Evening all: Jane here with the Tuesday edition.

Today’s content has the theme of unrest: people stirring things up, and not always in a good way.

Veteran media watcher Branko Brkic reflects on a speech by the powerful New York Times boss AG Sulzberger, who is leading the fightback against AI data theft; Natasha Walter is standing up for the right to protest; and our columnist Sangita Myska looks at how Nigel Farage has exploited Henry Nowak’s murder. Plus we have a healthy dose of optimism and inspiration in our weekly cultural hotlist. 

On the eve of the sentencing of four Palestine Action campaigners this Friday, Natasha writes on the increasingly harsh response to protest in the UK. While she was en route to Leeds today to speak about her timely new book, Feminism for a World on Fire, I asked Natasha for some thoughts on the shifting political landscape. 

“These are such strange and troubling times – there seems to be a real mismatch between what is going on in terms of state repression of dissent, and the public awareness or political salience of the issue. I do think a lot of people are just brushing past this increasing repression because they think this is only affecting extremists, that it's only ever going to affect extremists. And of course the more that protesters are criminalised and called terrorists, the easier it is to marginalise them. 

“I guess I partly feel very passionate about this issue because of my family history – as I write in the column today, my grandfather was imprisoned for three years in Germany for his involvement with the Communist party and the anti-Nazi resistance. This was in 1933 when nobody could foresee how bad things would get, and if ordinary people had really resisted that wave of repression, God knows things could have been very different. I hate lazy 1930s parallels, but also it's vital not to forget key lessons from history. 

“And I also grew up with parents who often risked arrest because of their actions in the nuclear disarmament movement. My mother, Ruth Walter, helped to organise the illegal demonstration in Trafalgar Square in 1961 that saw more than 1,000 peace protesters arrested, and my father was sent to prison for heckling Labour politicians in 1968. There was undoubtedly state repression of protest then, and for a long time I thought the current situation was really no worse than that. 

“But the direction of travel now is increasingly troubling. The sentencing of protesters this Friday, and the way their trials have been conducted, are so chilling. Let's hear more about this, let's make more noise, before more of us are silenced.”

Finally, before the links to today’s content, a few housekeeping details.

A week on from publishing Lucia Osborne-Crowley’s interview with the French feminist icon Gisèle Pelicot, as promised, here’s an edited film of their conversation.

You can also watch a film of the crazy Hay festival event where co-founder Carole was all set to talk to Sarah Wynn-Williams, author of the explosive memoir Careless People, but Meta’s lawyers intervened and Sarah was forced to sit in silence due to a Facebook gagging order. If you missed it on Friday here is the link to Carole’s piece.

And here are the links to today’s stories.

“When Labour took power,” Natasha writes, “many who voted for them expected them to repeal the anti-protest legislation that had been put in place by the Conservatives.” But in fact, she says, the government seems to have acquiesced to the Tory status quo: “Indeed, it’s telling that so often this government doesn’t actively own these repressive developments, but portrays itself as simply compelled to carry them out”. Read the full piece here.

Yesterday, eight people pleaded guilty to violent disorder following protests in Southampton over the murder of 18-year-old stabbing victim Henry Nowak, who died in police handcuffs after his killer claimed that Henry had racially attacked him. These protests followed an "emergency address" by NIgel Farage on 2 June calling for people to react with "pure cold rage" to Henry’s murder, and claiming that police failings were proof of a culture that downgrades white people's rights. Or, as the Nerve’s political commentator Sangita Myska says: "Nigel Farage heard an excuse to open his factory of lies." His speech led to acres of newsprint and hours of media debate about whether we have a “two-tier” policing system – demonstrating exactly "the process by which propaganda is rationalised and lies are legitimised". Read her column here.

Branko Brkic, the former editor-in-chief of South Africa’s Daily Maverick, was in the audience at the World News Media Congress in Marseille last week to witness the thunderous keynote speech from the New York Times boss AG Sulzberger, in which he called on news organisations to rise up against the theft of their content by Big Tech. “This is not a relationship of equals – especially not when the US political and justice system is skewed towards the ones with bigger bank accounts,” Branko writes. Read the piece here.

Subscribers should have received a special delivery of Stewart’s column by email yesterday evening, but in case you missed it, he is writing on the US secretary of state for war, who was in France last week warning about the threat of invasion from different ideologies. As Stewart notes: “If all the ideologies Hegseth fears arrive on the metaphorical beach at the same time it’s going to get very crowded. Hopefully the Germans will have staked out a few sun-loungers with their towels before breakfast in case feminism and environmentalism try to get all the best spots.” Read the full column here. 

Romantic relationships in their fun yet often painful forms loom large in the hotlist this week. Alice & Steve, Disney’s tale of messy midlife entanglements starring Nicola Walker and Jemaine Clement, is hailed by Julia Raeside as the best new comedy of the year, while Jem Calder’s zeitgeisty debut novel, I Want You to Be Happy, explores contemporary life and love in “a devastatingly sharp and accurate” manner, according to Michaela Makusha. There’s also the return of War Horse, Lee “Scratch” Perry’s parting musical gift and much more. Check out the hotlist here.

We will be back on Friday. Thank you for reading and if you know someone who might enjoy our newsletters do forward this on to them. And if you can click on the ad below it helps us earn a little extra revenue. 🙏

Jane

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