Review: The Young Karl Marx
How far is it possible for a film to bring to life the ideas, energy and humanity of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels? Mark Winter enjoys Raoul Peck’s new film. Raoul Peck, the director, studied Marx for four years as a student of economics, and says that the purpose of the film is as follows: “How do […]
It Moves!
Barnaby Raine finds much to admire in Against Miserabilism, a new edition of writings by the late socialist author David Widgery
Review: Student Revolt by Matt Myers
Nick Evans reviews a new oral history of Britain’s 2010 youth uprising against fees and EMA cuts. “It’s just a point in a line of history, but for me it’s absolutely the beginning. It’s point zero.” Charlotte Gray “For me, Millbank was about collective power.” Natalie Graham “Look. Tomorrow and the day after a lot […]
Favourites of 2017: rs21 reviewers recommend…
Our reviewers recommend their favourite music, films, books and TV of 2017, including Get Out, Fighting Fascism and The Ministry of Utmost Happiness, and many more. Sachin Croker recommends Get Out (Blumhouse Productions) Black photographer Chris (Daniel Kaluuya) visits the family of his white girlfriend Rose (Alison Williams). Their typical liberal friendliness (“I would have […]
Review: Young Marx
The new play Young Marx is an affectionate and funny account of Karl Marx’s early life as an impoverished émigré in Victorian London, says Keith McKenna. The revolution will be fun, at least if playwrights Richard Bean and Clive Coleman have anything to do with it. Their Young Marx, which inaugurates the new Bridge Theatre on London’s South Bank, […]
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.
There is no revolution without love
The film Reds tells the story of John Reed and Louise Bryant’s experiences of the Russian Revolution.
Review: The Kaiser’s Holocaust
Mark Winter reviews David Olusoga and Casper W. Erichsen 2010 book The Kaiser’s Holocaust: Germany’s Forgotten Genocide and the Colonial Roots of Nazism David Olusoga is a British-Nigerian historian, writer and broadcaster who has championed the unearthing of black history in series such as the BBC’s “Black and British: a Forgotten History”. “My family’s history is part of a long, […]
Reflections on ‘The Fall’
Colin Revolting gives his thoughts on The Fall, an extraordinary play about a protest movement in South African in 2015-16 which has had an enormous impact in the West.
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
Exposing the far-right in Austria’s Freedom Party
Austria prepares for elections on 15 October which are likely to result in the far-right Freedom Party helping to form the next government. Nick Evans reviews a new book documenting the extremist groups that now dominate the party. Review of: Hans-Henning Scharsach (with Christa Eveline Spitzbart), Stille Machtergreifung: Hofer, Strache und die Burschenschaften [Silent Coup: […]
‘Quite an experience’, Blade Runner, Marxism and Postmodernity
With the theatre release of Blade Runner 2049, Red Wedge Magazine have given rs21 permission to republish an interview with Matthew Flisfeder author of Postmodern Theory and Blade Runner (2017). The original interview was carried out in September, and focuses solely on the ‘original’ film and its context. A review of the Blade Runner 2049 […]
Review: ‘The Impossible Revolution’ in Syria
Lebanese writer Joey Ayoub reviews Yassin Al-Haj Saleh’s The Impossible Revolution: Making Sense of the Syrian Tragedy. Barely a year after the start of the Syrian revolution, in May of 2012, the intellectual and dissident Yassin Al-Haj Saleh was hiding somewhere in Damascus and writing an essay entitled ‘the rise of militant nihilism’. He had […]
Review | The Rise of Hindu Authoritarianism by Achin Vanaik
Bill Crane reviews The Rise of Hindu Authoritarianism, written by Achin Vanaik as a critical response to the political developments in India following the election of the Bharatiya Janata Party to power in 2014, as well as the consequences and future travails for the Indian left. The Rise of Hindu Authoritarianism is published by Verso Books […]
Kill All Normies: a missed opportunity to analyse fascism
After the murderous gathering in Charlottesville, there’s a real need for insightful analysis of the American far right – but, argues Lisa Leak Kill All Normies fails to provide it. It’s unsurprising that many of the left on both sides of the Atlantic were excited at the publication of Kill All Normies, Angela Nagle’s new book […]
Gracchus Babeuf revisited
Historian Doug Enaa Greene reviews The Spectre of Babeuf by Ian Birchall. Often unfairly dismissed by socialists, Gracchus Babeuf represents a break from utopianism towards direct, practical action and all the challenges that implies, and he has much to teach revolutionaries today. Spectre of Babeuf is published by Haymarket Books and is available now.
‘You strike a woman, you strike a rock’
Luke Hodgkin reviews Aliki Saragas’s new film Strike a Rock, which follows the fight for justice of the women widowed by the 2012 Marikana Massacre in South Africa. On 16 August 2012, 34 striking miners were shot dead by the South African security forces, in what has become known as the ‘Marikana massacre’. There has been no […]
Review: The Reproach of Hunger
Mike Downham reviews leading expert on humanitarian aid and development David Rieff’s book The Reproach of Hunger, which addresses the burning question of why have we failed to address the crisis of hunger in the twenty-first century. Food banks erupted across the UK following the 2007-2008 financial crisis, their number surging in late 2010 when […]
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.
Kefaya – sounds of a new world
Lois C reviews a musical project that captures the energy and excitement of the latest wave of global resistance. For most readers of this review the word “kefaya” might conjure up images of a pre-Arab Spring Egypt still in the grips of Mubarak’s dictatorship. Kefaya, the Arabic word “enough”, became the rallying call for a grassroots […]
Review: Naomi Klein, No is Not Enough
Naomi Klein draws on her past analysis of capitalism in arguing how to defeat the “new shock politics” of Trump, writes Andrew Stone. Donald Trump’s threat of ‘fire and fury’ against North Korea might just have easily described his domestic agenda – an incendiary politics that, while emerging out of the US establishment, still expresses […]
Review: Struggle or Starve
Pat Stack reviews Struggle or Starve: Working-Class Unity in Belfast’s 1932 Outdoor Relief Riots by Seán Mitchell, arguing that this look into Northern Ireland’s forgotten past has much to teach activists looking to build anti-sectarian working-class movements today. Struggle or Starve is published by Haymarket Books and available now at a reduced price through rs21.
Review: China Miéville’s October
Charlie Burton reviews China Miéville’s retelling of the story of the tumultuous months 100 years ago leading up to the October revolution. October is published by Verso and available now. In July 1914, deputies of the largely ineffective parliamentary body, the Russian Duma, voted in favour of war credits and confirmed Russia’s entry into the arena […]
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, […]
Review: The Politics of Everybody
Bill Crane reviews Holly Lewis’ standout book on the relationship between capitalism and oppression. One of the most promising trends on the intellectual left in recent years is the emergence of a strong and sophisticated Marxist-feminist current of academics and activists. The identification of the social reproduction of the working class as the root of […]
Review: Mariana Mazzucato, ‘The Entrepreneurial State’
Harry J Bentham gives his take on Mariana Mazzucato’s The Entrepreneurial State (2013), a book which has influenced Labour’s proposed economic policies in the lead up to the 2017 General Election.
We burned the cop cars one by one: a review of ‘When We Rise’ by Cleve Jones
Colin Wilson reviews an inspiring memoir of decades of LGBT activism