When Sócrates was transferred to Fiorentina, he said: “I’m not interested in cars, luxury homes, I don’t want to grow old accumulating riches... I’m here to read Gramsci in the original language.”
Inter Milan captain and Argentinean full-back Javier Zanetti persuaded his Inter teammates to give up their wages to support Mexico’s Zapatista rebels - and tried to arrange a friendly with them.
Paul Breitner - West German left back won the 1974 FIFA World Cup, scoring in the final. Identified with the 68ers (the 1968 protest movement in Germany). He was seen bringing Mao Zedong's "Little Red Book" to training.
In 1968 (with others) André Mérelle and Michel Oriot from Red Star FC occupied the building of the French FA. Banners were hung with the texts: ‘Le football aux footballeurs!’ and ‘La Fédération, propriété des 600.000 footballeurs.’
Cristiano Lucarelli, of Atalanta, Perugia, and Italy ( manager of Serie C club Ternana),is a communist and after scoring for Italy U21s, celebrated by pulling his jersey over his face to reveal a shirt bearing Che Guevara.
Jackie McNamara Snr, Hibs and Celtic.
"I am a Communist…football is a sick business… the management pulls all the strings and everyone looks out for himself"
Egil Olsen, the former Wimbledon and Norway manager, was a card-carrying member of the Norwegian Workers’ Communist Party and has proudly described himself as a Marxist-Leninist.
Former Spurs player and now Notts Forrest manager Chris Hughton wrote regularly about football for Newsline, the Workers Revolutionary Party's newspaper. He was also an anti-apartheid campaigner.
Am sure there are many more #marxistfootballers but if you fancy a little Marxist hyperlocal satire, please have a look at the Kickstarter for my new book.
The Tories and their coalition cut our services and created 130,000 deaths, despair and a desire to kick the established order
The entitled top tier of the Tories called a badly worded referendum on an issue not in the top ten of people's concerns to save their own party: and dismissed warnings that it wasn’t clear how it would be implemented.
Those Tories in power couldn’t muster anything honest or positive to say about the EU, ran an appalling campaign and lost to inspiring lies (while a media skipped it's duty and focused on the Tories on both sides).
Staying in Cornwall at a lovely cottage. I’ve got my own books (including The State in Capitalist Society by Ralph Miliband) but found this on the shelf. I am going in. #jossysgiantsthenovel
I stood for Labour in Oxfordshire in the local elections, in a remain-voting constituency, with incumbent Tories. Labour had one the seat in the past (2011, slightly different ward boundaries).
Here's what I learned…
First more context: ward is approx 50% '(white) working class' and quite poor, and 50% more middle class. Little diversity, to tell the truth (certainly feels like that to me as an exiled Brummie). 2 Tories, 2 Lib Dems and me as candidates (no, UKIP, Green or others).
We knew a Labour win was unlikely, but we're playing a longer game and put what resources we could muster into the campaign. So we spoke to hundreds of people on the doorstep, mostly either (sometime) Labour voters or likely candidates.
The psychology of some leave voters now hardened into 'just leave' brexiters and some anti-Corbyn 'centrists' seems remarkably similar. They took an initial position for many reasons and rather than the evidence changing their position it merely changes the arguments for it. 1/
In the case of the 'politically homeless' it's hard to see what many of them (nice people, who consider themselves to want a just and fair world) have as a problem with the current labour party leadership and the membership-supported policy raft. 2/
It may be that they struggle with the radicalism (not in global terms, but in recent UK political terms) of a set of transformative policies that could make for a fairer UK (and world). 3/