Arkivet – Nummervisning

Fra Socialist Review nr. 326

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Content

326

3

jun 08

Patrick Ward: Review: The Cans Festival (Leake Street, London)

326

2

jun 08

On May Day weekend, Banksy and 600 other street artists decorated a tunnel on Leake Street under London Waterloo Station.

Editorial

326

3

jun 08

The unthinkable is now the undeniable – the Tories look like serious contenders to win the next general election.

Silumko Radebe: South Africa: Reclaim our streets

326

4

jun 08

Activists in Johannesburg are organising their local communities to oppose the recent violent attacks on foreigners there, Silumko Radebe from the Anti Privatisation Forum in Alexandra reports.

Alex Cobham: Christian Aid report: Death and Taxes

326

4

jun 08

Christian Aid's recent report, Death and Taxes, exposes the role of multinationals in conning poor countries out of vital tax revenue.

Claire Foot: Teenage Sex: Fearfulparents.com

326

5

jun 08

Each week we face sensationalist media headlines about the danger of online predators and paedophiles who stalk the internet to prey on children.

Pensions by number

326

5

jun 08

£90.70 – Weekly state pension
£145.15 – Weekly state pension were it still tied to earnings as before 1980
£134 – Official poverty line for weekly income
20% – Pensioners living below the offi8cal poverty line

Ed Warburton: Heathrow: Third runway flies in face of good sense

326

6

jun 08

As Socialist Review went to press protesters were due to converge on Heathrow in a demonstration to oppose the airport's expansion.

Patrick Ward: George Bush: Golf wars

326

7

jun 08

"I don't want some mom whose son may have recently died to see the commander in chief playing golf. I feel I owe it to the families to be in solidarity. And I think playing golf during a war just sends the wrong signal" – George Bush, 15 May 2008.

Patrick Ward: Tory pick and choose

326

7

jun 08

In 1989 Westminster Council voted to expel homeless families from the borough's hostels. They were transferred to asbestos-ridden tower blocks in a safe Labour ward, often without heating or sanitation systems.

Mark Serwotka: Union-made: United we stay

326

7

jun 08

The PCS civil service workers' union conference last month may turn out to have been the most significant in the union's ten year history.

John Shemeld + Chris Harman: Letters: The year before

326

8

jun 08

Grosvenor Square 1968 has become a common piece of historical shorthand (Feature, Socialist Review, May 2008).

Annie Hawes: Letters: Riposte (Hamas)

326

8

jun 08

Congratulations to Hassan Mahamdallie on a beautifully argued riposte to the vile Martin Amis (Feature, Socialist Review, April 2008).

Leni Koupis: Letters: The end of the line

326

8

jun 08

Call centres (Union-Made, Socialist Review, May 2008). Just those two words together are enough to provoke a groan and a yawn from most people.

Farah Reza: Letters: Pro-choice victory

326

8

jun 08

The Abortion Rights demonstration outside parliament on 20 May was a great success.

Bassem Chit: Letter from...: Lebanon

326

9

jun 08

Recent events exposed the weakness of the US-backed government and both the strength and limitations of the Hezbollah-led opposition, argues Bassem Chit.

Lindsey German: Is Britain moving to the right?

326

10

jun 08

Labour's crushing election defeats and the increase in the vote for the Nazi BNP has led some to believe the country is drifting rightwards. Lindsey German opens our analysis of the situation by challenging that assumption and argues that election results don't tell the whole story.

Charlie Kimber: Pay, the fightback... and how much do you spend on your horse?

326

13

jun 08

Many workers are gaining confidence to join the resistance to pay cuts and privatisation. Charlie Kimber assesses the pressure on Gordon Brown from below.

Judith Orr: The resistible rise of the BNP

326

14

jun 08

The recent local elections saw the BNP gain ten councillors and a London Assembly member. Judith Orr puts these results in context, and argues that the fascists can, and must, be stopped once more.

Glyn Robbins: Housing benefits

326

15

jun 08

The abandonment of council housing building has worsened dramatically the housing crisis, both socially and financially. Glyn Robbins argues the case for publicly-owned, democratically-run and high-quality social housing.

Weyman Bennett + Judith Orr: Interview: Benjamin Zephaniah: Rhythms of radical culture

326

18

jun 08

Poet, novelist and musician Benjamin Zephaniah talks to Weyman Bennett and Judith Orr about politics, culture and why Boris Johnson's appointment of a black deputy should fool no one.

Mark Thomas: A to Z of Socialism: M is for mass strike

326

21

jun 08

"...for the first time [it] awoke feeling and class-consciousness in millions upon millions as if by an electric shock... the proletarian mass... quite suddenly and sharply came to realise how intolerable was that social and economic existence which they had patiently endured for decades in the chains of capitalism. Thereupon there began a spontaneous general shaking of and tugging at these chains."

Chris Jones: Fortress Europe on Samos island: a Greek tragedy

326

22

jun 08

When British academic Chris Jones, acclaimed for his writing on radical social work, went to live on a small Greek island he discovered that he was living on a frontline. He reports on the plight of desperate refugees who risk their lives to escape to Europe, and the reaction of the community.

Beth Stone: Book review: Beijing Coma

326

24

jun 08

Ma Jian: Beijing Coma, Chatto and Windus, £17.99
The Olympic flame supposedly signifies democracy and freedom. Ironic, then, that the Chinese Olympic flame had to be "protected" by a bunch of thugs against demonstrators demanding those very things.

Pete Ramand: Book review: ¡Hugo!

326

25

jun 08

Bart Jones: ¡Hugo!, The Bodley Head, £12.99
Bart Jones's biography of Hugo Chavez is a welcome addition to the literature on the Venezuelan Revolution. It goes beyond a mere study of Chavez the man and delves into the political history of Venezuela and the conditions that shaped the tumultuous rise of the left in the region.

Sue Sparks: Book review: Rivals (China, India, Japan)

326

25

jun 08

Bill Emmott: Rivals, Allen Lane, £20
Bill Emmott was editor of the Economist for many years. He made his name with a prescient book about Japan, The Sun Also Sets, which appeared at a time when many people – especially in the US – were afraid that Japan was going to take over the world.

Jacqui Freeman: Book review: Dreams from the Endz

326

26

jun 08

Faiza Guene: Dreams from the Endz, Chatto and Windus, £11.99
Dreams from the Endz is about the impact of politics on everyday life and how the French state stamps on the dreams of the young, immigrants and poor.

Dan Swain: Book review: Rogue Economics

326

26

jun 08

Loretta Napoleoni: Rogue Economics, Seven Stories Press, £13.99
In this ambitious work she attempts to show, through a wide ranging account of contemporary organised crime, that the period since the fall of the Berlin Wall is defined by the dominance of economics over politics.

Gaverne Bennett: Book review: The Dirty South

326

27

jun 08

Alex Wheatle: The Dirty South, Serpent's Tail, £9.99
Rare is the novel that can take known statistics – for example, 70 percent of African Caribbean boys are likely to leave school with less than five GCSEs – and show how these numbers are really played out in the lives of young black teenagers. Rarer still is the novel that can capture the lives of three generations by crystallising them through the life, thoughts, and feelings of their youngest generation.

James Foley: Book review: Bad Samaritans

326

27

jun 08

Ha-Joon Chang: Bad Samaritans, Random House Business Books, £8.99
Ha-Joon Chang, a Cambridge economist and adviser to the World Bank, has written a trenchant, historically informed contribution to the emerging establishment debates about neoliberalism.

Nick Clark: Book review: Squandered

326

28

jun 08

David Craig: Squandered, Constable, £8.99
Anyone listening to New Labour politicians justifying their performance on public services will have heard them claim to have increased spending to record levels. Yet anyone who works in or uses them feels that they are in crisis.

Penny Howard: Book review: On the Global Waterfront

326

28

jun 08

Suzan Erem and E Paul Durrenberger: On the Global Waterfront, Monthly Review Press, £12.99
On the Global Waterfront is a gripping account of the intersection of race and class in the US, in the tradition of the classic Detroit: I Do Mind Dying. Set on the docks of Charleston, South Carolina, in 2000, it is written as a detective story about racism, vicious state repression, and the power of the global working class.

Mary Brodbin: Book review: A Case of Exploding Mangoes

326

29

jun 08

Mohammed Hanif: A Case of Exploding Mangoes, Jonathan Cape, £12.99
Mohammed Hanif thoroughly enjoys himself in his first novel where he explores some fairly outrageous scenarios to explain the death of Pakistan's military dictator General Zia in an aircrash in 1988. But it's a pretty black comedy describing when Zia, backed by Reagan, built up Islamist radicalism against the USSR in Afghanistan.

Patrick Ward: Book review: Politics Noir

326

29

jun 08

Politics Noir, Edited by Gary Phillips, Verso, £8.99
Presidential candidates organising the elimination of their opponents via the barrel of a gun; holier than thou politicians burying sexual indiscretions through threat and counter-threat; and plenty of photograph-stuffed brown envelopes – beneath the thin veneer of what the US political elite have themselves termed morally acceptable, lie the selfish, corrupt and entrenched who force their values upon the poor, both at home and abroad.
Politics Noir, a collection of 13 short stories from the likes of Mike Davis and Gary Phillips, exposes not what has happened, but totally believable stories about what might be happening.

Book review: New in paperback & children's books

326

29

jun 08

Real rationality – Third world history – Animals with instructive illnesses – Seeking asylum in Sheffield

Martin Smith: New challenges for anti-fascism

326

30

jun 08

Along with every great success come new challenges. That will be the case for Love Music Hate Racism (LMHR).

Eamonn Kelly: Film review: Taxi to the Darkside

326

31

jun 08

Director: Alex Gibney; Release date: 13 June
No one person murdered Dilawar, a 22 year old Afghan taxi driver, abducted, imprisoned and finally killed at Bagram air base in December 2002. Rather Dilawar died as the result of a sustained programme of torture visited upon him on the orders of the US government.

Sasha Simic: Film review: Iron man

326

31

jun 08

Iron man, Director: Jon Favreau; Release date: out now
Iron Man is the latest superhero to get his own film as Hollywood continues to loot the pages of comics in a desperate search for a blockbuster. In box office terms a blockbuster is what they've produced, as it's one of only ten films ever to have taken more than $100 million in the first three days of its release.

Kelly Hilditch: Film review: The Edge of Love

326

32

jun 08

The Edge of Love, Director: John Maybury; Release date: 27 June
Dylan Thomas was an iconic poet, a lifelong socialist and an internationalist who wrote about the great issues of his age – unemployment, war and the danger of atomic weapons – with words both beautiful and captivating.

Andy Ridley: Film review: California Dreamin'

326

32

jun 08

California Dreamin', Director: Cristian Nemescu; Release date: out now
California Dreamin' was to be Cristian Nemescu's only feature film – both he and his sound editor were killed in a car crash before it was finished.
He has created a beautiful film. It often makes you smile because you are reminded of your own obsessions and yearnings and clumsy, frustrated attempts to better yourself. People are brought together by circumstance and we witness subtle and intimate conversations between them.

Mark Brown: Theatre review: Black Watch

326

32

jun 08

Director: John Tiffany; Barbican, London; 20 to 26 June
The National Theatre of Scotland's Iraq War drama Black Watch is moving to the Barbican. It has been garlanded with awards since it opened at the Edinburgh Fringe in August 2006. There are a variety of reasons why the play, which was written by Gregory Burke and directed by John Tiffany, has become such a hit.

Colin Wilson: Theatre review: The Good Soul of Szechuan

326

33

jun 08

Director: Richard Jones; Young Vic, London until 28 June
Three gods are travelling through China, looking for a good person – so far, without success. In Szechuan province the kind-hearted prostitute Shen Te takes them in for the night. In return they give her over $1,000. She buys a little tobacco shop, but unemployed and homeless people at once begin arriving and taking advantage of her generosity. So gentle, loving Shen Te disguises herself as a fictitious male cousin, ruthless and hard-hearted Shui Ta, who protects her by turning out the hangers-on.

Review: Five things to get or see this month

326

33

jun 08

Pitman Painters – Roots – John Pilger – Mad Men – Klimt

Bart Griffioen: Interview: Factory of stereotypes

326

34

jun 08

Jack Shaheen's book Reel Bad Arabs: How Hollywood Vilifies a People appeared just a few months before 11 September 2001. The impact that the 9/11 attacks had on the "dream factory" in the following six years is described in his latest book, Guilty: Hollywood's Verdict on Arabs after 9/11. The documentary version of Reel Bad Arabs was released last year. Shaheen spoke to Bart Griffioen about his work.

Keith Flett + Tim Sanders: Cartoon: A People's History of the World. 13: China. Rebellion, Crisis & Stasis

326

35

jun 08