Sport

Personal reflections on the World Cup

Stocksbridge Works football team in days of yore – definitely not heading for Qatar, more likely The Miners’ Arms. It’s hard to think of a World Cup which hasn’t, at some point, aroused controversy, both on and off the pitch. "Politics and sport shouldn’t mix" is a standard response to this situation but one which is feeble, ignores reality and misses the point: it is inevitable that the world’s most popular sport should attract political controversy, particularly now that every word, every move, every gesture is conveyed around the world in a matter of seconds. Even so, the astonishing...

Trans rights in sport

Solidarity 634 was unfortunate to include a debate article and a letter that could, at best, be described as misguided and at worst, nonsensically transphobic. Ally Goodwin’s piece ("Erasing world-class sportswomen?"), a response to Zack Muddle’s article (in 632) regarding the inclusion of trans women in women’s sports, attempts to make the case against on the basis of biological essentialism. Goodwin states, perhaps pre-empting a backlash, that “those pesky fact-mongerers [sic] who defend the biology-based classification, ‘women’, are going to be labelled transphobic”. Whether or not they are...

Erasing world-class sportswomen?

Zack Muddle ( Solidarity 632 ) mobilises all his certainties to resolve the dilemma which pits women’s rights against trans women’s rights in sport. In an article which reads as an attitude in search of justifications, Zack ignores the science to come down on the side of trans-women’s rights. He proposes sport deletes its sex-based classificatory system to broaden the category “women” to include biological males. Zack may not intend to, but in cancelling respect for the sex-based category of “women” he echoes reactionary notions that women’s sport should not be valued in its own right. Women’s...

Bend It Like Beckham, Blairism and class politics

Originally published on Media Diversified , a website for writers of colour. We republish with thanks. You can donate to Media Diversified here . I must have watched Bend It Like Beckham a dozen times – most recently on the twentieth anniversary of its release, last week. At the top of the UK box office for over three months in 2002, Gurinder Chadha’s film became a hit worldwide: the only film ever, believe it or not, officially released in every country, North Korea included. There are pages of statistics for its success. It undoubtedly had special resonance for British Asians. As a middle...

Johnson signals threat to trans rights

Speaking on Sky News, 6 April , Boris Johnson doubled-down on his attack on trans rights. Defending a move to permit and legitimise anti-trans conversion therapy, he signalled a wider range of attacks on trans, women’s, and children’s rights: • Opposition to Gillick competence • Possible opposition to young people and children’s trans healthcare even with parental consent • That trans women should be excluded from women’s spaces “Gillick competence” refers, since a court ruling in 1985, to an assessment that an under-16 year old is legally able to consent to their own medical treatment...

Women's Fightback: Changing the culture in football

The Football Association and Premier League have been called on to improve players’ education on consent and healthy relationships. An open letter from women’s groups called on chief executives Mark Bullingham and Richard Masters “to confront a culture of gender-based violence”. The letter was signed by The End Violence Against Women Coalition, The Three Hijabis and Level Up. It comes after the arrest of Manchester United forward Mason Greenwood on suspicion of sexual assault and threats to kill. He is not the only Premiership player accused of sexual assault. Manchester City footballer...

Behind the Beijing Winter Olympics

The Chinese government has been carefully preparing its propaganda in the run-up to the 2022 Winter Olympic Games, opening in Beijing on 4 February. Every Games is an occasion for self-promotion by the host state, and grubby cash-in opportunities for big business. This year, too: the Chinese government hopes to showcase a tightly managed image and launder its reputation abroad. These Games have faced an especially intense backlash in connection to Chinese state repression, particularly the abuses in Hong Kong and against the Uyghurs. Beijing will be attempting to counter this. And, given the...

Yorkshire cricket: a racist disgrace

Yorkshire County Cricket Club (YCCC) has stumbled into a self-made crisis which has been decades in the making. Azeem Rafiq (pictured), a Pakistani-born Yorkshire cricketer who played for the club in two stints from 2008 to 2018, suffered racist discrimination and bullying which left him close to suicide. YCCC reluctantly commissioned an independent report into Rafiq’s allegations but has refused to publish the final document. The club recently announced that no disciplinary action would be taken against those responsible for the bullying, which it accepts took place, adding that the regular...

The Morning Star and the “culture war”

Everyone who takes even a passing interest in politics knows that Johnson’s government is waging a “culture war” or “war on woke” against so-called “liberals” who oppose racism and other forms of prejudice. It is also well known that this is a worked out strategy, developed by Johnson’s advisers Dougie Smith and Munira Mirza — a couple who have close links with the “libertarian”-right Spiked outfit. This strategy began over five years ago in an anti-EU campaign based upon hostility towards other European countries and the demonisation of immigrants. Every politically aware person in Britain...

Women's Fightback: Don't trust the "ethics committees"

Rogério Caboclo, the Brazilian Football Confederation president, has been suspended after accusations of “sexual and moral harassment”. The suspension comes just days after the announcement that Brazil will host the Copa America, Brazil was chosen at the last minute after Colombia was forced to withdraw because of anti-government protests and co-host Argentina was ruled out due to coronavirus infection rates. The worker alleges Caboclo called her into his office and asked her to remove her mask and offered her alcohol. The employee messaged two CBF directors who came and “rescued” her. However...

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