Eating & Drinking

Monday, 20 January 2020 17:31

Dry January, temperance and the Left

Written by Keith Flett

in Eating & Drinking

Keith Flett writes about Dry January, and outlines the history of temperance & the left It’s Dry January – an annual campaign that suggests people should abstain from alcohol during the month, to recover from possible festive excesses and generally to cut down on drinking. It's important to understand that…

Friday, 22 November 2019 20:58

The election: brewing, pubs and beer in Labour's Manifesto

Written by Keith Flett

in Eating & Drinking

Keith Flett sets out some proposals for progressive policies, and discusses how the Labour Manifesto begins the task of addressing a radical overhaul of brewing, pubs and beer Labour has produced a radical Manifesto and it contains some important passages that will positively impact those who drink beer, those who…

Saturday, 31 August 2019 13:01

Big Beer and Big Capital - What is to be done?

Written by Keith Flett

in Eating & Drinking

Keith Flett discusses the challenge of Big Beer and Big Capital in 2019/20. What is to be done to resist and oppose them? Beer writer Roger Protz has noted the strategy of Big Beer: First Big Beer buys up a swathe of independent breweries. Now it’s attempting to control the…

K2_PUBLISHED_ON Wednesday, 30 January 2019 09:59

Beer for the many in 2019

in Eating & Drinking

Written by Keith Flett

Keith Flett surveys the beery landscape of 2019, and considers what a Labour Government could do about Big Beer You don’t need a crystal ball to know that beer in 2019 will follow trends already evident in 2018. In craft beer there is a perpetual search for new styles or…

K2_PUBLISHED_ON Thursday, 08 November 2018 12:36

Healthy drinking behaviour vs. neoliberal capitalism

in Eating & Drinking

Written by Phil Mellows

Phil Mellows reviews the arguments around harm reduction for drinkers; the current dire situation under neoliberal capitalism in terms of harm done by alcohol to the poorest fifth of the population; and argues for a 'paradigm shift' - government policy to address poverty and deprivation, and encourage healthy drinking behaviours.…

K2_PUBLISHED_ON Saturday, 01 September 2018 09:33

A drinking culture for the many, not the few: the importance of beer and pubs

in Eating & Drinking

Written by Keith Flett

Keith Flett offers some ideas on how a socialist Labour government could improve our drinking culture. In the stimulating essay on Culture for the Many, not the Few: Notes towards a Socialist Culture Policy, the authors state this: In our social cultures of eating and drinking, we face the terrible effects…

K2_PUBLISHED_ON Wednesday, 11 July 2018 14:12

The return of Big Beer: the lessons of the Red Revolution of the 1970s

in Eating & Drinking

Written by Keith Flett

To illuminate the current struggle between different segments of brewing capital, Keith Flett looks back at the success of the campaign against Grotny's Red Barrel. Roger Protz could be forgiven for saying, ‘I told you so’ after he had warned about the threat of Big Beer to lovers of good…

Heineken Beavertown

Saturday, 21 April 2018 19:04

Marx, Engels and beer

Written by Keith Flett

in Eating & Drinking

Keith Flett considers the various references to the role beer played in the lives of Marx and Engels. There have been many and varied attempts over the years to paint Karl Marx in particular as a disreputable character whose ideas on capitalism should therefore not be taken seriously. In that…

Tuesday, 13 February 2018 16:05

Good beer versus Big Beer

Written by Keith Flett

in Eating & Drinking

Keith Flett calls for a 'cultural campaign' to defend good beer against Big Beer. In the introduction to the 2018 Good Beer Guide, veteran editor Roger Protz sent out an important message about the threat of Big Beer (aka monopoly capitalism) to cask and craft beer alike. Protz’s concern was…

Monopoly capitalism Good beer guide roger protz craft beer

Thursday, 04 January 2018 10:43

The Bolsheviks and alcohol: policy and practice

Written by Keith Flett

in Eating & Drinking

Keith Flett offers a brief survey of Bolshevik policy and practice towards alcohol consumption. Drink and the left has been an issue since the labour movement was born or made in the 1820s and 1830s. The left, trade unions and political groups often met in pubs for want of other venues,…

Monday, 02 October 2017 18:39

The Moral Economy of the Price of a Pint: For the Many, not the Few?

Written by Keith Flett

in Eating & Drinking

Keith Flett outlines how market capitalism undermined the principle of a fair price for a pint of beer. The price of a pint of beer, or perhaps as accurately the price of a half or third of a pint of beer, has been the source of considerable controversy in recent…