A Small Man's England

An exploration of white working-class English men, showing how and why some have been captured by the far-right and what the left can do about it.

IS THE WHITE WORKING CLASS RIGHT-WING? AND IS IT RIGHT-WING TO EVEN SPEAK OF A "WHITE WORKING CLASS"?

In recent decades, as class consciousness has been suppressed and eroded, many white working-class men have turned their backs on the left in favour of the right and the far-right. Why is this?

A Small Man's England is a polemic aimed at the structures of hierarchy that ceaselessly maintain power across Britain and elsewhere, and a call for multicultural solidarity amongst the working class. In analysing the roles that class, race, masculinity and nationality play in neoliberal Britain, Sissons offers a solution to the indoctrination of white working-class English men by the right and the far-right, and explores how working-class people can collectively shape a "Common England" -- a country based on equality and justice for all.

Tommy Sissons is an award-winning poet, political writer, playwright, educator and the literary editor of GRASS Magazine.

He has toured his performance poetry across Europe and worked as the poet-in-residence of Channel 4's TV series Four to the Floor. Other clients have included BBC Radio 1, Red Bull, VICE, Farah, the Imperial War Museum, the National Trust and the Guardian. Sissons' poetry has been studied at the University of Trier in Germany and he has given lectures about widening participation in education and the creative industries at a number of academic institutions. His debut poetry collection, Goodnight Son, was published by Burning Eye Books in 2016.