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BIG RED DIARY 2020 PLUTO PRESS BIG RED DIARY 2020 First published 2019 by Pluto Press BIG RED 345 Archway Road, London N6 5AA www.plutobooks.com Copyright © Pluto Press 2019 DIARY 2020 The right of the individual contributors to be identified as the authors of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 Edited by Steve Platt Photographs: Peter Arkell, Arpadi, Jean-Louis Atlan, Fibonacci Blue, Todd Buchanan, Biel Calderon, Howard British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Designed by Tom Lynton Davies, Steve Eason, Johnny Eggitt, Melanie Friend, A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Robert Giroux, Global Justice Now, Francesco Gustincich, Picture Research by Izzy Koksal John Harris, Anders Hellberg, Jess Hurd, Timothy Krause, ISBN 978 0 7453 4001 2 Kurdish struggles, David Mansell, Martin Mayer, Christine Writers: Brekhna Aftab, David Castle, McIntosh, Igor Mukhin, Jeff Overs, PYMCA/UIG, Fabio This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and Katherine Connelly, Marc Hudson, Rodrigues, Ronald Reagan Library, Daniel Rosenthal, Ship sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing processes are expected Silveried McKenzie, Tom Milson, to Gaza, Leif Skoogfors, Socialist Worker, Borja García de to conform to the environmental standards of the country of origin. Steve Platt, David Renton, Derek Wall Sola Fernández, Christine Spengler, Julian Stallabrass, Hillel Steinberg, John Sturrock, Dora María Téllez, UN Printed in the United Kingdom Climate change, Jose Villa 2 3 PLUTO PRESS BIG RED DIARY 2020 Welcome 50 years of Pluto Press From 1974 until 1987, Pluto Press published the Big Red Diary – Pluto Press was founded by Richard Kuper in 1969. It had its annual pocket-sized diaries for activists, packed with political origins in the growing political consciousness and radical political information and details of radical campaigns and organisations. activity of the late 1960s, which saw mass mobilisation against the Many of them were themed: there were diaries on feminism, Vietnam War, a radical student movement, the growth of second disarmament, the politics of food and the politics of sport. wave feminism and militant workers’ organisations. Pluto was To celebrate Pluto’s 50th anniversary, we are publishing a named after the Roman god; it is meant to convey the idea of the new Big Red Diary for 2020. This diary looks back over underworld answering back. 50 years of radical politics. Pluto’s output over the first few years was small – it was run part time by one person – and it didn’t really gather momentum until 1972 when Richard Kuper was joined by Michael and Nina Kidron. Early successes included Sheila Rowbotham’s Hidden from History and the Big Red Diary, which was published annually from 1974 until 1987. In its early years, Pluto published books and pamphlets for the organisation International Socialism (IS), but they parted company before the end of the 1970s, while IS transformed itself into the Socialist Workers Party. Pluto’s output grew and diversified through the 1980s, publishing the State of the World atlases, original 4 5 PLUTO PRESS BIG RED DIARY 2020 plays by authors such the Taliban. With the Iraq war and occupation following, American as Caryl Churchill imperialism and political Islam became central concerns of our and David Edgar, publishing through the first decade of the 21st century. The 2000s and crime fiction. It also saw Pluto properly establish itself as an academic publisher, became a distributor most notably through highly successful anthropology textbooks by for Feminist Review, Thomas Hylland Eriksen. History Workshop and Roger van Zwanenberg retired in 2011 leaving Anne Beech others. But ultimately as Managing Director. Recent years have seen Pluto build an the political retreat and online community regressive economics around its website of the 1980s caught where it provides a up with it, and Pluto platform for radical hit serious financial campaigns through difficulties. Roger van podcasts, blogs and Zwanenberg, co-founder of Zed Books, stepped in to become videos. With Veruschka owner and managing director in 1987. Selbach appointed as Roger, along with editorial director Anne Beech, rebuilt and Managing Director in refocused Pluto through the late 1980s and into the ’90s. Out went 2017, Pluto’s staff now the plays and fiction, but in came a more global perspective. Pluto sit on the board and became well known as a publisher of critical works on US foreign own shares. Defying a policy, especially as the UK publisher of the political writings of harsh publishing and Noam Chomsky. It also published widely on Africa and the Middle political climate, Pluto is East, and became the pre-eminent publisher of critical works on currently growing, with Israel and Palestine at a time when few other publishers would staff in the US for the touch the subject. first time, and we look Pluto’s books were in much demand following the 2001 attacks forward to another 50 on the Pentagon and World Trade Center, with Pluto having years of independent published two of the very few books available on Al Qaeda and radical publishing. 6 7 PLUTO PRESS BIG RED DIARY 2020 YEARS OF YEARS OF 50 RADICAL POLITICS 50 RADICAL POLITICS LGBTQ+ Feminism The past 50 years have seen dramatic changes for the LGBTQ+ The radicalism of the 1960s had far-reaching implications for community in the UK – from the decriminalisation of sex between women. In 1968, a strike of women machinists at Ford provided the men to lifting the ban on openly gay military personnel, equalising momentum for the 1970 Equal Pay Act. the age of consent, revoking Section 28 of the Local Government The UK’s first women’s liberation conference was organised Act 1988 (which forbade schools from portraying the ‘acceptability of in 1970, marking the beginning of ‘second wave’ feminism. Its homosexuality as a pretended family relationship’), marriage equality initial demands were free abortion and contraception, equal and the largest number of LGBTQ+ parliamentarians in the world. opportunities, free nurseries and equal pay. High-profile protests The community reckoned with the deadly Admiral Duncan included the 1971 picket of the Miss World contest. pub bombing of 1999, battled against stigma and demonisation The movement was characterised by debates between socialist in the HIV/AIDS epidemic, and has continued to fight everyday feminists, who saw women’s oppression as a mechanism of discrimination. The growth of Pride celebrations across the capitalist society that could be collectively challenged by working- country is testament to the ever-increasing visibility of the LGBTQ+ class women and men, and radical, separatist feminists, who saw community; they remain crucial as gender non-conforming women’s oppression as a product of a patriarchal society and identities and transgender activism enter into the public discourse. thus counterposed the interests of all women to common class Most recently, action has ranged from campaigns for changes interests. Radical feminism increasingly dominated, which resulted to outdated laws and regulations on issues such as blood donation in a shift in focus onto violence against women – initiating, for to the continuing struggle for transgender rights and visibility in example, Reclaim the Night. the face of hostile media representation. With new-found legal ‘Third wave’ feminism, originating in the 1990s, was not a freedoms and growing tolerance and acceptance of deviant self-defined movement and some claim that around 2008 it identities, the community has also had to come to terms with the was supplanted by a ‘fourth wave’. It emphasised personal rise of phenomena such as the ‘pink pound’ and the sponsoring choice and the media happily played along with the idea that of events such as Pride by multinational corporations, causing a feminism equated to individual advancement. These waves also reckoning with the radical history of such events. championed intersectionality, understanding women’s oppression The mainstreaming of previously subversive elements of the as one feature of a wider oppressive system. LGBTQ+ scene, from drag to gay clubbing, has resulted in far- Today, the language of feminism is espoused by corporations reaching debate over how the community can protect its heritage and warmongers. But it also inspires marchers against Donald while ensuring that LGBTQ+ people can achieve representation, Trump and those resisting austerity, which has proved devastating equality and acceptance. to the lives of working women. A new wave faces a stark choice. 20 21 DECEMBER JANUARY MONDAY WEDNESDAY New Year’s Day 30 1 Bank/federal holiday (UK and US) ON THIS DAY 1959 Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista flees the island in the face of revolution led by Fidel Castro TUESDAY THURSDAY 31 2 Bank holiday (Scotland) A police raid on the STONEWALL INN fights back against the police. The gay bar in New York’s Greenwich Village ‘Stonewall riots’ act as a catalyst for a FRIDAY prompts six days of unprecedented new, militant ‘gay liberation’ movement resistance from patrons and local demanding equal rights. On 26 June 3 residents. Exasperated by years of legal 2015, two days before the anniversary oppression, discrimination and violence of Stonewall, the US supreme court (New York even has a statute enforcing finally rules 5-4 in favour of same-sex ON THIS DAY 1792 ‘gender appropriate’ clothing), the marriage nationwide. Mary Wollstonecraft completes A Vindication LGBT community finally snaps and of the Rights of Woman 4 SATURDAY ON THIS DAY 1901 The writer, historian and activist CLR James is born in Tunapuna, Trinidad 5 SUNDAY 1969 Photo © Arpadi/IMAGES/Getty Images FEBRUARY FEBRUARY/MARCH 26 WEDNESDAY THURSDAY 1977 27 ON THIS DAY 1933 The Nazis set fire to the Reichstag, the German parliament, blaming communists Backed by prominent public figures in with ROCK AGAINST RACISM (RAR), music, sport and the arts, as well as a two massive carnivals in 1978 involving broad coalition of political activists and bands such as The Clash, Steel Pulse FRIDAY trade unions (its ‘big-name’ supporters and X-Ray Spex.