Identity Politics: Why the Left Needs to Stop Fighting Culture Wars (Ash Sarkar)

There are some new (and old) faces on the left of British
politics hoping to challenge Keir Starmer’s struggling Labour
government, but could a party to the left of Labour ever win
power?


His predecessor Jeremy Corbyn has setup a new party with another
former Labour MP, Zarah Sultana, who has declared that “Labour is
dead”.


And the Green Party of England and Wales has elected eco-populist
Zack Polanski, who is urging left-leaning voters to back him
rather than waiting around for Corbyn’s party to get off the
ground.


The journalist and political commentator Ash Sarkar has written a
book called ‘Minority Rule’, which argues that the Left has
become bogged down in identity politics and needs to stop
fighting the culture wars so it can focus on building a broad
coalition of support.


A contributing editor at left-wing media organisation Novara
Media, Ash discusses the radical potential for a Marxist approach
to contemporary British politics and why she thinks Karl Marx
would’ve loved Twitter.


She also talks to Amol about why she can’t think of a ‘dumber
group of people’ than Keir Starmer’s cabinet and what lies behind
the recent success of Nigel Farage's Reform UK.


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Episodes of Radical with Amol Rajan are released every Thursday
and you can also watch them on BBC iPlayer:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episodes/m002f1d0/radical-with-amol-rajan
Amol Rajan is a presenter of the Today programme on BBC Radio 4.
He is also the host of University Challenge on BBC One. Before
that, Amol was media editor at the BBC and editor at The
Independent.


Radical with Amol Rajan is a Today Podcast. It was made by Lewis
Vickers with Grace Reeve and Izzy Rowley. Digital production was
by Gabriel Purcell-Davis. Technical production was by Mike
Regaard and Dafydd Evans. The editor is Sam Bonham. The executive
producer is Owenna Griffiths.