Arkivet – Nummervisning

Fra Socialist Review nr. 322

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Contents

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feb 08

Alexander Rodchenko, Hayward Gallery, London

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Alexander Rodchenko was part of an artistic avant garde in Russia in the early years of the 20th century.

Judith Orr: Editorial

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Patrick Ward: Kenya: 'Tribal' smokescreen

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The media reports surrounding recent events in Kenya have tended to portray it as yet another "tribal" clash.

Unjum Mirza: Pakistan: Making peace with Washington

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The crisis of legitimacy faced by Pakistani dictator Pervez Musharraf has been exacerbated by the assassination of Benazir Bhutto last December.

Patrick Ward: Troops out – by their own choice

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A defence select committee of MPs has reported that the morale of British troops has fallen dramatically over the past several years, leading to a haemorrhaging of soldiers.

Budget by numbers

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£55 billion – Northern Rock bail out – and still counting ...
£20 billiion – Transport current annual budget
£14.2 billion – Higher education current annual budget
£90 billion – NHS current annual budget

Howard Rodman: Whose lines are they anyway?

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Striking screenwriter Howard Rodman spoke to Socialist Review about challenging the studios over royalties from the "new media".

Patrick Ward: ID think twice about it

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Following the negative reception to recent data losses the public are yet to warm to the idea of ID cards. Leaked reports (can they not keep their hands on anything?) suggest that the rollout will start in 2012, two years later than anticipated.

Patrick Ward: Diploma with fries

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Companies such as McDonald's are now eligible to award nationally recognised qualifications equal to A Levels and advanced diplomas, the government has announced.

Lindsey German: London mayoral elections: Why I'm standing

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The election for London mayor is shaping up to be a celebrity clash between the incumbent mayor, Ken Livingstone, and his main rival, the Tory Neanderthal MP for Henley, Boris Johnson.

Sasha Simic: Feedback: Cairo's calling

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The articles on the strike wave that has been rocking Egypt's ruling class were brilliant (Feature, Socialist Review, January 2008).

Ed Mynott: Feedback: Still a runner

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I think Colin Wilson was a little too harsh in his review of The Kite Runner (Culture, Socialist Review, January 2008).

John Appleyard: Feedback: Agencies for change

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Local government relies on agency workers to cover for staff who are either on holiday or long term sick leave.

Jonathan Tipton: Feedback: "Pro-life" hypocrites

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Jackie Turner's column (In My View, Socialist Review, December 2007), in emphasising the tactic of the anti-abortion lobby to appeal to quasi-scientific arguments for advances in medical treatment and understanding in order to reduce the current 24-week upper limit to abortion, is highly commendable.

Vladimir Unkovski-Korica: Letter from ...: Serbia

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The Serbian elections highlight the imperialist powers' scramble for influence. But, argues Vladimir Unkovski-Korica, neither the West nor Moscow will benefit ordinary Serbs.

Chris Harman: Economic crisis: Capitalism exposed

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Every time economic crises develop they are described as aberrations in an otherwise rational and balanced system. Chris Harman looks at the roots and implications of the recent credit crunch, and explains why crises are in fact an intrinsic feature of capitalism.

Viv Smith: LGBT history month: The rainbow nation today (South Africa)

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The South African constitution is one of the most advanced in the world when it comes to LGBT rights. Viv Smith, a gay rights activist who worked for the ANC during the writing of the constitution, describes how these advances were won but argues there is still so much to fight for today.

Alex Kenny: Union-made: Schools out!

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The National Union of Teachers (NUT) is preparing to ballot over 200,000 members in England and Wales for strike action against below inflation pay rises.

Nick Davies: Obstacles to truth

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In his new book, Flat Earth News, award-winning journalist Nick Davies argues that the main threat to truth-telling journalism has moved from propagandist proprietors such as Lord Beaverbrook to the corporations and their commercial interests exemplified by business magnate Rupert Murdoch.

Patrick Ward: Interview: Changing society, imagining the future

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Matter is the seventh science fiction novel by Iain Banks about "the Culture". He talks to Patrick Ward about writing, utopias, and New Labour.

John Newsinger: A to Z of Socialism: I for Imperialism

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Why does the BBC History magazine have a special issue devoted to the British Empire in 2008?

Ian Birchall: Algeria: Torture last time

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When Algerian journalist Henri Alleg published his account of being tortured at the hands of the French colonial regime it became an instant bestseller. Ian Birchall tells us why the book is still as relevant today as it was 50 years ago during the Algerian War of Independence.

Joseph Choonara: Book review: Revolutionary Horizons

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Forrest Hylton and Sinclair Thomson: Revolutionary Horizons – Past and Present in Bolivian Politics, Verso, £12.99
Some years before the French Revolution, Bolivia's indigenous masses, the Aymara, the Quechua and others, rose up. The names of the heroes of the 1780-1 rebellion – Tomás Katari, Tupaj Amaro and Tupaj Katari – still echo through Bolivia, where two thirds of the population define themselves as indigenous.

Mark Thomas: Book review: Defeat

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Jonathan Steele: Defeat, IB Tauris, £20
Jonathan Steele, the Guardian's foreign correspondent, has written a useful and important book about the occupation of Iraq. In Defeat: Why They Lost Iraq he argues powerfully that the immense catastrophe in Iraq is a product not of poor decisions and mistakes taken by the US occupation, but the inevitable product of the very fact of occupation itself. It was doomed from the start, as he puts it.

Mike Haynes: Book Review: The World on Fire

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For socialists the most exciting year of the last century was probably 1919. While the 1917 Russian Revolution had shaken the world, its full implications only became apparent when the First World War ended in November 1918. The next two years saw the world in turmoil. "We are running a race with Bolshevism and the world is on fire," said US president Woodrow Wilson at the time of the Versailles Peace Conference.

Dave Crouch: Book Review: Flat Earth News

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by Nick Davies, Chatto and Windus, £17.99
In the Dark Ages lepers were forced to ring a bell and shout "Unclean, unclean!" while both peasant and lord shunned an illness they didn't understand and couldn't cure.
Many on the left today take a similar line on the mainstream media.

John Parrington: Book Review: The Stuff of Thought

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Steven Pinker, Penguin, £25
Steven Pinker, a professor of psychology at Harvard University, first came to prominence with his book The Language Instinct, a popular account of Noam Chomsky's theory that all human beings are born with an innate capacity for understanding and utilising the complex rules of language.

Weyman Bennett: Book Review: Gang Leader for a Day

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Sudhir Venkatesh, Allen Lane, £18.99
Not many professors or PhD scholars enter a poor black crime ridden neighbourhood for seven years to ask the question, "How does it feel to be poor and black?" (the reply, by the way, was "Fuck you"). Most studies are carried out in the safe, sanitised ivory towers from which academics moralise about the root causes of criminality. This book is different. Its narrative portrays the impact of neoliberal capitalism on the lives of black working class people living in the housing projects.

Mary Brodbin: Book Review: The Donegal Woman

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by John Throne, The Drumkeen Press, £10.99
Less than 100 years ago a form of slavery still existed in rural Ireland – the hiring fair system. Children as young as seven were sold for fixed periods by their impoverished parents to farmers who worked them to the bone, treating them as little more than cattle.

Michael McDonnell: Book Review: The World Bank

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by Eric Toussaint, Pluto, £16.99
Since its foundation in 1946 the World Bank has been used by Western governments and corporations to extract wealth from the poorest countries. Eric Toussaint, president of the Committee for the Abolition of Third World Debt (CADTM), explains in this book how the World Bank plays this role and why the enormous amount of "debt" paid to it each year should be cancelled immediately.

Colin Wilson: Book Review: The Naked Man

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by Desmond Morris, Jonathan Cape, £18.99
This book's one real idea has become a right-wing cliché: differences between male and female behaviour are rooted in our evolutionary development.

Patrick Ward: Book Review: Matter

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by Iain M. Banks, Orbit, £18.99
A king is murdered; his son seeks vengeance; his brother is threatened with assassination; and vast galaxy-spanning societies of insects, blobs and genetically modified humans watch the seemingly inconsequential imperialist rivalries taking place on two of the 16 internal levels of the planet Sursamen.

New in paperback & children's books

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World working class – black and British in the 60s and 70s – Iraq graphic novel – political teddy bears

Martin Smith: TV review (Mad Men): Ads and smokes

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"Mad Men was a term used in the late 1950s to describe the advertising executives of Madison Avenue, New York. They coined it."

Hannah Dee: Film review: Battle for Haditha

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Before the Iraq war, most people had probably never heard of Haditha – a small Iraqi town now famous for a massacre that has become a symbol for all that is wrong with the war. It took place on 19 November 2005, after a roadside bomb exploded killing a young marine. In the following five hours US troops went on the rampage killing 24 people, including a wheelchair-bound man and a three year old child.

Jacqui Freeman: Film Review: The Savages

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Director: Tamara Jenkins; Release date: Out now
The Savages is a humorous and brutally honest look at the death of a parent as experienced by a highly dysfunctional family. The parent in question is Lenny Savage (Philip Bosco), an angry old man long estranged from his two grown-up children and recently diagnosed with dementia.

Kelly Hilditch: Film Review: The 11th Hour

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Directors: Nadia Conners and Leila Conners Petersen; Release date: 15 February
My first thoughts on being asked to go and see Leonardo DiCaprio's climate change documentary were not terribly cheery. But this film is a welcome addition to the conversation surrounding the issue.

Sally Campbell: Film Review: Sweeney Todd

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Director: Tim Burton; Release date: out now
The opening credits set up what's to come: giant, sinister lettering (if you can have such a thing) runs with thick red blood while orchestral music drums up fear, suspense and horror. If you didn't know it already, you can tell this is not a story with a happy ending.

Judith Orr: Film Review: There Will Be Blood

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Director: Paul Thomas Anderson; Release date: 8 February
The first 20 minutes of There Will Be Blood feature no dialogue, just the occasionally grating soundtrack by Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood. It's a daring start to an epic film. The story is one that has attracted filmmakers since the beginning of Hollywood – a man starting from nothing and making his fortune-the frontier spirit, the American Dream.

Beccy Reese: Film Review: Havana Blues

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Directors Alberto Yoel, Roberto Sanmartin, Yailene Sierra and Benito Zambrano; Release date: out now
A band gets together to record a demo. The studio is a small, cramped flat. While the drummer beats his rhythm alone, the bongos are banged in the kitchen and the guitars strummed around the coffee table. A fan cools a computer and Granny sings her moody vocals lubricated with a glass of rum. This opening scene is fast paced, cutting between scenes of the recording and the band members in the streets of Havana, with their upbeat pop rock providing the soundtrack.

Five things to get or see this month

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Anti-war art in Aberdare – Pilger documentary – anti-war Iraqi school students – Joy Division – war photos

Mike Gonzalez: Exhibition Review: From Russia, Royal Academy of Arts

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In the third room of this extraordinary exhibition there is a group of works painted in Paris in 1908-10. It was the time of Cubism, of Pablo Picasso's Dryad, of Henri Matisse's sensual Nude, Black and Gold and the wonderfully energetic Dance II that is the exhibition's emblematic painting.

Keith Flett + Tim Sanders: Cartoon: A People's History of the World. 9: "The World historic defeat of the female sex"

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Sofie Mason: Theatre Review: Sofie's Choice (online only)

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feb 08

Let There be Love – Weapons of Happiness – Roots – The Living Unknown Soldier – Shadow Language

Nick Clark: Book Review: The Selfish Capitalist (online only)

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by Oliver James, Vermilion, Oliver James £14.99
Gordon Brown's drive to get people off benefits includes establishing a programme aimed at those with chronic depression. They will be given cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) for six to 16 weeks, after which they are expected to be job ready. Former New Labour advisor Derek Draper described CBT with characteristic compassion: "It would make people more employable and better parents, thereby increasing productivity, cutting the benefits bill and reducing antisocial behaviour."
Psychologist Oliver James has a differing view.