Culture
21 December 2020 · · Culture, Reviews, Uncategorized · 2 comments
“I will show your illustrious Lordship what a woman can do”
The Art and Life of Artemisia Gentileschi (1593- 1654) Dave Kellaway reviews the current National Gallery exhibition (until 24 th January) Caravaggio (left), Gentileschi (right) The pictures…
2 September 2020 · · Culture, USA · 1 comment
Ecosocialism: the elephant in the DSA room?
Allan Todd reviews Bigger than Bernie How We Go from the Sanders Campaign to Democratic Socialism by Meagan Day and Micah Uetricht, Verso If I were the sort of reader who routinely jotted do…
11 March 2020 · Britain, Culture · 1 comment
Culture Wars and Class Wars
Recent articles on left-wing websites have deprecated the notion of ‘culture wars’, saying that the Left should avoid them and concentrate instead on class war. The basic idea being put forw…
9 March 2020 · Culture, Reviews
More than a cultist
Andrew Coates reviews Memoirs of a Critical Communist. Towards a History of the Fourth International , by Livio Maitan. Livio Maitan (1923–2004) was a leading figure in the international Tro…
29 February 2020 · · Culture, Reviews, Uncategorized
Greed – comedy with a kick
We are living through something of a golden age of class war cinema writes Andy Stowe. Joker offered us an urban rebellion against the rich; Parasite showed them getting their comeuppance fr…
4 July 2019 · Culture, Reviews · 1 comment
Crippled: Austerity and the Demonization of Disabled People
Bob Williams-Findlay reviews CRIPPLED: Austerity and the Demonization of Disabled People , by Frances Ryan; Verso Books, June 2019. When the initial request asking to review Frances Ryan's n…
23 May 2019 · Culture, Reviews
Left Wing Melancholia
LEFT WING MELANCHOLIA – MARXISM, HISTORY AND MEMORY. by Enzo Traverso, pub. Columbia University Press, 2017. It was the title that appealed. Three years ago we were part of an explosive upsu…
15 May 2019 · · Culture, Far right
Radical web under threat as cash pours in to far right media
A decade ago the Left believed that it could use social media to outflank the established mass media. But it is the far right that now dominates social media, writes Phil Hearse. Two recent …
10 February 2019 · Culture
Photography as indictment
Don McCullin is probably the most famous living British photographer and his career spanning retrospective in Tate Britain which runs till May 6th looks set to be one of the most popular exh…
9 January 2019 · Britain, Culture, Uncategorized · 6 comments
£350 million and Turkey
See if you can guess where this quote comes from asks Andy Stowe who reviews Brexit: The Uncivil War. “The whole country — the whole world — can see our rotten parties have failed us. The pa…
16 December 2018 · Culture, Russian revolution · 1 comment
Trotsky as action hero minus the dragons
A new Russian drama series available on Netflix rehabilitates Leon Trotsky and is extremely sympathetic to him. It also sticks the boot into Stalin. Andy Stowe watched it and claims to have …
19 December 2017 · Culture
Radical holiday fiction
Holiday and travel reading for Marxists (with links to the Hive site so you can see the details of these books and then track them down yourself – and earn money for your favourite local hig…
20 December 2016 · · Culture, Reviews
Rebellions are built on hope – a Star Wars review
Andy Stowe reviews Rogue One: A Star Wars Story Is science fiction set to become the popular storytelling vehicle of choice for writers and audiences who despise everything Donald Trump stan…
30 September 2016 · · Culture, Reviews
Austerity kills real people
Terry Conway reviews Ken Loach's new film I, Daniel Blake I, Daniel Blake’s first showing in Britain was as part of the World Transformed organised by Momentum, on the same day as Jeremy Cor…