Art has often judged the judges, pleaded revenge to the innocent and shown to the future what the past has suffered, so that it has never been forgotten. John Berger, 1985.1 In 1969 Kenneth Clark presented a 13-part television series… Continue Reading
I shall never forget that thunder-like speech, which startled and amazed not only me, a heretic who had accidently dropped in, but all the true believers. I am certain that no one had expected anything of the sort. It seemed… Continue Reading
Within weeks of Jeremy Corbyn’s election as Labour leader, news and media channels were dominated by charges of antisemitism levelled against his supporters, the National Union of Students and others for their opposition to the State of Israel. The furore… Continue Reading
The seismic political upheaval that was the election of Donald Trump has exposed the deep polarisation in the United States and the alienation of millions from the main political parties and institutions. Trump’s self-promotion as an anti-establishment candidate propelled him… Continue Reading
Amid the host of uncertainties in which global capitalism is now caught, some things are clear. The first is the sheer arrogance of power displayed by the Western ruling classes. One feature of the neoliberal era has been the refusal… Continue Reading
The May issue of Monthly Review is the best for a long time. It contains an outstanding article on Albert Einstein’s Marxist politics (by John J Simon and available at http://monthlyreview.org/2009/05/01/why-socialism/); a very useful piece commemorating the 20th anniversary of… Continue Reading
A review of Hugh Purcell, The Last English Revolutionary: Tom Wintringham 1898-1949 (Sutton, 2000), £20 ‘You probably have not heard of Tom Wintringham,’ writes Hugh Purcell, ‘but by the time you have finished this book I hope you will agree… Continue Reading
A review of Julian Markels, The Marxian Imagination: Representing Class in Literature (Monthly Review Press, 2003), £15 Julian Markels’ book participates in a long-standing debate about the relationship between Marxism, class and literature. It sets itself apart, however, from many… Continue Reading
A review of Pavel V Maksakovsky, The Capitalist Cycle (Brill, Historical Materialism book series, 2004), Euro 59 There was a flourishing of Marxist intellectual life in the Russia of the mid-1920s that was wiped out with the final triumph of… Continue Reading
A review of lain Ferguson, Michael Lavalette and Elizabeth Whitmore (eds), Globalisation, Global Justice and Social Work (Routledge, 2005), £22,99 Neo-liberalism has enormously increased global immiseration over the last 40 years. For those of us involved through that period in… Continue Reading