Review | Hard Graft
Kika Hendry reviews the Wellcome Collection’s exhibition Hard Graft, which explores the relationship between work and health tracing through histories of exploitation, oppression and resistance.
Review | Disaster Nationalism
Richard Seymour’s recent book Disaster Nationalism can help us understand what’s happening as Trump’s second term accelerates the growth of the far right internationally.
Review | One hundred years of solitude
A review of the new film version of Gabriel García Márquez’s wonderful novel ‘One hundred years of solitude’, first published in 1967
Review | Soundtrack to a coup d’etat
Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat uses jazz and contemporary voices to expose how Belgium and the US undermined the newly independent Democratic Republic of the Congo
Review | Burnout
Samuel Kelly reviews Hannah Proctor’s Burnout, a timely exploration of the emotional toll of political struggle, offering ways to navigate despair and sustain hope in our movements.
Review | Overshoot: How the world surrendered to climate breakdown
Malm and Carton’s revolutionary call to climate action
Review | Union
Grace Linden reviews a recent production of Max Wilkinson’s play Union, directed by Wiebke Green, at the Arcola Theatre in Hackney. Is it useful to construct narratives from individual moral responsibility when discussing gentrification? We all need a home; we’re all (too) willing to take on the options offered by a system that exploits our […]
Glass Onion – foolishly transparent
Maurice Ramboz reviews Glass Onion, asking what the film’s titular metaphor tells us about capitalist ideology.
The scale of Britain’s housing crisis
Danny Schultz reviews a recent work exploring the scale of exploitative landlordism in Britain, finding an indictment of British capitalism and an urgent call for renter organising.
‘Play for Today’: groundbreaking and still relevant
Simon Donohoe reflects on the groundbreaking TV series ‘Play for Today’, re-released this year.
London in revolt – revisiting the English Civil War
Andrew Stone looks at a new history of the origins of the English Civil Wars, finding an engaging account of the class character of the process which ultimately saw Charles I executed. London may not have the same revolutionary reputation of Paris or St Petersburg, but in this new account of the outbreak of the […]
The deviant law student
In a piece originally published in Socialist Lawyer, Kate Bradley reviews the Critical Legal Pocketbook, and finds it a useful corrective to capitalist legal education, perfect for socialists who study and work in law. There are many reasons why socialists may be attracted to the legal profession. Though it is an embattled terrain dominated by […]
Municipal politics and the revolutionary left
Danny Schultz reviews Paint Your Town Red, by Matthew Brown and Rhian E Jones, finding an interesting discussion of the possibilities of radical local politics.
Capitalism, debt and feminism
Kate Bradley reviews A Feminist Reading of Debt, finding an insightful account of the relationship between debt, gender, and capitalism, as well as examples of how to fight back against debt.
Revolutionary Reads – What books got us through 2021?
We asked rs21 members what they’ve been reading in 2021, whether new works of revolutionary theory, fiction, or old classics. These were some of the examples our members had. James B – Psychoanalysis and Revolution (2021) Pyschoanalysis and Revolution argues for the relevancy of psychoanalysis as a tool for those of us involved in liberatory […]
Review | Red Metropolis
Danny Schultz reviews Red Metropolis, the latest work by acclaimed political thinker and architectural critic Owen Hatherley. Schultz argues it provides an insightful history of radicalism within London, yet falls short in considering the importance of the working class struggles which make municipal socialism possible. Owen Hatherley, Red Metropolis: Socialism and the Government of London […]
Review | Revolutionary Rehearsals in the Neoliberal Age
Andy N reviews Revolutionary Rehearsals in the Neoliberal Age, a new collection discussing political upheavals since 1989. He finds a wide ranging and insightful work, which will deepen both the theory and practice of the modern left. Colin Barker, Gareth Dale, and Neil Davidson, Revolutionary Rehearsals in the Neoliberal Age (Chicago: Haymarket Books, 2021) 410 […]
Hummingbird Salamander – An idea that won’t go away
Reviewing Jeff Vandermeer’s latest novel, Hummingbird Salamander, Jack Pickering finds not only a thrilling and unsettling work of climate fiction, but also a genre bending critique of modern capitalism and its destruction of nature.
Review | Migration Beyond Capitalism
Baindu Kallon reviews Hannah Cross’ new book Migration Beyond Capitalism. Kallon celebrates a book that brings a new left-wing response to the narrative around migration. Cross, Kallon argues, effectively demonstrates why an internationalist working-class response is the key to defeating neoliberal power and creating a new world. This review was originally published by the Review of […]
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.
Review | Fight the Fire
Jonathan Neale’s new book calls for a global mass movement to confront the capitalist forces driving climate breakdown, linking analysis with real world action and what must be done to fight climate disaster.
Revolutionary Reflections | Antisemitism and the Russian Revolution
A new book by Brendan McGeever casts new light on the role of antisemitism in the 1917 Russian Revolution and illuminates the struggle against the rise of antisemitism today.
The Good Lord Bird: John Brown’s militant abolitionism
Bill Crane looks at the life of militant US abolitionist John Brown and his portrayal in a recent TV adaptation of James McBride’s novel The Good Lord Bird.
Reading Women, Race & Class 40 years on
Rose Whitehorn reflects on some of the key themes conveyed in Angela Davis’ Women, Race & Class, and this work’s significance during the resurgences in anti-racist and feminist organising.
Review | It’s a sin
It’s a Sin is a compelling account of the human suffering of the AIDS epidemic and homophobia in the 80s, but the show sometimes seems to be dodging the big political questions.
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.