Aaron Bastani

In April 2020, Bastani apologised to Maajid Nawaz and paid legal costs and a donation in lieu of damages to Quilliam after calling him a "former terrorist" on Twitter. Bastani said: "By falsely accusing a Muslim who I disagree with of terrorism, I have engaged in anti-Muslim bigotry. I am sorry I have engaged in the repetition of such an anti-Muslim trope".

In June 2019, his political manifesto "Fully Automated Luxury Communism" was published. It received mixed reviews, from Marxists who thought that Bastani understated the role of class struggle, and from conservatives who argued that Socialism has been tried and failed. In a positive review, The Guardian wrote that "Some readers will finish this book exhilarated and energised. Others will be unconvinced, or utterly baffled. There are more ideas crammed in here than in a whole shelf of standard politics books." In a more negative review, The Times concluded that 'it isn’t remotely clear from this book what communism is'.

In November 2018, Bastani published a video in which he described the Poppy Appeal as “grotesque”, “racist” and “white supremacist” and called for the Royal British Legion to be shut down. Jeremy Corbyn's Shadow Defence Minister, Nia Griffith, described Bastani's views as an 'utter disgrace' and 'in no way representing the Labour Party', whilst calling for the Party to consider his expulsion.

In the run-up to the United Kingdom European Union membership referendum, 2016, Bastani initially campaigned for the UK to leave the European Union but changed his position on pragmatic grounds two weeks before the referendum.

Bastani was raised by his mother in Bournemouth. He took his Iranian father's surname in 2014. He was educated at University College London before completing his doctorate at Royal Holloway, University of London in 2015. His thesis was entitled "Strike! Occupy! Retweet!: The Relationship Between Collective and Connective Action in Austerity Britain." He has said that he wrote his thesis in six months, giving ten reasons, including a high-carbohydrate diet, for this high workrate.

Bastani was found guilty of attacking a HSBC bank in London in March 2011 during an anti-austerity protest by using a wheelie bin to break the door open, before waving other protesters inside. Bastani was convicted of a public order offence, given a suspended prison sentence and ordered to perform community service.

In 2010, Aaron Bastani co-founded the left-wing online news network, Novara Media, of which he is now a Contributing Editor and Digital Officer. He co-hosted Novara Media's former weekly podcast, NovaraFM, which was also broadcast on Resonance FM. Bastani has interviewed such figures as the economist Yanis Varoufakis, Marxist geographer David Harvey, Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn, Green Party MP Caroline Lucas, and the journalists Owen Jones and Paul Mason.

Aaron John Bastani (born February 1984 as Aaron John Peters) is a British political commentator, writer, broadcaster and activist. He is a Contributing Editor and Digital Officer of Novara Media, which he co-founded. He was also the founder of the digital PR agency, Silke Digital, and a researcher at the centrist think tank, Demos.