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Fra Socialist Review nr. 321

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Ernesto Gonzalez: Juan Mõnez (Tate Modern)

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Juan Muñoz created figures in space, or rather, in spaces. Small, almost human, their bodies seem to be caught between movements or in thought, arrested in the eye of the spectator.

Editorial

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What is the way forward for the left? This is the question Socialist Review addressed when it was relaunched in May. Now in 2008 it is question in even shaper focus.

Palash Kamruzzaman: Bangladesh: Relief mission?

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Bangladesh was struck by a major cyclone on 15 November. Cyclone Sidr was larger than the entire country. United Nations assessments suggest 2.2 million people in need of immediate life-saving relief. Some 3,500 are known to have died, with 40,000 injured and around 1,000 missing.

Patrick Ward: Uniting struggles (expanded online)

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The World Against War conference in London last month united activists from around the world. Ibraham Mousawi, editor of Hezbollah's Alintiqad weekly newspaper, spoke to Patrick Ward about media myths and uniting against imperialism.

Judith Orr: Abortion rights

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When even David Steel, the man most closely associated with the 1967 Abortion Act, has been quoted as saying there are "too many abortions" it is clear that abortion rights cannot be taken for granted.

Andy Worthington: Guantanamo Bay — jumpsuits and torture

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This month marks a particularly grim anniversary — the reviled prison at Guantanamo Bay has been open for six years. Although over 60 percent of the nearly 800 detainees have now been released, the predicament facing the remaining 290 is as bleak as ever.

Colin Barker: The battle and the war

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Karen Reissmann is the Manchester nurse sacked for speaking out about worsening mental health services. On 10 December the trust's kangaroo court rejected her appeal.

Patrick Ward: Cash for visas

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While Labour continues to pour unwanted foreigners into the Middle East, new policy at home is to lock the gates to "unskilled" immigrants.

Lindsey German: In my view: Kosovo — back to the brink

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The Balkan province of Kosovo has been largely forgotten in British politics since the war there nine years ago. It was obvious at the time that the post-war settlement would come to a crisis over the question of Kosovan independence.

Gary Budgen: Feedback: A web of waste and company waffle

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Chris Harman's article on the rate of profit (In perspective, Socialist Review, November 2007) argues against those who see computerisation as resulting only in ever increasing productivity. He points to the need for constant reinvestment in computer hardware and the resulting pressure this puts on future profits.

Christian Hogsbjerg: Feedback: Regaining Gainsborough

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It is great to see Mike Gonzalez writing about culture again in Socialist Review (Culture, Socialist Review, December 2007), but I have to take issue with his implicit attack on the 18th century artist Thomas Gainsborough and his (not Constable's) picture of Mr and Mrs Andrews.

Noel Halifax: Feedback: A pitch for Paine

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Trevor Griffiths (Interview, Socialist Review, December 2007) mentioned as an aside that there was no statue of Tom Paine in Britain. There is one in Thetford, the town of his birth.

Ian Birchall: Feedback: Get the picture

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It's always been the tradition of SWP publications that they write seriously about serious topics without using the pretentious jargon with which academic Marxists often cover up the fact that they have nothing to say.

Judy McVey: Letter from ...: Australia

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John Howard got his long awaited comeuppance in the November elections. Now the Australian left needs to unite to reverse his disastrous policies, argues Judy McVey

Mark Serwotka: Building an alternative to New Labour

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As Gordon Brown's neoliberal attacks on workers intensify, Mark Serwotka, general secretary of the PCS civil servants' union, outlines his vision for a fighting left in Britain today.

Gloria Doherty: Union-made: A striking tale

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I've been a fully paid up member of Unison for 19 years. And until we took action for eight weeks against the single status process at the end of last year, I had never even been on strike.

Anne Alexander + Farah Koubaissy: Egypt: Women were braver than a hundred men

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Resistance to the neoliberal policies of the Egyptian government has led to a strike wave involving thousands of workers. Anne Alexander describes how women have played a key role in the struggle and Farah Koubaissy visits a tobacco factory where one woman, Hagga Aisha, has led the strikes.

Chris Harman: In perspective: No saviours or substitutes

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The words of the Internationale strike a chord for all socialists who believe society can only be transformed from below. It is a message that could not be more urgent than for today's working class in Venezuela and Bolivia.

Judith Orr: Interview: Solidarity, struggle and resistance

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Iraqi-born writer and activist Haifa Zangana talks to Judith Orr about the struggle of Iraqi women still fighting for the liberation of their country.

Matt Perry: A to Z of Socialism: H is for History

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Throughout history rulers mystify the past to convince ordinary people that their rule is inevitable. The first recorded histories — in the form of king lists — were used to justify their legitimacy.

Simon Behrmann: Book Review: The Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy

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by John Mearsheimer and Stephen M Walt.
The core of this book originated as an article for the London Review of Books in spring 2006. As a denunciation of the US government's pro-Israeli bias in foreign policy it produced a predictably vicious backlash from the Israel lobby itself which this book seeks to expose.

Esme Choonara: Book Review: Slavoj Žižek presents Trotsky: Terrorism and Communism

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Democracy is a central motif of our age. The anti-war movement has pressed home our lack of it, imperialists try to use it as a rallying cry to impose their military dominance around the world, and many around the globe still struggle for the basic right to choose their government in open elections.
It is a theme very much at the centre of this short book by Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky. The book was written and published during the harsh years of civil war that followed the 1917 October Revolution.

Pat Stack: Book Review: An Utterly Impartial History of Britain

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by John O'Farrell, Doubleday, £16.99
This book is at times amusing, entertaining and informative, yet ultimately dissatisfying. O'Farrell ambitiously sets out to strip 7,000 years of British history down to less than 500 pages, and to do so in an entertaining and accessible way.

Beth Greenhill: Book Review: Enhancing Evolution

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by John Harris, Princeton University Press, £16.95
Developed from a series of public lectures on bioethics, Enhancing Evolution sketches out the "moral obligations" we have "to enhance our bodies and brains and perhaps irreversibly change our genetic make-up". The subject matter, genetic engineering, stem cell research, designer babies and cloning, is certainly contentious stuff.

Andrew Stone: Book Review: Fighters for Life

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by Michael Rosen, Bookmarks, £7.99
"Who's heard of Michael Rosen?" I asked my class of Year 7s. A score of hands shot up. "I met him!" shouted Neelima. "Me too!" echoed Mahdi. "He came to our primary school," confirmed Mitchell. "I was this close to him."

Alison Smith: Book Review: The Enemy of Nature

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by Joel Kovel, Zed Books, £17.99
The Enemy of Nature brilliantly lays out the current ecological crisis in all of its dimensions. Kovel reveals the real "inconvenient truth" surrounding climate change: that capitalism is responsible, and the only way to solve the problem is to get rid of it. But far from focusing purely on the environment, Kovel includes in his definition of ecological breakdown the increasing class division, imperialism and poverty which, along with environmental destruction, are all intrinsic features of capitalism.

Rita McLoughlin: Book Review: The Spectacle Salesman's Family

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by Viola Roggenkamp, Virago, £14.99
This autobiography tells the story of post-war German families still traumatised by the Holocaust: Alma Glitzer, her mother Hedwig, her husband Paul, and their teenage daughters Vera and Fania.

Mary Brodbin: Book Review: The White Family

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by Maggie Gee, Telegram, £7.99
Alfred White is a London park keeper in Hillesden. He's been working there for 50 years and he's bluff and proud and authoritarian — not only in Albion Park but at home with his family.

Judith Orr: Book Review: The Black Panther: Intercommunal News Service

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Ed: David Hilliard, Atria Books, £14.99
The Black Panther Party was a beacon of resistance for thousands of black people in the US during the late 1960s and early 1970s. It stood up against police brutality, provided welfare for the poorest communities and produced powerful propaganda against racism and oppression.

Book Review: New in Paperback and Children's books

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Harvey on Paris – Graphic Iraq – Roddy Doyle in Finland – Jabberwocky meets basketball

Martin Smith: Culture: Big mouth...

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Once again the singer Morrissey has plenty to say about immigration and British society. In a November edition of the NME, the magazine claims that he said, "The gates of England are flooded. The country's been thrown away."

Patrick Ward: Film Review: In the Valley of Elah

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Director: Paul Haggis; Release date: 25 January
Mike Deerfield (Jonathan Tucker), a young soldier fresh from Iraq, goes awol before being found dead near his military base in New Mexico. So begins a quest by his father, Hank (an incredible performance from Tommy Lee Jones), and local detective Emily Sanders (Charlize Theron), to take on the military and find out how and why his son died.

Farah Reza: Film Review: 4 Months, 3 Weeks & 2 Days

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Director: Cristian Mungiu; Release date: 11 January
The Palme d'Or winner, 4 Months, 3 Weeks & 2 Days, is set during the last days of the Communist regime in Romania. It starts with a student called Gabita frantically packing a suitcase. Her room mate Ortila remarks that "it looks like you're packing to go camping". It emerges that Gabita is pregnant — not two months pregnant, as she originally claims, but four months pregnant. Abortion is still illegal in Romania, but Ortila chooses to help her friend.

Colin Wilson: Film Review: The Kite Runner

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jan 08

Director: Marc Forster; Release date: Out now
Amir is the son of a wealthy father in 1970s Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan. Hassan, the son of his father's servant, is his best friend. Together they take part in kite-flying competitions, and one glorious day Amir becomes champion of Kabul.

Charlie Hore: Film Review: Lust, Caution

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Director: Ang Lee; Release date: 4 January
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon; The Hulk; Brokeback Mountain: Taiwanese director Ang Lee isn't one for getting stuck in a rut. His new film is once again quite unlike anything he's done before.
Lust, Caution takes place in China during the Second World War, but the actual events of the war are a faint backdrop to a tangle of loyalties, obsessions and pretences among a small group of the westernised middle classes. It's a psychological thriller, powered by both beautiful taut direction and compelling performances.

Judith Orr: Film Review: El Violin

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Director: Francisco Vargas Quevedo; Release date: 4 January
The explicit and brutal first five minutes of this film are enough to make sure the viewer does not mistake it for a gentle whimsical tale of wily Mexican peasants outwitting rich landowners. For this is a story that has at its heart the threat and reality of violent repression by the Mexican state.

Toby Osmond: Film Review: No Country for Old Men

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Directors: Ethan and Joel Coen; Release date: 18 January
The Coen brothers' latest film begins as a classic man on the run flick, as Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin) finds a case containing $2 million in the desert alongside a dozen dead Mexicans and a shipment of heroin. Taking the money, Moss embarks on a journey to the border, evading both Mexican and US gangsters.

Sofie Mason: Theatre Review: Sofie's choice

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A glance at some upcoming plays to intrigue and challenge you

Five things to get or see this month

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Pet Shop Boys – global poverty – anti-war folk songs – Michael Moore latest – Russian art

Simon Hall: Exhibition: Bauhaus 1919-1933

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Middlesbrough's bright new MIMA is showing the most extensive exhibition of work from the Bauhaus in Britain since 1968.

Tim Sanders + Keith Flett: Cartoon: A People's History of the World. 8: Beer part 2

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