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Fra Socialist Review nr. 336

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Socialist Review 336: Content

336

3

maj 09

Exhibition: Maggie! Maggie! Maggie! (The Cartoon Museum, London)

336

2

maj 09

On 6 May the Cartoon Museum marks the 30th anniversary of Margaret Thatcher's election as prime minister with the exhibtion Maggie! Maggie! Maggie!

Editorial

336

3

maj 09

The black holes appearing in national economies around the world show the economic crisis is still causing devastation in its wake. Britain's black hole is estimated at £90 billion.

Joseph Choonara: Darling's budget – the shape of cuts to come

336

4

maj 09

Alistair Darling is "Red All Over", wailed The Times. "Return Of Class War", screamed The Daily Telegraph.
Newspaper editors are presumably part of the 0.6 percent of the population who will be hit by the 50 percent top rate of income tax announced by the chancellor in his budget. But this measure should be put in context. When Labour last left office in 1979 the top rate was 83 percent.

Dave Crouch: The BBC bows to Zionist pressure

336

4

maj 09

The Zionist lobby has been deeply damaged by Israel's assault on Gaza in January. It is now trying to claw back some of the ground it lost – with the help of its friends in high places, namely in the senior management of the BBC.

Michael Eaude: Job massacre in Spain

336

5

maj 09

This January, as unemployment in Spain reached 3 million, the Minister of Labour, Celestino Corbacho announced, "The worst is over. We will not reach 4 million." The April figures place unemployment at 4,010,700 – 17.36 percent of the labour force and the highest figure in Spain's history. 766,000 jobs were destroyed in January, February and March.

Sri Lanka by numbers

336

5

maj 09

111,512 – Internally displaced Tamil refugees created in final week of April
6,432 – Civilians killed in northern Sri Lankan Vanni district alone this year (UN estimate)
£1.4 million – British government arms export to Sri Lanka in final quarter of 2008

Eddie Cimorelli: Occupations that send a powerful message

336

6

maj 09

Three decades of the neoliberal project have wrought significant changes to British society, all with New Labour's unabashed aim of making Britain "the most business friendly environment in Europe".

Patrick Ward: You're fired! No, really

336

7

maj 09

Since December 2007, 5 million US workers have been thrown into unemployment, with 8.5 percent of the country without work. Depressing news – unless you are a TV exec.

Patrick Ward: Rewards for failure

336

7

maj 09

As seen in the recent expenses rows, government ministers have a huge talent for sniffing out a few extra bucks. One minister has managed to combine this nous with acknowledgement of his party's tumbling popularity.

Lindsey German: In my opinion: Discontent and the police

336

7

maj 09

I have been on two demonstrations where protesters were killed and on a few more when I thought someone would be killed.

Salim Haidrani: Letters: Pakistan: Left needed

336

8

maj 09

Geoff Brown's analysis of Pakistan shows how a country which was the product of British imperialism continues to support the proxy wars of the US in the region (Feature, Socialist Review, April 2009).

Jacqueline Mulhallen: Letters: Julie Christie: Darling's riches

336

8

maj 09

I found the interview with Julie Christie very interesting (Interview, Socialist Review, March 2009). Most of my friends in 1965 were, like me, secretaries who had left school at 15 or 16 – but I don't remember any of them thinking the character Christie played in Darling was sexually liberated.

Dino Bressab: Letters: The Reader: between the lines

336

8

maj 09

I was amazed by your correspondent Berit Kuennecke's assessment of Bernhard Schlink's The Reader, which Kuennecke describes as a "very good novel" in her review of Good (Films, Socialist Review, April 2009).

Kurt Eren: Letters: David Harvey: Greed and crisis

336

8

maj 09

The interview with David Harvey was very interesting (Interview, Socialist Review, April 2009). However, there is one area that was not fully explored: why, especially during Alan Greenspan's tenure as chair of the Federal Reserve, did the housing sector become the second largest sector in the economy, replacing the manufacturing sector?

Comrade Sung: Letter from ...: Thailand

336

9

maj 09

After the brutal repression of anti-government protests last month Comrade Sung gives her assessment of the movement

Chris Harman: Leap of faith: The ruling classes' "solution" to the economic crisis

336

10

maj 09

The media greeted the London G20 Summit as a great success and declared it to be "the day the world came together to fight recession with a plan for economic recovery and reform". Chris Harman looks at what lies behind the hype and the so called solutions put forward

Linda Bartle: Visteon: A life-changing struggle

336

13

maj 09

The occupation at former Ford plant Visteon wasn't planned. We came down here to get our personal belongings after we heard that we had all been sacked with immediate effect.

Ian Taylor: In perspective: Myths of the white working class

336

14

maj 09

Talk of the existence of a unique and specifically deprived white working class being discriminated against conceals the real issue of class inequalities

Weyman Bennett: Stand up to the Nazis

336

15

maj 09

Elections next month may see the Nazi BNP win their first MEPs. But, argues Weyman Bennett, the threat of fascism can, and must, be challenged

Mike Davis: Swine Flu: The real dangerous swine wear suit

336

18

maj 09

With deaths mounting in Mexico authorities warn of a swine flu pandemic. Mike Davis argues that governments, pharmaceutical companies and agribusiness create the conditions for these health crises

Amy Leather: A to Z of Socialism: W is for workers

336

20

maj 09

As economic crisis, war and poverty sweep the globe many people rightly feel that capitalism is failing us. For anyone wanting to challenge the system the question of who has the power to bring about change in society becomes crucial.

John Newsinger: A textbook protest

336

21

maj 09

In Chicago the Great Depression led to the witholding of teachers' wages. John Newsinger shows how the teachers fought back – and won

Ken Fero: State violence exposed

336

22

maj 09

The death of Ian Tomlinson at the G20 protests in London last month has reopened the debate on police accountability. Filmmaker Ken Fero remembers those who have died while in police custody and his fight to show the truth with his documentary, Injustice

Hassan Mahamdallie: Book Review: A Suitable Enemy

336

24

maj 09

Liz Fekete, Pluto; £17.99
One of the most revealing and alarming aspects of A Suitable Enemy is the way in which it describes the same phenomenon erupting across western Europe, country by country, maybe at different speeds, but all moving towards the same barbaric endpoint.

Robert Jackson: Book Review: Unravelling Capitalism

336

25

maj 09

Joseph Choonara, Bookmarks Publications; £7.99
Last October the right wing Daily Mail reported that Karl Marx's Capital was a bestseller in Germany. Around the same time a Capital reading movement was initiated in over 30 different German universities by the student organisation associated with the left wing party Die Linke.

Ian Birchall: Book Review: The Frock-Coated Communist

336

25

maj 09

Tristram Hunt, Allen Lane; £25
Anything that encourages greater interest in the founders of Marxism can't be all bad, and this well researched biography of Frederick Engels is certainly not bad.

Esme Choonara: Book Review: Che Guevara

336

26

maj 09

Olivier Besancenot and Michael Lowy, Monthly Review Press; £12.95
"Ernesto 'Che' Guevara was not a saint, a superman or an infallible leader," the authors assert at the beginning of this engaging book. In this spirit they show how Che's ideas evolved throughout his short life.

Megan Trudell: Book Review: A Red Family

336

26

maj 09

Mickey Friedman, University of Illinois Press; £17.99
"Politics", Barbara Scales says at the end of this book, is "the way you live every moment of your life". She knows what she is talking about. Her parents, Junius and Gladys Scales, were Communist Party (CP) members in the US during the 1940s and 1950s – her father the only American to go to prison for being a Communist. Their story – told through interviews recorded in 1971 and only recently published – is one of considerable courage and affection, great candour and political conviction of the deepest kind.

Elaine Graham-Leigh: Book Review: The Politics of Climate Change

336

27

maj 09

Anthony Giddens, Polity; £12.99
According to Anthony Giddens, this book is a prolonged inquiry into why anyone still drives an SUV. As might be expected from the author of The Third Way, the New Labour speak here never quite gets round to answering the question, but you're nevertheless left with the impression that it's all our fault.

Mary Brodbin: Book Review: The Kindly Ones

336

27

maj 09

Jonathan Littell, Chatto & Windus; £20
The Kindly Ones is a memoir of the Second World War by Max Aue, a fictional SS officer who has escaped being brought to trial at the war's end and reinvented himself as a family man and factory manager in France.

Nicola Field: Book Review: Forest Gate

336

28

maj 09

Peter Akinti, Jonathan Cape; £12.99
Poverty feels eternal on the gang-riven, brutal, barren estates of east London. In this vivid and energising first novel from Peter Akinti, two teenage friends – James, the youngest in a family of drug dealers, and Ashvin, a Somalian refugee – decide to escape by jumping, nooses around their necks, from the tops of twin tower blocks.

Nick Clark: Book Review: Chasing Alpha

336

28

maj 09

Philip Augar, The Bodley Head; £20
When Alistair Darling announced the conclusions of the London G20 Summit to the House of Commons, he highlighted the need for tighter regulation of the financial services industry. But the near total absence of controls on the City's financiers, gamblers and associated snake oil salesmen was no accident. It was a deliberate policy aimed at ensuring London's role as a centre for financial "services".

Simon Basketter: Book Review: Meltdown

336

29

maj 09

Paul Mason, Verso; £7.99
Hedge fund manager Andrew Lahde is quoted in Meltdown: "I was in this game for the money. The low hanging fruit, ie idiots whose parents paid for prep school, Yale, and then the Harvard MBA, was there for the taking. These people...rose to the top of companies such as AIG, Bear Stearns and Lehman...making it easier for me to find people stupid enough to take the other side of my trades. God bless America."

Gaverne Bennett: Book Review: Getting Ghost

336

29

maj 09

If Detroit is one of the beating hearts of the US then according to Luke Bergmann it is a bleeding, dying one – 75 percent of black males drop out of school and one in three people live in poverty.

Paperbacks and children books

336

29

maj 09

Beijing Coma – Chicago – Lost Riders – Free?

Pat Stack: Culture Column: Throw the costumes to the moths

336

30

maj 09

There was a time when the BBC produced some of the finest drama series. Not so now. US channels such as HBO have been leaving them standing.

Bob Light: DVD Review: The Corner

336

31

maj 09

Director: Charles S Dutton; Writers: Ed Burns, David Simon and David Mills
Made in 2000, two years before The Wire, The Corner has never been shown on British television. It is only being released on DVD now because of the success of David Simon's later work. Indeed there are so many similarities between The Corner and The Wire that they simply have to be discussed together.

Martin Smith: Music Review: Grey Britain, The Gallows; Music for the People, The Enemy

336

31

maj 09

The Specials, The Jam and The Clash articulated the anger and pain felt by millions of young people during the early years of the Thatcher era. Today a new generation of young people are being thrown on the unemployment scrapheap – over 616,000 people aged between 16 and 25 have found themselves without work.

Mike Gonzalez: Film Review: Little Ashes

336

32

maj 09

Director: Paul Morrison; Release date: 8 May
Paul Morrison's Little Ashes explores the relationship between three young artists sharing rooms in the student halls of residence in Madrid University. Their stories would turn out very differently, but their meeting was significant.

Ken Olende: Film Review: Star Trek

336

32

maj 09

Director: JJ Abrams; Release date: 8 May
The creator of television's Lost and Alias has been brought in to breathe new life into the tired Star Trek franchise. He has probably succeeded. The film works as an action adventure from the spectacular opening space battle, even though the plot is full of holes and occasionally near incomprehensible.

Five things to get or see this month

336

33

maj 09

King's Horseman – Good Shit – LMHR – Frost/Nixon – Trouble the Water

Paul O’Brien: Theatre and politics

336

34

maj 09

Paul O'Brien looks at the recent controversies over England People Very Nice and Seven Jewish Children

Eileen Short + Keith Flett + Tim Sanders: Cartoon: A People's History of the World: The Dark Ages

336

35

maj 09