Ash Sarkar, Michael Chessum

Culture Wars & Cancel Culture

Age restriction notice: 12+ only

Description

Join Ash Sarkar and Michael Chessum for a powerful conversation on the complexities and contradictions within contemporary leftist politics.  

From the rise of cancel culture and wokeism to the increasing fragmentation of progressive movements, Sarkar and Chessum will explore why political progressivism seems to falter in the face of cultural and social change.  

Drawing on their expertise in activism and political thought, they will discuss how ideological purity, social media dynamics, and generational divides have reshaped the left’s ability to effect meaningful change.  

This event offers an essential critique of today’s political landscape and a look towards its future. 

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About the Speakers

Ash Sarkar

Ash Sarkar

Ash Sarkar is a British journalist, academic, and activist. Senior editor at Novara Media, she writes and speaks on race, class, feminism, and colonial history. Known for her sharp political commentary and engaging media presence, Sarkar blends radical politics with cultural critique across platforms, including broadcast, print, and academia.

Michael Chessum

Michael Chessum

Michael Chessum is a journalist and activist who has been on the front line of the new left movements of recent years. He co-founded the National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts, playing a prominent role in the student protests of 2010 and the anti-austerity movement that followed. When Momentum was created, he was elected to its first Steering Committee and served as its Treasurer, and worked as a press officer and speechwriter on Jeremy Corbyn’s second leadership campaign. As National Organizer for the left wing anti-Brexit group Another Europe is Possible, he became a dissident within Corbynism and a prominent voice in the public debate on Brexit and migrants’ rights.

He has written on politics and social movements for more than a decade, and has reported from the ground as left movements surged in Chile and Greece. His writing has been published in the Guardian and Observer, the New Statesman, The Independent, Vice, Novara, The London Review of Books and many others.