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Ash Sarkar

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Ash Sarkar
Sarkar in December 2019
Born (1992-04-17) 17 April 1992 (age 32)
Enfield, London
NationalityBritish
Alma materUniversity College London
Occupation(s)Journalist, academic, activist

Ash Sarkar (born 17 April 1992)[1][2] is a British journalist and left-wing political activist. She is a senior editor at Novara Media[3] and teaches at the Sandberg Institute.[3] In 2017, she taught Global Politics at Anglia Ruskin University as an associate lecturer.[1] Sarkar is a contributor to The Guardian[3] and The Independent.[4]

Early life and education

Sarkar grew up in Palmers Green, North London and was raised by her mother, a social worker. Sarkar's great-great-aunt, Pritilata Waddedar, was a Bengali nationalist who participated in armed struggle against the British Empire in 1930s Bengal.[5] Her grandmother is a hospital carer.[1] Her mother is a social worker[1] who was an anti-racist and trade union activist in the 1970s and 1980s,[5][6] helping to organise marches after the racially motivated murder of Altab Ali.[6] Sarkar says that, as a child, her mother briefly met Mao Zedong while in Beijing.[7]

She attended a comprehensive school before moving to a selective grammar school for sixth form education.[1] She gained undergraduate and master's degrees in English Literature from University College London.[8]

Career

Sarkar is a senior editor at Novara Media and teaches at the Sandberg Institute in Amsterdam.[9] In 2017, she taught Global Politics at Anglia Ruskin University as an associate lecturer.[1]

She is a contributor to The Guardian[3] and The Independent.[1]

Political views, controversies and reception

Sarkar at The World Transformed 2017

In her writings and commentary, Sarkar has expressed anti-imperialist,[10] feminist,[11] anti-fascist,[12] and libertarian communist[13] views. She has taken part in anti-racist, anti-fascist and anti-Trump protests[14] and joined a hunger strike to protest against the detention of asylum seekers at Yarl's Wood Immigration Removal Centre.[15] She supported the Stansted 15's actions against deportation flights.[16] After a clip of her telling Piers Morgan on Good Morning Britain that she was "literally a communist!" went viral, Sarkar clarified her views as libertarian communist, a "long termist" who supports Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn's anti-austerity policies.[13][8][17][18]

Sarkar's writing and broadcasting makes liberal use of humour and London slang, and she has written that politics "should be joyful and exuberant."[8]

Although she only became a Labour Party member during the UK General Election campaign in late 2019,[19] Sarkar (and Novara Media more generally) has become closely associated in media commentary with Jeremy Corbyn's democratic socialist project:[20] The Times has described her as "Britain's loudest Corbynista".[1]

In November 2017, responded positively to calls by a speaker at a World Transformed festival to "make the left hate again", pointing to Philip May, husband of the then-Prime Minister, as a legitimate target.[21] Sarkar declared: "I'm on Team Hate".[21]

In January 2018, Sarkar suggested to Conservative MP Andrew Rosindell that the British national anthem be changed to a "grime banger" such as "Wearing My Rolex".[22]

In September 2018, Sarkar defended anti-Zionist activist Ewa Jasiewicz, who had spraypainted "Free Gaza and Palestine" onto a wall of the Warsaw Ghetto.[23]

Personal life

Sarkar lives in North London[24] and is a Tottenham Hotspur supporter. She is a Muslim.[8]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Fisher, Lucy (4 June 2018). "Meet Ash Sarkar, Britain's loudest Corbynista". The Times. ISSN 0140-0460. Retrieved 26 August 2018.
  2. ^ Caesar, Ayo [@AyoCaesar] (17 April 2020). "28 today" (Tweet). Retrieved 17 April 2020 – via Twitter.
  3. ^ a b c d "Ash Sarkar". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 12 July 2018. Retrieved 26 August 2018.
  4. ^ "Ash Sarkar". The Independent. Archived from the original on 17 July 2018. Retrieved 26 August 2018.
  5. ^ a b Sarkar, Ash (5 February 2018). "My great-great-aunt was a terrorist: women's politics went beyond the vote". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 15 July 2018. Retrieved 28 August 2018.
  6. ^ a b Sarkar, Ash (21 August 2018). "This isn't just a culture war – we need a radical anti-fascist movement right now". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 22 August 2018. Retrieved 26 August 2018.
  7. ^ Jones, Owen (20 July 2018). "Owen Jones meets Ash Sarkar | Is communism 'literally' back?". Retrieved 8 February 2019.
  8. ^ a b c d Hogan, Michael (22 July 2018). "Interview: 'That's when I lost my temper': Ash Sarkar on her clash with Piers Morgan". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 28 July 2018. Retrieved 26 August 2018.
  9. ^ "Shadow Channel", Sandberg Instituut.
  10. ^ Sarkar, Ash (5 February 2018). "My great-great-aunt was a terrorist: women's politics went beyond the vote | Ash Sarkar". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 8 February 2019.
  11. ^ Sarkar, Ash (8 March 2018). "Let's put the politics back into International Women's Day | Ash Sarkar". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 8 February 2019.
  12. ^ Sarkar, Ash (21 August 2018). "This isn't just a culture war – we need a radical anti-fascist movement right now | Ash Sarkar". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 8 February 2019.
  13. ^ a b Diavolo, Lucy (15 July 2018). "Meet Ash Sarkar, the Communist Who Called Piers Morgan an 'Idiot'". Teen Vogue. Retrieved 8 February 2019.
  14. ^ "Piers Morgan clashes with anti-Trump protester who calls him an 'idiot'". The Irish News. 12 July 2018. Retrieved 8 February 2019.
  15. ^ Sarkar, Ash (28 February 2018). "By demeaning refugees, Tories have caused the Yarl's Wood hunger strike | Ash Sarkar". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 8 February 2019.
  16. ^ "Ash Sarkar Meets the Stansted 15". Novara Media. Retrieved 8 February 2019.
  17. ^ https://www.ft.com/content/59ca75e0-7598-11e9-b0ec-7dff87b9a4a2
  18. ^ "'I'm literally a communist' T-shirt – literally free market economics | Coffee House". Blogs.spectator.co.uk. 17 July 2018. Retrieved 12 January 2020.
  19. ^ https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m000d22y#playt=00h31m04s BBC Radio 4, Any Questions, 10 January 2020
  20. ^ Chakelian, Anoosh. ""Luxury communism now!" The rise of the pro-Corbyn media". www.newstatesman.com. Retrieved 8 February 2019.
  21. ^ a b Tim Shipman (26 November 2017). "Left aimed hate at Philip May | News". The Sunday Times. Retrieved 12 January 2020.
  22. ^ "The UK National Anthem Probably Should Be a "Grime Banger," You Know". VICE. 18 January 2018. Retrieved 12 January 2020.
  23. ^ Hugo Rifkind (11 September 2018). "The shameful silence of Labour's top team | Comment". The Times. Retrieved 12 January 2020.
  24. ^ "Meet the voices resetting the political agenda in the UK". Dazed. 4 July 2018. Archived from the original on 4 July 2018.
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