Five books you should read on China
Charlie Hore offers some suggestions to help understand what is happening in the world’s largest country China has hardly been out of the headlines in the last few months. In August, the second stock market crash in two months sent shockwaves around the world financial system. China’s government had taken panic measures after the first […]
Syd Shelton Rock Against Racism exhibition highlights contrasts and conflicts of the 1970s
A collection of anti-racist activist and photographer Syd Shelton’s work from Rock Against Racism is currently on display at the Autograph ABP gallery in London. Is this exhibition, and book, a nostalgic trip to the bad old days of 1970s racial conflict or does it have something to offer a new generation fighting the changing […]
This story of a trans life is a step towards imagining real liberation
Sølvi reviews Trans: A Memoir by Juliet Jacques (Verso, £16.99) When Juliet Jacques started writing her Transgender Journey blog in the Guardian, I’m reasonably sure I didn’t even know what transgender was. I wish, in hindsight, I had. Perhaps it would have explained some aspects of my life. The fact that Jacques’ blog was the first […]
A Syrian Love Story
A Syrian Love Story tells the story of a Syrian family, whose lives are torn apart by the repression and turmoil of the Syrian revolution, and their enforced exile from home. Mark Boothroyd went to the showing at the Frontline Club earlier this week, which was followed by Q&A with Sean, the documentary maker, and Amer […]
Review: The Cheviot, the Stag and the Black, Black Oil
Just over 40 years after it was originally preformed, the Dundee Rep ensemble has revived the play The Cheviot, The Stag and the Black, Black Oil (running until 26 September). The original was written and performed by the 7-84 theatre company (named after the statistic 7% owned 84% of the wealth). Last year’s independence referendum in […]
Review: Getting By
Tom Haines-Doran reveiws Getting By: Estates, Class and Culture in Austerity Britain by Lisa McKenzie, published by Policy Press (2015) “Do the lower classes smell? Of course, as a whole, they are dirtier than the upper classes” This quote from George Orwell’s The Road to Wigan Pier stayed with Lisa McKenzie since she read it at the […]
Paying to work for free
Olivia Arigho Stiles reviews Ross Perlin’s book Intern Nation: How to Earn Nothing and Learn Little in the Brave New Economy (Verso, 2012) “Interns built the pyramids”, The Baffler magazine once pronounced. So why do we know so little about this amorphous phenomenon? Ross Perlin’s eminently readable Intern Nation aims to further understanding of the function […]
Review: Defining Beauty
Colin Wilson reviews Defining Beauty: the Body in Ancient Greek Art, on until 5 July at the British Museum, and questions what beauty is. This review was originally published in the Summer 2015 issue of the rs21 magazine. You want Greeks? The British Museum has Greeks – not Syriza-style Greeks, of course, ancient Greeks. But […]
Review: Mad Max: Fury Road
This revival of a thirty-year old franchise is a great action movie with women at its centre, writes Jonny Jones. It’s been 30 years since the release of Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, the third instalment of George Miller’s post-apocalyptic film franchise, which served as a preposterous but entertaining vehicle for Mel Gibson and Tina Turner. The […]
Review: Light Shining in Buckinghamshire
The election debates have been dull, but gripping debates from England’s revolutionary past are on stage at the National Theatre, writes Colin Wilson. It’s sometimes said that revolution isn’t in the nature of British people. Yet from 1642 to 1660, long before revolution in France or Russia, England went through revolutionary turmoil that included the […]
“We’ve got shit to deal with…”
Colin Revolting reviews the new film from Russell Brand, The Emperor’s New Clothes. “Some people have soo much, and some people have nuttin,” Russell Brand divides opinion. Including among the left. This film is about a far more profound division, that of wealth and power. In the film Brand sets out to speak to people […]
The revolting establishment
Pat Stack reviews two recent books trying to get to grips with changing the world: Russell Brand’s Revolution, and Owen Jones’ The Establishment
Staying Power: Photographs of Black British Experience 1950s – 1990s
Bettina Trabant reviews Staying Power: Photographs of Black British Experience 1950s – 1990s, currently on at the V&A, South Kensington and the Black Cultural Archive, Brixton. Staying Power: Photographs of Black British Experience 1950s – 1990s forms part of a Heritage Lottery funded project that aims to raise awareness of the contribution of black […]
Book review: Radio Benjamin
Andrew Neeson reviews a collection of Walter Benjamin’s radio scripts Radio Benjamin This review first appeared in the Spring 2015 issue of the rs21 magazine In the early days of radio, Marxist critic Walter Benjamin wrote and presented 80 plus broadcasts on German radio. For the first time in English, Radio Benjamin is the full […]
In control of our Destiny?
Sølvi Goard reviews Destiny and examines the widespread appeal of computer games Destiny, the flagship title from the studio behind Halo, is the most expensive game ever, costing over $500m to produce. The most expensive film ever made, Spiderman 3, cost $258m. While a large proportion of that money has gone into marketing and hype, Destiny […]
Nobody need see Fifty Shades of Grey for fun
Magpie Corvid reviews Fifty Shades of Grey Nobody need see Fifty Shades of Grey for fun. For a smart, sexy film about dominance and submission, check out Secretary. Fifty Shades fails utterly. It is beautifully shot, hollow, and chilling in its implications. The kinky sex is weak, and poorly done. The characters are paper, meritless; […]
The secret of its weakness: racism and the working class movement in Britain
Colin Barker reviews Satnam Virdee’s book Racism, Class and the Racialized Outsider, which is an important contribution to the debates around race and class.
Review: Safe Space
Colin Wilson is full of praise for a recent book on LGBT history, but highlights a broader political problem. Safe Space: Gay Neighbourhood History and the Politics of Violence Christina B. Hanhardt Duke University Press, £17.99 Safe Space charts the history since the 1960s of community organising in three neighbourhoods identified with LGBT people: the […]
William Blake: Apprentice and Master
William Blake was a revolutionary in poetry, engraving and politics. John Walker reviews a new exhibition of his artwork in Oxford. William Blake was a revolutionary. One of the funniest things, for those in the know, is to hear Conservatives singling Parry’s hymn “Jerusalem”. The words to this are taken from the Introduction to Blake’s […]
Beyond the Holocaust – POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews
Jan Ladzinski discusses how POLIN’s attempt to place the Holocaust and subsequent emigration of Polish Jews in the wider context of the one thousand years of shared Polish-Jewish history is not only useful politically but also potentially subversive The ideas behind the project POLIN, meaning both “Poland” and “rest here” in Hebrew, opened its core exhibition […]
Reviews: The Pianist and Defiance
27 January is Holocaust Memorial Day. Colin Revolting reviews two films set during WW2 that chronicle Jewish resistance Defiance (2009) When the Nazis invade Belarus, three Jewish brothers escape into the woods and vow to resist. But as other Jews flee Nazi persecution, the Bielski brothers have to decide if offering sanctuary or resistance is the most […]
Review: United We Stand
James B reviews United We Stand, a new play currently touring with Townsend Productions, which tells the story of Des Warren and Ricky Tomlinson, the 1972 construction strike and the Shrewsbury Pickets Casualisation, self-employment and agency work are all features of many people’s working lives today. In the summer of 1972 similar conditions were rife in the […]
Video game review: This War of Mine
William Cleary reviews a game depicting war from the point of view of civilians caught in the crossfire. Some parts of this review could be considered spoilers. There are events and periods of time that happen in every playthrough, but since so much is determined by your choices, it is not especially narrative driven. As such none […]
Review: (Still) The Enemy Within
Just out on DVD, (Still) The Enemy Within is an ideal Chirstmas gift, one that offers us a glimpse at the past but also suggests lessons to be learned for the future, says Jonny Jones. (Still) The Enemy Within is available on DVD or as a download from the official website (Still) The Enemy Within […]
Review: Orange is the New Black
With Christmas fast approaching, Shanice McBean looks at the politics behind an obvious stocking filler: Orange is the New Black. Orange is the New Black (OITNB) follows the story of main protagonist Piper Chapman as her past in drug smuggling delivers a 15 month prison sentence onto the doorstep of her seemingly pristine, all American lifestyle. […]
Review – How I Stopped Being a Jew
Neil Rogall reviews How I Stopped Being a Jew, the third part of Shlomo Sand’s trilogy of books about Zionism and Israel.
Acquaintance rape: reassessing a classic study
Robin Warshaw’s book “I Never Called It Rape” was first published in 1988. Shanice Octavia McBean reconsiders it now as a contribution to the discussion emerging from the last few years’ rise in anti-rape activism. “I Never Called It Rape” by Robin Warshaw was a seminal book of its time, and for that it must be given […]
Film review: Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1
Becca Short reviews Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1, the first part of the finale of the Hunger Games trilogy was released on the 20th November. On its opening night, the Mockingjay made $55 million, a figure down from $67 million for The Hunger Games and $70 million for […]
Book review: paramilitarism and neoliberalism in Colombia
Neoliberalism and extreme violence go hand in hand in Colombia – Olivia Arigho Stiles reviews an important contribution to debates about Latin America. Jasmin Hristov Paramilitarism and Neoliberalism: Violent Systems of Capital Accumulation in Colombia and Beyond Pluto Press, 2014 £45 In recent years Latin America has formed the locus of debates over neoliberalism, while also […]
Review: Casualisation at work
Ian Allinson reviews the recent Labour Research Department guide for trade union reps. The rs21 magazine and web site have carried a number of articles exploring the efforts of casual workers to organise, including sparks, fast food workers, cinema workers, fractional workers in higher education and private sector care staff. There has also been debate […]