INVENIRE

In the opening chapter of The Communist Manifesto, Bourgeois and Proletarians , Marx outlines his view of history. "Freeman and slave, patrician and plebeian... oppressor and oppressed."  Marx believed that all history had been a struggle between two classes: the oppressive and the oppressed. In this vein, left-wing nationalists the world over have positioned themselves as the oppressed class within this dichotomy. The modern Manchester Marxist might add "Westminster and Northumbria" to that list. Although almost undiscussed just a few years ago, there is a growing movement amongst socialists in Northern England to secede from the United Kingdom. The Northern Independence Party (NIP) was founded in October 2020, motivated by the belief that the United Kingdom is an illegitimate, ill-founded union and that the Westminster government has been neglectful of Northern England. The NIP now has 1300 members and its Twitter account, which uses the handle  @FreeNorthNow , ha

Donald Trump is a 21st century Andrew Jackson. He mirrors his ascent to power and has been characterised almost identically by his opponents. Men like Trump and Jackson are evidence of a popular desire for powerful governance; people will ignore authoritarian tactics in search of an efficient leader. Image courtesy of Al Drago/The New York Times While Jackson and Trump both presented themselves as defenders of common Americans, it is inaccurate to describe their politics as an appeal to the marginalised. Jackson was concerned with elevating a particular section of the American poor: the white male population. He was vehemently opposed to the abolition of slavery, owning slaves himself and believing it to be vital to the Southern economy. Jackson's rhetoric on economic issues sought to re-empower those who had lost property in the Panic of 1819. The Trump campaign of 2016 mirrored this style of populism immensely; in his announcement speech, he appealed to the unemployed, but he onl