DARREN McGarvey issued a rallying call to the UK’s working class on Tuesday night as he delivered BBC Radio 4’s third Reith Lecture of 2022.
The Poverty Safari author gave a 30-minute speech on freedom from want for the long-running series inspired by Franklin D Roosevelt’s famous four freedoms speech.
McGarvey joins the likes of Stephen Hawking and Bertrand Russell in taking on society’s big issues.
This year, BBCR4 will travel to London, Wales, Glasgow and Washington DC. Audiences will hear Lord Rowan Williams explore freedom of worship, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie talk about freedom of speech and Dr Fiona Hill discuss freedom from fear.
McGarvey gave the penultimate speech at City of Glasgow College where he criticised the left and right wings of politics for what he suggested was an unbalanced and impractical view of individualism and collectivism.
Discussing themes of inequality and poverty, the Orwell Prize winner spoke about his own upbringing, personal responsibility and systemic change.
Talking to a packed audience in the college’s theatre, the activist and hip-hop artist said “individual sovereignty is over-stated by the right and underemphasised by the left”.
McGarvey argued that in an age defined by economic uncertainty and poor leadership, the rights and responsibilities of the individual, as defined by the right and left, are no longer sufficient, accusing each side of pursuing "ideological continuity" to the detriment of individuals.
He said that in order to see true change people must take action in their personal as well as political lives.
Crowds gave a roaring applause as McGarvey finished his speech with a rallying call to working-class people in the UK, urging them to turn their anger into action.
This, he said, is something that is not a moral argument but a practical one as the poorest people in the UK realise that help may not be coming.
The lecture comes after the rapper won two RTS awards for best on-screen personality and best documentary and specialist factual of the year for his BBC series Class Wars.
McGarvey’s Reith Lecture will be broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on Wednesday, December 14 and will be available on BBC sounds thereafter.
