free, but his case is a grim reminder of the fragility of press freedom”. It was a messy ending to an often chaotic story. Julian Assange was released last week from Belmarsh prison to board a flight to the US-governed Pacific island of Saipan. There, under a special deal with the US authorities, he pleaded guilty in court to […]

Categories: Free Speech, Justice & Liberties • Tags: afghanistan, america, chelsea manning, freedom of speech, iraq war, julian assange, press freedom, whistleblowing, wikileaks

PROTECT PEOPLE’S LIVES, NOT THE MING VASE

June 26, 2024 by Kenan Malik

This essay, on Labour Party election policy, was published in the Observer on 23 June 2024 under the headline “Improving people’s lives should be Labour’s first priority. Not that Ming vase”. This should be an election at the heart of which are the issues of poverty, inequality, precarity and low pay. It is, after all, a campaign in which the cost of living, the state of public services, the price of austerity and the failure of politicians and institutions to […]

Categories: Britain, Politics • Tags: charles booth, child poverty, food banks, food insecurity, gig economy, job insecurity, joseph rowntree, labour party, low pay, lynsey hanley, ming vase strategy, poverty, social housing, two child benefit limit, welfare sanctions

IS “FAR RIGHT” A REDUNDANT LABEL?

June 19, 2024 by Kenan Malik

This essay, on whether the label “far right” still has any meaning, was published in the Observer on 16 June 2024 under the headline “Far-right policies don’t become palatable just because mainstream politicians adopt them”. Far right? Hard right? Radical right? Or just plain right? The success in the recent EU elections of parties such as Marine Le Pen’s Rassemblement National, or RN, (the rebadged Front National), and Germany’s Alternative für Deutschland (AfD), has generated a debate about whether the […]

Categories: International, Politics • Tags: afd, demonisation, far right, giorgia meloni, hard right, immigration, marine le pen, matthew goodwin, populism, racism, radical right, rassemblement national, ursula von der leyen

IN FOOTBALL AS IN POLITICS, THE ELITE PLAY VICTIM

June 12, 2024 by Kenan Malik

This essay, on Manchester City “declaring war on the football elite”, was published in the Observer on 9 June 2024 under the headline “Playing the victim card is how elites game the system. Just look at Manchester City”. If you want a metaphor for the state of contemporary politics, you could do worse than keep an eye on the football. Not Euro 24, the tournament that begins at the end of the week, though it should be gripping, but rather […]

Categories: Sport • Tags: abu dhabi, english premier league, financial fair play, football, manchester city, psr, qatar, roman abramovich, saudi arabia, sheikh mansour, uefa, working class

LOW-VALUE DEGREES OR LOW-VALUE PEOPLE?

June 5, 2024 by Kenan Malik

This essay, on the argument against “low value degrees”, was published in the Observer on 2 June 2024, under the headline “The affluent can have their souls enriched at university, so why not the poor as well?”. “We must crack down on low-value university degrees.” Who claimed that and when? It might have been Rishi Sunak last October. Or Sunak last July. Or Sunak the previous August. Or Nadhim Zahawi five months earlier. Or Michelle Donelan in November 2020. Or Gavin Williamson in May 2020. Or Damian Hinds the previous year. […]

Categories: Academia, Britain • Tags: apprenticeships, education, humanities, low-value degrees, poverty, rishi sunak, stem, universities

REACTIONARY STEREOTYPES RECAST AS DIVERSITY

May 29, 2024 by Kenan Malik

This essay, on the promotion of diversity can replay reactionary stereotypes of the working class, was published in the Observer on 26 May 2024 under the headline “Job ads aimed at the ‘benefits class’ may be well-meant, but smack of contempt”. Imagine the scene. It’s a small organisation within the creative industry – an arts centre, perhaps, or a theatre group. Around a table sit people trying to craft a job ad for a senior management role. All recognise the need for […]

Categories: Britain, Class • Tags: benefit class, charles murray, criminal class, demonisation, george osborne, henry mayhew, ipp, problem families, skivers, stereotypes, the bell curve, tony blair, underclass, working class, working class stereotypes

A EULOGY TO A FOOTBALL ROMANTIC

May 22, 2024 by Kenan Malik

This essay, a tribute Jürgen Klopp, was published in the Observer on 19 May 2024 under the headline “Jürgen Klopp brought not only victories but a fan’s passion for the game”. “It’s not so important what people think when you come in”, Jürgen Klopp observed on being unveiled as Liverpool manager in October 2015. “It’s much more important what people think when you leave.” Today is the day Klopp leaves. It is the final day of the Premier League season in England, and Manchester City will probably […]

Categories: Sport • Tags: english premier league, esl, european super league, football, football romanticism, jurgen klopp, liverpool fc, manchester city, pep guardiola, premier league, romanticism, sheikh mansour

CLASS, NOT NATIONALITY, DEFINES EXPLOITATION

May 15, 2024 by Kenan Malik

This essay, on globalisation and exploitation, was published in the Observer on 12 May 2024 under the headline “National sovereignty is little defence against the global hunt for profits”. “Do you think you could live on £4.87 an hour?” Liam Byrne, the chair of the Commons business and trade committee, asked Peter Hebblethwaite, the chief executive of P&O Ferries, last Tuesday. “No, I couldn’t,” Hebblethwaite replied. “Why do you think that your staff should have to live on that?” Byrne continued. […]

Categories: Britain, Class, Politics • Tags: dp world, dubai, exploitation, free ports, globalisation, grant shapps, minimum wage, neoliberalism, p&o, quinn slobodian, rishi sunak, trade unions, workers rights

IMPRISONED BY THE POLITICS OF DEMONISATION

May 8, 2024 by Kenan Malik

This essay, on the scandal of IPP prisoners, was published in the Observer on 5 May 2024, under the headline “Unfair jail sentences – one more example of demonising society’s ‘morally unfit’”. David Blunkett acknowledged last week that it was the “biggest regret” of his political life. As home secretary under Tony Blair in 2001, Blunkett was the architect of the “imprisonment for public protection” scheme, or IPP. Under the IPP system, offenders were given a sentence (or “tariff”) proportionate to the […]

Categories: Britain, Justice & Liberties • Tags: demonisation, injustice, ipp, new labour, prisons, respect agenda, richard sennett, tony blair, ungripp