On 4 May 2020, Red Pen published an essay titled; “ALL WORK UNDER CAPITALISM IS DEGRADING AND EXPLOITATIVE”, it has since been brought to the attention of the blog’s editors that the essay is substantially plagiarised. Although we fully appreciate that the bulk of our authors are mostly young people, and in their formative stages of ideology and writing, plagiarism is a crime that cannot be taken lightly. Red Pen is not an academic platform, and does not require strict and formal referencing, however, we believe in the universal principle of crediting authors for their work and ideas.

After assessing the author’s original manuscript, it was difficult to overlook the glaring plagiarism. We have noted that there is not only Plagiarism of ideas, which entails taking ideas of another and presenting them as your own, but also, Plagiarism of Language, which is lifting sentences and paragraphs, as is, from the original text and presenting them as your own.

We view this incident as unfortunate and regrettable, and it is against this background that the editors have decided to remove the said essay from all our social media platforms, and blog. This decision has been duly communicated to the author.

We wish to extend our sincere gratitude to all those who continue to write, read and engage with the material on Red Pen. The platform continues to be a viable and decisive project to open up the space for alternative voices and narratives.

Thank You.