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The Surprise

by Jazzy D




The latch holds firm until it does not hold.
A draft without a door rearranges air.
My hands were full of yesterday’s dull weight
When something not-quite-named stepped through the frame.
No thunder, only the sound a shadow makes
Unstitching itself from the floorboards’ grain.
I did not choose to widen, yet I widened.
The world keeps its new shape inside my ribs.

Lynsey Hanley "Respectable" (Penguin)




This is a book about the class system in the UK. It is about 'the way class builds those walls in the head.' It is a national and a personal journey through class. Lynsey Hanley grew up certain she was working-class but also certain she didn't fit in. She has now successfully made the jump across the class divide and is now certainly middle-class. She writes about the working class life that she knew on a large council estate in the West Midlands and this gives the book a strength as well as limitations.

There are many other working class stories that are different and varied versions of the respectability these groups seek. Lynsey Hanley dismisses interventions such as Sure Start as a middle-class judgement that people in poverty make poor parents. She seems to argue that a more level play-ground economically would be a good start for society, while arguing that for working-class young people there is also safety in conforming and not trying to have aspirations, be too clever and try and jump the class divide. There is plenty of interesting detail here, and a good springboard for readers who  want to discover more of theb class system. 

Derek Wall "Climate Strike" (Martin Press)




Derek is a long-standing and committed environmental activist who, for many years, held leading positions within the Green Party of England and Wales (GPEW), first as Principal Speaker and then as International Co-ordinator. My review copy of his book arrived just as I’d finished the 5C chapter Mark Lynas’s Our Final Warning: Six Degrees of Climate Emergency - which makes painfully clear why drastic climate action is needed right now.

And that is precisely what Derek’s book also does in its first two chapters - but what makes Climate Strike so timely and useful is that, in the remaining eight chapters, it also analyses various attempts to build pressure for change, and suggests practical ways in which, via open debate, analysis and increased co-operation, we can try to achieve those changes.

Before moving on to examine some of the important issues raised and examined by the book, one general strength should be pointed out early on: other than Alan Thornett’s comprehensive Facing the Apocalypse: Arguments for Ecosocialism (2019), you will not find another book on the current Climate Emergency that introduces you to so many valuable thinkers and positive initiatives on all the most critical issues. It is this aspect makes Derek’s latest book such an incredibly rich - and important - book to read.

As a companion piece to it, I would also highly recommend reading his Elinor Ostrom’s Rules For Radicals (2017) - particularly useful for considering possible ways in which to organise a post-capitalist future that is based on co-operation, and doesn’t depend on either markets or state structures.

As the book makes clear, the central dilemma for climate and environmental organisations and activists today is that we need both immediate emergency action to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions and stop the ecological devastation of the natural world, along with a longer-term strategy to create a world that is ecologically sustainable.

One problem for environmental movements, explored in Chapter 8, is the difficulty in persuading enough people of the seriousness of the Climate Crisis, because of the ability of many individuals to banish worrying or unpleasant things - including the Climate Crisis - from their minds. Derek cites George Marshall’s Don’t Even Think About It (2014), which deals with this phenomenon of cognitive dissonance.

Another book which explores this is Stanley Cohen’s States of Denial (2001), which explains how not acknowledging (as opposed to simply knowing) a threat or an injustice allows people to avoid the need to take action.

Although Derek argues that the ever-worsening Climate Emergency the planet is facing stems from capitalism’s entire economic and social system - based on unsustainable continuous and ever-increasing production, consumption and capital accumulation - he does so in way that is free from any narrow dogmatism.

What this book does do, exceptionally well, is to analyse, in a balanced way, where we are now, and how successful/unsuccessful the various climate campaigns and organisations have been so far. In particular, as regards the UK, there are useful examinations of the roles of the GPEW, the trade union/labour movement, and of social movements like Extinction Rebellion and the YouthStrike4Climate.

Derek’s well-argued case is that, ultimately, we need a post-capitalist ecosocialist society. From the most recent developments - XR Scotland’s Reflection Piece, moves to create a new revolutionary Marxist organisation based on ecosocialism, and Left Unity’s recent adoption of an explicitly ecosocialist position, it seems that Derek clearly has his finger on the pulse of the environmental movement. This is most definitely a book to read, to discuss and - most of all, to act on.

Evening Settles

by Jazzy D




The sun dips behind the rooftops,
Turning brick and glass to warm amber.
Birds trade their last calls across fences,
And the streets grow quiet, one car at a time.

Lights click on in kitchens and living rooms.
Someone puts the kettle on. A dog stretches.
The day sets down its weight,
And evening takes its place, simple and steady.

Mercurial Weather

by Jazzy D




Sun then sudden rain
Umbrella opens, closes
Sky changes its mind
Again.