Wiki Biography / Profile Background
Introduction :
Aaron Bastani is well-known for being one of the biggest supporters of British politician Jeremy Corbyn, who served as the Leader of the Opposition from 2015 to 2020. Aaron also has a strong online presence on social media.
Personal Life : Parents, Family and Education
- Aaron Bastani was born on 24th February 1984 in Bournemouth, England, and grew up with his mother’s surname as Aaron Peters.
- His mother was a single parent and held various different jobs like a cleaner, a sandwich maker, and then a social worker, till she passed away in 2015. She was always a Conservative voter.
- In 2014, Aaron took on his father Mammad’s surname and is now known as Aaron Bastani. Aaron’s dad was born in Iran and ended up in Britain as a refugee after being advised by his parents to not return back home to Iran due to the 1979 Islamic Revolution that happened there.
- For his education, Aaron completed his Bachelor’s degree in European Social and Political Studies at the University College of London. He then went on to do his master’s at the same university in International Public Policy.
- In 2010, he was accepted into the PH.D program at Royal Holloway University of London and titled his thesis as, “The Relationship between Connective and Collective Action in Austerity Britain.”
Interests and Outlook :
- Aaron views himself as a feminist, prison abolitionist and a libertian communist.
- He has previously showed interest and support for the Conservative Party, the Green Party and also for the moderate Labour MP David Miliband.
Career, Job, Salary and Net Worth :
- Aaron started his career by interning at British thinktanks The Young Foundation and Demos, after which he was a freelance writer for almost 2 years.
- He co-founded Novara Media in 2013, a social and political commentary forum and presently holds the titles of Senior Editor and Main Broadcaster.
- In 2017, The Guardian reported that Novara Media had ‘200 contributing writers, 700 supporters and 10,000 committed viewers and listeners.’ Aaron has also claimed that Novara’s Facebook content reached three million people during the last general election.
- Since the election of Jeremy Corbyn as the Labour Party’s Leader, Aaron has appeared on various programs on mainstream media show like BBC’s Daily Politics and This Week, various ‘Sky News’ programmes and others.
- In 2015, he joined Silke Digital as their Director of Director Strategy. It is a London based social communications agency. He has also written for various publications like LRB, Vice and Open Democracy after finishing his Ph.D.
- Aaron released his long awaited book, Fully Automated Luxury Communism in 2018 under Verso Books. The book looks at the intersection of technological change, utopia and politics.
Fun Facts, Height and Trivia :
- Aaron has been criticised for some of his views that he’s expressed before. One of the incidents that raised the loudest outcry was when he branded the annual “Poppy Appeal,” which commemorates fallen British soldiers as “racist” and “white supremacist.”
- Bastani had initially taken the side of Britain leaving the EU in the Brexit debate. He changed his position about two weeks before the referendum and now supports the inclusion of Britain in the EU.
Loved Aaron’s book. Original but classical, and scientific, thinking.