Music helps us struggle for a better world
Amy Downham is inspired by a recent book about music and politics. I met Dave Randall a few years ago on an antiracism march. I had recently joined rs21 in search of reassurance that I wasn’t alone in the way I thought and felt about the world. We talked and agreed about the importance of sharing political thoughts with like-minded […]
Images of Russia from liberation to oppression
Steve Eason reviews Red Star Over Russia and Not Everyone will be Taken into the Future by Ilya and Emilia Kabakov, both at Tate Modern.
Through the looking glass darkly: a review of Blade Runner 2049
Science Fiction has a way of questioning our position in the world: by imagining the future we imagine the present. In this piece Jozef Doyle assesses the refraction of late capitalist society through Blade Runner 2019 and 2049. Introduction Blade Runner and Blade Runner 2049 both depict an existence saturated in intensified forms of struggle; for a […]
There is no revolution without love
The film Reds tells the story of John Reed and Louise Bryant’s experiences of the Russian Revolution.
Reviewing BBC Radio 4’s coverage of the Russian revolution
Martin Crook analyses the presentation of the Russian revolution by the BBC, questioning the accuracy of a review that blames the revolution for the sins of Stalinism.
The Death of Stalin: first as tragedy, then as farce
Estelle Cooch reviews Armando Iannucci’s latest film, The Death of Stalin
Atlas Shrugged: the world’s most boring cult novel
On 10 October 1957 Random House published Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged, a book now regarded by many as the ultimate expression of capitalist greed, as well as perhaps the worst novel ever written.
The Handmaid’s Tale: hope is evident amidst repression
Angela Stapleford argues that the recent adaptation of Margaret Atwood’s novel The Handmaid’s Tale holds up a mirror to the worst possibilities within our own world, but also shows the possibility of resistance.
The passing of George A. Romero: king of political horror
Nick B looks back at the profoundly political zombie cinema of George A. Romero
We’re all off to Glasgow in the Green: in defence of the Green Brigade
Jamie Lewis comments on the two-match ban imposed on Celtic supporters the Green Brigade. I don’t think I have seen anything like the Celtic fans in all the stadiums I have played. – Xavi Parkhead, Celtic FC’s home ground, has a well-earned colloquial moniker: Paradise. The best players in international football regularly speak in awe […]
Review: Soul of a Nation
Caliban’s Revenge finds the current exhibition at Tate Modern a great place for searching for answers in a time of crisis and opportunity. In 1968, at the height of the Civil Rights Movement, Martin Luther King was assassinated. In the immediate aftermath, a wave of riots broke across America. Known as the Holy Week Uprising, […]
Keep On Keeping On! – the Redskins and me (part 2)
In the second part of his recollections on the Redskins, Colin Revolting recalls being a revolutionary during the miners’ strike and its aftermath during the Redskins’ growing popularity, including TV appearances, being attacked by fascists and touring against apartheid with their radical rock and soul music. (To read the first part of Colin’s reflections, click […]
Take no heroes – only inspiration: the Redskins and me
Colin Revolting recalls how he became a revolutionary and the role in the process played by the music of the Redskins, a band who gained a notable amount of popularity in the 1980s for their blistering, punked-up version of unabashedly radical soul music. If you type ‘Neither Washington nor Moscow’ into a search engine the […]
Video: Redskins – A flame that can’t be dimmed
This ten minute film pays tribute to the revolutionary rock and soul band Redskins.
The Political Power of Music: in conversation with Dave Randall
Colin Revolting speaks to musician and activist Dave Randall about his experience of ‘mixing pop and politics’ and the journey which led him to write Sound System – The Political Power of Music. Interview transcribed by William Cleary. What was the journey that led you to write Sound System? I felt, when I was a young musician, that […]
Review: Ali Smith’s Autumn, the first Brexit novel
Kate Bradley argues that Ali Smith’s Autumn is precisely the kind of book about Brexit we don’t need in our changing political climate. Autumn is a novel about Brexit. It’s also a book about Pop Art and family and nostalgia. But it’s mostly about Brexit, and after reading Autumn, it’s pretty clear that Ali Smith […]
It’s up to us to change this Town called Malice: the politics of Paul Weller, The Jam and The Style Council
John Wheeler looks back at The Jam, who became arguably the most popular and political band to emerge from the punk explosion of 1977. “We’ll all be voting Conservative at the next election.” Fanzine interview, 1977 “Imagine, if tomorrow the workers went on strike. Not just British Leyland but the whole world. Who would earn […]
The flight of the young eagles – art of the Russian revolution
Mike Thompson visits Revolution: Russian Art 1917-1932 at the Royal Academy and finds amazing art in an establishment exhibition. Photo: Tom Michaelson Artists under Russia’s Tsarist regime operated in a contradictory society. They had access to the most innovative ideas of the avant-garde, but within a context where the vast majority had no access to art. […]
Sonic boom: Kefaya’s Radio International
Neil Rogall finds Kefaya’s debut album ‘Radio International a fantastic listen When fusion albums work they can be astonishing. The intersections, the borderlands, the clashes, the moments of meeting between cultures, genres, city and country can produce the most sublime music. But so often they fail. When the artists are just tinkering with other sounds, […]
Mafia III – fighting white supremacy in ‘New Bordeaux’
Arjun Mahadevan reviews a new game, Mafia 3, with a black Vietnam vet hero and in the process takes down white supremacy Mafia III is an open-world action game set in 1968 in the town of ‘New Bordeaux’, a fictionalised version of New Orleans. The protagonist is a black Vietnam veteran, Lincoln Clay, trying to […]
rs21 Readers and Writers recommend 2016, part 2
In the second part of our readers and writers’ reviews of art which has moved them in 2016 we present theatre, film, music and two very different novels. Railing against corporate greed and individualism: Train to Busan Mike Thompson Horror films are at their best when they look at how people deal with being in […]
rs21 Readers and Writers recommend 2016, part 1
We asked our readers and writers to pick a cultural highlight of the year. Read on for suggestions of books, films, TV, music and even a cook book… Sea of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh Colin Barker When I was a kid, as well as climbing trees, making dens, lighting fires, and playing cowboys, I haunted […]
Anarchy in the UK? The politics and people that produced punk rock
For the 40th anniversary of the birth of punk, Colin Revolting considers its origins and influences. The student butterfly that flapped its wings in Paris, May 1968 lead to an earthquake which shook factory walls across western Europe in the 1970’s. Out of the dust emerged an ugly snarling rodent called punk rock. The 1970s […]
Dario Fo: playwright, performer and revolutionary
Colin Revolting and friends pay tribute to Dario Fo who died this week at the age of 90. Dario Fo was a great playwright of the years of unrest and rebellion in the 1960s and ’70s. His plays such as Accidental Death of an Anarchist and Can’t Pay? Won’t Pay! were hilariously cutting critiques of life under […]
A poem by Alan Gibbons
Alan Gibbons, poet and novelist, penned this poem in response to Theresa May’s vile racist speech at the Conservative conference. We are proud to republish it for National Poetry Day There was an Irish immigrant Who dug the canals And built the bridges, Who carved the tunnels And made the roads And only consumed […]
Motivation: a poem by Caliban’s Revenge
Caliban’s Revenge reflects on the state of teaching today MOTIVATION They told me to be “CUSTOMER CENTERED” So I left work and went to the American style mall and got a second job in Argos. I worked there for a week Nobody noticed Until I had a teaching observation and got “unsatisfactory”. They said no, we […]
Review: Red Rosa
Caliban’s Revenge reviews Red Rosa, a graphic biography of German revolutionary Rosa Luxemburg by Kate Evans. The uses and abuses of Rosa Luxemburg as a revolutionary icon are many, and they tend to focus excessively on the tragedy of her death or on her intellectual relationship with Lenin. Old Stalinists display great alabaster busts that […]
Review – Edward Upward: Art and Life
Andrew Stone reviews a recent biography of the left-wing writer Edward Upward, Edward Upward: Art and Life by Peter Stansky Edward Upward was one of the less-feted members of the ‘Auden Circle’, a generation of politically engaged writers of the left during the 1930s. Of its leading members, Auden was to move decisively to the […]
Selling Brazil – review of Dave Zirin’s “Brazil’s Dance with the Devil”
Ruth Lorimer reviews Brazil’s Dance with the Devil: The World Cup, The Olympics and the Fight for Democracy by Dave Zirin, published by Haymarket Books.