Our key workers keep us strong
A May Day tribute to the key workers who are keeping us going in the face of the coronavirus crisis, and to remember those who have died.
Naming of parts 2020
Poem by Brian Parkin, based on an original by Harry Reed. Illustration by Mark Winter.
The Unconquerable Inscription
To mark Lenin’s 150th birthday, The Artful Doodler has made a short film of Bertolt Brecht’s poem ‘The Unconquerable Inscription’ (1934).
Obituary: Sonja Grossner, 1942-2020
Sheila Mosley and members of Leicester rs21 remember Sonja Grossner (1942-2020).
Mods and Rockers: the 1960s youth cult
Following his earlier A brief history of the Teddy Boys, Mitch Mitchell recalls the rivalries, real and manufactured, between the Mods and Rockers.
Music of the people: Country & Western
Mitch Mitchell (‘the Fenland Kid’) is back with another people’s music playlist. This time he’s here with a brief history of Country and Western.
What does my body know of photography? – Remembering the resistance through art
On Holocaust Memorial Day, Annie Dobson remembers Faye Schulman, photographer and Jewish partisan with her lyric essay.
Guns, gangs and imperialism
Guy Ritichie’s film The Gentlemen is a violent fantasy about ongoing Anglo-American global dominance, writes Kate Bradley.
Music of the people: The Blues
Mitch Mitchell is back with another people’s music playlist. This time he’s here with a brief history of The Blues
Music of the people: Skiffle
Mitch Mitchell is back with another people’s music playlist. This time he’s introducing Skiffle.
Review: The Twittering Machine
Mark Murphy reviews Richard Seymour’s latest book, which uses a psychoanalytical framework to understand the phenomenon of social media.
Music of the people: Doo Wop
Mitch Mitchell introduces a new series of playlists of ‘music of the people’. He starts this week with Doo Wop.
The Politics of Monsters
Caliban’s Revolt celebrates the capacity of the monster to terrorise the powers that be.
Review | Sorry We Missed You
Colin Revolting reviews director Ken Loach’s latest film, which centres on the family of two workers in the gig economy
Joker and the Mask of Poverty
Caliban’s Revenge asks who is behind the Joker’s mask and who should be scared.
Ken Loach, sex work and paternalism
Ken Loach is widely acclaimed for his uncompromising and cutting portrayal of the realities of poverty in his films, but Kate Bradley argues his depictions of sex work fall short.
Film review: For Sama
A documentary film charts the siege of Aleppo and represents a new addition to the depressingly growing genre of ‘genocide documentaries’.
Review: Stolen Moments
Mark Winter welcomes a new exhibition celebrating Namibia’s unsung musical heroes, and remembers the time when the artist Jackson Kaujewa came to stay with his family.
The Making of a Revolution: Art from Sudan
Allan Struthers reflects on a recent exhibition co-hosted by rs21 and the Sudan Doctors’ Union.
revolutionary reflections | Theatre of the Oppressed as a political method
Sophie Coudray introduces the work of the Brazilian theatre practitioner Augusto Boal and the potential of its method for revolutionary praxis.
Move On Up. Curtis Mayfield – Music and message
Emerging from the civil rights movement in the USA, Curtis Mayfield is one of the best exponents of radical soul music and his music lives on, as remembered by John Wheeler.
A gamer’s guide to social reproduction
Video games can be vehicles for a whole range of political ideas – and some can even help us explain social reproduction theory, argues Kate Bradley.
Letter to Edith
Parenthood is full of uncertainties; of hopes and fears. The climate crisis amplifies all of this, and brings into focus the harsh realities and stark choices we face – as individuals and as a society. A poem by Rick Lighten.
Review | Never Again
Colin Revolting reviews Never Again by David Renton, the story of the fascist National Front and the campaign which stopped it in its tracks.
Review: Contralto
Kate Bradley reviews Contralto, a one-hour work for video, strings, and percussion that features a cast of transgender women
A brief history of the Teddy Boys
The post war youth subculture that became the subject of a moral panic.
In Remembrance of ‘Alternative Comedy’
Jeremy Hardy was part of a left-wing generation who transformed British comedy and will be sadly missed.
Review: Sorry to Bother You…
Boots Riley’s film Sorry to Bother You (USA, 2018) is a breath of fresh air.
‘I was, I am, I will be’ – 100 years after the death of Rosa Luxemburg
The deaths of Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht have haunted the imagination of the left for a century.
I Bring Her a Flower
On the 100th anniversary of the murder of Rosa Luxemburg, we republish a poetic tribute to her written by Sylvia Townsend Warner.