Ash Sarkar

Ash Sarkar in 2021

Ashna Sarkar (born 1992) is a British journalist and self-described libertarian communist political activist. She is a senior editor at Novara Media and teaches at the Sandberg Institute in Amsterdam. Sarkar is a contributor to The Guardian and The Independent.

Quotes

• I'm on Team Hate.
  • Reportedly said at "Take Back Control", an element of the Momentum festival, "The World Transformed" (April 2017), as cited in "Left aimed hate at Philip May" The Sunday Times (26 November 2017). A campaign proposal against Philip May, the husband of then Conservative prime minister Theresa May.

• [Asked what makes her tick?] Petty vengeance and hopefulness.
• Mama Sarkar didn't raise a diplomat.
  • From an interview with Lucy Fisher, as cited in "Meet Ash Sarkar, Britain's loudest Corbynista", The Times (4 June 2018)

• I'm literally a communist, you idiot.
  • To Piers Morgan on Good Morning Britain ([12] July 2018), as cited in "'That’s when I lost my temper': Ash Sarkar on her clash with Piers Morgan" The Observer (22 July 2018).

• No ones saying that Jewish people don’t experience racism. That’s obviously true, especially online. But unlike me, you can *also* benefit from white privilege.
  • Tweet (30 June 2019)

• The unfortunate truth is that, sometimes, the only thing that separates an anonymous troll and a journalist is a byline. Some of the worst abuse I’ve received is either from journalists or the direct consequence of their actions in spreading misinformation about me.
  • "Julie Burchill abused me for being Muslim – yet she was cast as the victim" The Guardian (16 March 2021)
  • After journalist Julie Burchill had paid "substantial damages" and Sarkar's legal costs in a defamation case.

• If the super-rich can spend £250,000 on vanity jaunts 2.4 miles beneath the ocean then they’re not being taxed enough.
• We get well-funded public services, they get saved from the consequences of their own hubris. What's not to like?
  • Two tweets (21 June 2023), as cited in "'They are heroes': Boris Johnson hits out at 'lefties' questioning Titanic sub trip" The Independent (23 June 2023)

• The Titanic submarine is a modern morality tale of what happens when you have too much money, and the grotesque inequality of sympathy, attention and aid for those without it.
  • Tweet (22 June 2023)

About Sarkar

• We would ask the BBC to explain why someone who defended the desecration of a memorial to the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising has been invited to speak on a programme about the rise of the Nazis.
  Given the outrage her comments have caused, the invitation by the programme makers seems both insensitive and provocative.
  • Marie van der Zyl, President of the Board of Deputies, as cited in President"BBC accused of insulting Jews for employing 'Corbyn cheerleader' on Rise of the Nazis documentary" The Telegraph (3 September 2019)
  • In a tweet (September 2018), Sarkar had defended two individuals responsible for the vandalism of a surviving wall of the Warsaw Ghetto as "not antisemitic. They’re anti-racist". On the wall, they had spray painted "free Gaza and Palestine, liberate all ghettos". Sarkar's participation in a BBC documentary series Rise of the Nazis was contentious.