Daniel J Leab, Orwell Subverted: The CIA and the Filming of Animal Farm (Pennsylvania State University, 2007), £36.50 The Halas and Batchelor animated film of Animal Farm had its world premiere in New York on 29 December 1954. A fortnight… Continue Reading
Robin Archer, Why Is There No Labor Party in the United States? (Princeton University, 2007), £19.95 It’s an old question, but despite the academic fashion of dismissing it, it’s a question that returns in both academic and political guise with… Continue Reading
Jonathan Neale, Stop Global Warming: Change the World (Bookmarks, 2008), £11.99 There are already many excellent books on climate change. Indeed, it seems like almost every environmental commentator either has written or is in the process of producing one. Not… Continue Reading
I agreed with much of Chris Harman’s latest article.1 My comments below will focus on the disagreements in order to further the discussion. (1) As I have argued before, I think there has been a substantial recovery of the rate… Continue Reading
We cannot understand the system we live in or how to fight it simply by the repetition of slogans. We need serious analysis and debate. For that reason, I welcome Jim Kincaid’s rejoinder to my articles in recent issues of… Continue Reading
Chris Harman has invited comment on his recent writings on the world economy and there is certainly much for Marxists to debate. We are confronted with a global economy, hugely uneven to be sure, but which in 2007 was producing… Continue Reading
At some point, quite early on in our revolutionary “careers”, Jewish students of the 1968 generation had to confront On the Jewish Question written by the young Karl Marx in 1843. This was an awesome moment—almost a political virility test.… Continue Reading
A review of Esther Leslie, Walter Benjamin (Reaktion, 2007), £10.95 There has been a growing fascination on the left for the often cryptic work of Walter Benjamin ever since he was first widely published in the 1960s. In 1968 Berlin… Continue Reading
One striking feature of Zimbabwe’s crisis has been the vocal support of the British and US governments for “democratic change”. In April, George Bush’s assistant secretary of state for African affairs, Jendayi Frazer, undertook a whirlwind “democracy tour” to support… Continue Reading
The riots and protests in Tibet earlier this year were the most significant since China’s takeover in the 1950s. Together with the protests that have accompanied the Olympic torch relay around the world, they have shown that Tibetan nationalism remains… Continue Reading