Revolutionary Socialism in the 21st Century
 
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Interview | Toussaint Louverture: The Story of the Only Successful Slave Revolt in History

Matthew Cookson interviews the authors of a new graphic novel on the Haitian Revolution.

Leftist direct action thrillers: a new genre?

I’m a Virgo, How to Blow Up a Pipeline, Black 47 and Codename Jenny

Reflections on International Workers’ Memorial Day

To mark IWMD, the rs21 Art Group made a zine with Cut-Through Collective, which we distributed in Glasgow and London across the May Day weekend.

image of old televisions spreading through two rooms

People Make Television: cultural production, socialism and the state

Tom Schofield on the People Make Television exhibition at Raven Row, London.

collage of images detailed in piece: Granny Made Me an Anarchist, Squid Game, Ballad of a White Cow and Francis Bacon.

2022 cultural highlights

rs21 members round up some of the cultural highlights from 2022.

Review | The world turned upside down

In Leo Zeilig’s recent novel, the global elite are targeted for murder amid a growing social upheaval that sweeps the central character around the world. Andrew Stone reviews this focused and ‘righteously angry’ book.

A shadowy figure in a suit holds a gun while sitting on a chair

The ruling class is the original OCG

What keeps us watching Line of Duty?

Rubens: View of Het Steen in the early morning. Keywords: art Marxism Marx what is art

Cultural Marxism? A review of The Dialectics of Art

Ian Birchall reviews The Dialectics of Art, a new work by John Molyneux.

Image shows the text 'We will not be victims: no going back' on a background of a Jackson Pollock painting

Agitating with Art: the Artivists at Work story so far

Artwork – not just ‘great art’ but cartoons and doodles – can add life and vibrancy to political messaging, and give people a mirror in which to recognise their own hopes and frustrations.

Michaela Cole promo shot for I May Destroy You

Cultural commodities that got us through 2020

From Netflix binges to a new theory of ‘alternative hedonism’, here are the shows, films, music, and books that kept us going in 2020.

Artistic platforms and political art

Allan Struthers explores the relationship of artwork and the platforms on which they are presented.

Artivists at Work 2

More from Artivists at Work: resisting NHS cuts, unsafe school reopenings and the gendered impacts of Covid-19.

Hearts and stomachs

Last week’s vote on the Trade Bill showed how the callous disregard for human life and food safety that Upton Sinclair exposed in his classic novel The Jungle is as relevant as ever.

Artivists at Work

Artivists at Work was formed in response to the government’s handling of the Covid-19 crisis. Here’s a round-up of highlights from June and details of how to get involved.

Aretha Franklin (seated on the left) and Jerry Wexler (standing on the right, leaning over)

The Fairplay Committee

Mitch Mitchell recounts the legacy of the Fairplay Committee, a group aiming to improve the conditions of black workers in the music industry.

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.

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).

Morris dancing, black face paint and racism: why it’s time to stop and think

Folk traditions should not be treated as fossils that are too brittle to evolve, argues Emma Rock. David Cameron found controversy and divided opinion this week by posing in a photograph with a Border Morris side wearing traditional black face paint in Banbury, near his Oxfordshire constituency. Many in the folk world will have greeted this latest gaffe […]

No laughing matter! The state of comedy in Britain

Mitch Mitchell takes a look at how popular comedy developed in the 1980s into something that challenged the oppressive ideas of society, rather than reinforcing them, as well as asking if there is any radical edge to comedy today.

‘I wouldn’t mind turning into a vermillion goldfish’ – Matisse’s cut-outs reviewed

The latest exhibition at the Tate Modern is of the cut-outs created by Henri Matisse in his later years. Mitch Mitchell shares his thoughts.