Support our work: http://novara.media/support Tickets to our event with Naomi Klein & Astra Taylor https://www.tickettailor.com/events/novaramedia/2364456 We live in a moment when the working class is fractured along a great many lines. Gone are the days of solidarity built around a shared experience of factory work that formed the bedrock of Karl Marx’s analysis of class struggle – and his vision of emancipation. Meanwhile in the halls of power, elites in our politics have failed for decades now to really grasp what people in Britain care about and need - resorting to lame stand-ins such as ‘Mondeo man’ and ‘Stevenage woman’, Farage’s new favourite: ‘alarm clock Britain’. What are they missing? Lived experience, apart from anything else. On Downstream this week, Ash Sarkar sat down with campaigner and author Jonas Patrick Marvin to discuss his new book ‘The Breaking of the English Working Class’. Weaving autobiographical detail with political theory, Marvin tackles head-on the class forces that have shaped his own life. Why can’t people born in London afford to stay and build lives there? Who gets to define themselves as working class, and on what grounds? How should the left respond to rising anti-immigration politics? Why has the working class become so fragmented, and what can be done to repair it? Jonas’ book is available from Verso here: https://www.versobooks.com/en-gb/products/3145-the-breaking-of-the-english-working-class 0:00 Intro 3:53 Why is the Working Class So Divided in 2026? 7:38 London and Stoke-On-Trent: A Tale of Two Cities 16:48 How Have Class Structures Changed Since Marx’s Day? 21:55 Is Life Better or Worse Today than Previously? 24:20 Defining Class 31:40 Who Gets to be Working Class? 37:30 Alan Sugar: Working Class Boy-Done-Good? 39:37 Jonas’ Grandad Patrick 43:15 The Working Class and Immigration 50:36 Responding to Suella Braverman and Priti Patel 53:32 Does the Left Hate British Culture? 57:56 Radical Histories of Post-Industrial Britain 1:01:13 Appropriation Versus Solidarity 1:03:22 How Does Class Impact Health? 1:07:34 Why Do Nigel Farage and Reform Appeal to Working Class Voters? 1:10:58 Why ‘Your Party’ Failed 1:13:40 Vibes-Based Politics: An Assessment of Andy Burnham 1:16:50 How Should the Greens Respond to Labour’s New Direction? 1:19:07 Favourite Dizzee Rascal Song? Subscribe to the Downstream newsletter: https://novaramedia.com/newsletters/the-downstream-newsletter/ Buy Novara Media merch: https://shop.novaramedia.com/

From Novara Media via This RSS Feed.