Our guest this week was born in 1943, in what was then British India – modern day Pakistan. Unlike most, who have learned history through books and second-hand sources, he has witnessed first-hand much of the 20th and 21st centuries.
Tariq Ali founded Verso Books, the leading left-wing publishing house in Britain, as well as the New Left Review. He met Malcolm X, was friends with John Lennon and Hugo Chavez, and spearheaded the anti-Vietnam War movement.
In conversation with Aaron Bastani, this week on Downstream, we are talking about the ways we remember – and misremember – the 20th century, and how these events have a long tail that shapes our present and future.
How significant was the Cultural Revolution in China in sparking anti-colonial struggles across Asia? How do the dynamics of the Cold War still dominate the mainstream media? And who are the substantial political figures and ideologies set to dominate the next decades of the 21st century?