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Kerry-Anne Mendoza

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Kerry-Anne Mendoza
Born
Kerry-Anne Mendoza

(1981-06-13) 13 June 1981 (age 43)
Kingswood, South Gloucestershire, England, UK
NationalityBritish
Occupation(s)Writer, journalist, social commentator
SpouseNancy Mendoza

Kerry-Anne Mendoza (born 13 June 1981)[1] is an English writer, journalist and social commentator. She is the former editor-in-chief of The Canary, a left-wing new media outlet.

Early life and education

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Mendoza was brought up in Kingswood, near Bristol. She was educated at Kingsfield Secondary School, then started a history degree at the University of Sussex. After a fact-finding programme in Israel/Palestine in 2002 (during the Al-Aqsa Intifada, a Palestinian uprising against Israel), in which she witnessed an Israeli attack in the West Bank city of Ramallah, she withdrew from the university course.[2] She later described her two visits to Palestine in 2002, and the Iraq War of 2003, as key moments in her "radicalisation into [a] social justice warrior".[3]

Career

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Mendoza has been a project manager for high street banks and is a former management consultant in banking, local government and the NHS, who left her job to join the Occupy protest.[4][5]

She co-founded The Canary in 2015, and is its first editor-in-chief.[6][5]

Her book, Austerity: The Demolition of the Welfare State and the Rise of the Zombie Economy (ISBN 978-1-78026-246-8), was published in 2015.[7][8]

She has written under "Scriptonite" on the Scriptonite Daily blog[9] and has been a contributor for major news organisations such as The Guardian,[4] openDemocracy,[10] the New Internationalist[11] and RT UK.[12][13]

Since 2017, she has appeared on the BBC topical debate programmes Question Time and Any Questions?[2][14][15]

In 2018, she was invited by the Black Members’ Council of the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) to give its annual Black History Month lecture in honour of Claudia Jones, to be held at the offices of The Guardian newspaper. However, many of that paper's journalists objected, due to The Canary's role in the detention and deportation of a Guardian freelancer, Carl David Goette-Luciak in Nicaragua, and the event did not go ahead.[16][17][18][19]

Views and social media

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Politically, Mendoza was a staunch defender of Jeremy Corbyn's 2015–2019 tenure as Labour Party leader.[20]

In January 2020, Mendoza was accused of comparing Brexit celebrations to Nazi Germany after suggesting, on Twitter, that Brexit celebrations could descend into a "21st century Kristallnacht".[21] In August 2020, she was criticised for using, in another tweet, a slogan which appeared above the gates of some Nazi concentration camps: "Get Brexit done Build, build, build Jobs, jobs, jobs Arbeit macht frei".[22] Explaining the second tweet, Mendoza told Jewish News (writing that the slogan appeared over the gates of Nazi death camps) that "the historical resonance of the phrase was the entire point", stating that "The replacement of meaningful political debate with propagandist slogans, alongside the demonisation of refugees and people seeking asylum should be a source of national shame for England." She also considered it "a compliment to be criticised by a Conservative MP helping drive that descent into fascism."[22]

In autumn 2020, she joined the Welsh independence campaign YesCymru after moving to Wales. In February 2021 the group initiated an investigation into alleged antisemitism in relation to the tweet which made use of the phrase "Arbeit macht frei" to criticise Brexit. She stated that the allegations were "baseless" and part of a "right-wing smear campaign".[23][24]

Personal life

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In 2010, Kerry-Anne formed a civil partnership with Nancy Mendoza.[2] They live in the South Wales Valleys.[25][26]

References

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  1. ^ "Kerry-Anne MENDOZA - Personal Appointments". Companies House. Retrieved 25 January 2020.
  2. ^ a b c Daly, Patrick (28 June 2017). "The Canary's Bristolian editor Kerry-Anne Mendoza is going to be on Question Time - this is the story of how she got there". Bristol Post. Retrieved 20 March 2018.
  3. ^ Rashty, Sandy (17 December 2020). "Corbyn carefully avoids mentioning antisemitism in interview with left-wing site". Jewish News. Retrieved 20 April 2021.
  4. ^ a b "Kerry-anne Mendoza". The Guardian. Retrieved 2 June 2016.
  5. ^ a b Mayhew, Freddy (20 October 2016). "The Canary: From £500 start-up to top-100 UK news website in the space of a year". Press Gazette. Retrieved 22 March 2018.
  6. ^ Spence, Alex (18 August 2016). "Jeremy Corbyn and the disruptive Canary". POLITICO. Retrieved 22 March 2018.
  7. ^ Miles, Jim (1 June 2015). "Kerry-Anne Mendoza's 'Austerity' – A Review". Foreign Policy Journal. Retrieved 2 June 2016.
  8. ^ "Austerity – New Internationalist". New Internationalist. Retrieved 2 June 2016.
  9. ^ "Values". The Canary. Retrieved 2 June 2016.
  10. ^ "Kerry-anne Mendoza". openDemocracy. Archived from the original on 14 April 2016. Retrieved 2 June 2016.
  11. ^ Mendoza, Kerry-anne. "Kerry-anne Mendoza". New Internationalist. Archived from the original on 10 June 2016. Retrieved 4 June 2016.
  12. ^ Bloodworth, James (9 May 2016). "Beware those critics that prefer Putin's propaganda to the BBC". International Business Times UK. Retrieved 2 June 2016.
  13. ^ Kerry-anne Mendoza, Editor-in-Chief of The Canary. Keiser Report. RT UK. 1 February 2016.
  14. ^ "Any Questions?". BBC. BBC Radio 4. 10 March 2018. Retrieved 22 March 2018.
  15. ^ Gray, Jasmin (30 June 2017). "Canary Editor Booed By White Men For Saying There's No Diversity In Media". HuffPost UK. Retrieved 20 April 2021.
  16. ^ Mayhew, Freddy (5 October 2018). "NUJ cancels event with Canary editor after reports targeting Guardian freelancer covering protests in Nicaragua lead to his deportation". Press Gazette. Retrieved 20 April 2021.
  17. ^ Hellen, Nicholas (29 September 2018). "Canary editor: boycott The Guardian... except when I give a lecture there - News". The Sunday Times. Retrieved 20 April 2021.
  18. ^ Stefano, Mark Di (2 October 2018). "A Journalist Has Been Deported From Nicaragua After Being Doxxed By An Online Mob". BuzzFeed. Retrieved 20 April 2021.
  19. ^ Wilby, Peter (3 October 2018). "The Guardian vs the Canary, Tribune rises from the dead and sitting out the people's march". Global Current Affairs, Politics & Culture. Retrieved 20 April 2021.
  20. ^ Spence, Alex (18 August 2016). "Jeremy Corbyn and the disruptive Canary". POLITICO. Retrieved 30 January 2021.
  21. ^ "Canary editor compares Brexit celebrations to Nazi Germany". talkradio.co.uk.
  22. ^ a b "The Canary editor criticised over 'Arbeit Macht Frei' tweet". Jewish News. Retrieved 23 August 2020.
  23. ^ "YesCymru probe into allegation of 'anti-Semitism'". Western Mail via PressReader.com. 13 February 2021. Retrieved 31 March 2021.
  24. ^ "Work sets you free for Welsh independence?". The Eye Magazine. 15 February 2021. Retrieved 31 March 2021.
  25. ^ Mendoza, Kerry-Anne [@TheMendozaWoman] (15 May 2020). "I moved to Wales! Had to get out. Couldn't bear it anymore" (Tweet). Retrieved 30 November 2020 – via Twitter.
  26. ^ "Socialism in the 21st Century". YouTube. Resistance TV. 18 November 2020. Retrieved 30 November 2020.
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