Ethics.

As of January 2021, our Readers' Editor, Jude Wanga, is on extended compassionate leave. You can still contact us at the usual address: [email protected], but we cannot currently commit to a response time.

As one of the focal points for the British left, we recognise our responsibilities to our readers, writers, subjects of discussion, and the movement more broadly. We hold and maintain firm lines against transphobia, homophobia, racism, xenophobia, misogyny, ableism, classism, and all forms of abuse. Whilst we believe that many contradictions within the left can be worked through, we also believe that some contradictions (such as the above behaviours) are fundamentally antagonistic and must be treated as such. To this end, and in recognition of the ethical impacts of whom we choose to support, we will not publish or otherwise work with anybody who holds these views. If somebody has held these views in the past, we would expect some demonstration that they have learnt, reflected, and changed.

Likewise, we recognise that what and how we produce present prefigurative opportunities. We are committed to reaching and developing marginalised and/or less confident writers within the movement. Since our inception, we have been internally monitoring the balance of voices we publish, and we are acutely aware of where we are falling short of what we would like to be, both in terms of what we publish and in the composition of our editorial group. One way we aim to address this discrepancy is by recruiting two new editors; more details will follow in due course.

One area of improvement relates to accessibility and disability justice. We are committed to the liberation and inclusion of D/disabled people. Our website is, as of August 2020, fully compatible with screen readers and keyboard-only navigation. We will continue to monitor this, and conduct an annual audit to ensure that the website meets current accessibility standards. If you have an accessibility issue relating to the website, please let us know. We will be adding more information about our accessibility practices, commitments, and future plans in due course.

We are committed to the principles of abolition and transformative justice. We do not wish to reproduce or reinforce the forms of domination that persist on all levels of our society; indeed, we seek to dismantle these approaches. As such, our processes aim to be transparent, survivor-led, and founded in safety and transformation rather than punishment and isolation. We do not claim the power to ‘hold’ others accountable, but we ask and expect that those who have caused harm hold themselves accountable, and commit to changing their behaviour.

If you would like to raise a concern, please email our Readers’ Editor, Jude Wanga, at [email protected], or email any other member of the group (contact details here). We will acknowledge your message within a maximum of 3 working days.

We offer a ‘right to reply’ for all subjects of discussion or interested readers, though we reserve the right not to publish any such reply if its author does not meet our standards of conduct. If you would like to respond to something you’ve read in New Socialist, please email [email protected]. We will get back to you within a maximum of 7 working days.