Steve Jones examines the Poliziottesco genre of Italian cinema, an all but forgotten period of film, which provides a vivid portrayl of the corruption, crime, and political scandal that gripped Italy in the 1970s.
Marie Lyndon reviews The Emperor’s New Clothes, a new documentary starring comedian-turned-activist Russell Brand, which acts as a megaphone for the normally untold stories of the young, the unemployed, the disabled and all those marginalised by the capitalist system – and it’s a megaphone that’s not falling on deaf ears.
Theatre company 1927, with their critically-acclaimed show Golem, have powerfully highlighted the contradictory and alienating nature of technology within modern-day capitalism. As this superbly created satire asks: in this era of monolithic multinational monopolies such as Apple, Amazon, Google, and Facebook, is it we who control technology, or does technology control us?
Ben Gliniecki reviews the latest book by radical author Naomi Klein, This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs the Climate, which explains that climate change will not be solved by market mechanisms and individual changes in consumption. What is required is a fundamental change to the way our economy works.
Sussex Marxists reviews Selma, a film that has been praised as “heartbreaking” and “inspiring”; the story of Martin Luther King’s leadership of the Selma to Montgomery marches, poignantly expressed under the backdrop of unrest in Ferguson. But is this really a film that champions the black struggle in the United States?
Steve Jones reviews Breadline Britain, a new book full of startling figures, which reveal the real standard of living faced by millions in the UK as a result of the Tory government, their austerity programme, and the failed capitalist system that they defend.
January 2015 marks 43 years since the 1972 miners’ strike – the first national miners’ strike since the 1926 general strike. Matt Wood reviews The World on our Backs, a vivid description of the ’72 strike, which demonstrated what could be achieved when the working class is united.
Owen Walsh of the Leeds Marxists reviews Soy Cuba, a 1964 film written by Enrique Pineda Barnet and Yevgeny Yevtushenko and directed by Mikhail Kalatazov, which is a living monument to the Cuban Revolution. At a time when the future of the Cuban planned economy lies in the balance, this classic film is a must see for all who defend the Cuban Revolution.
If you are looking for a good Christmas present this year, you could do a lot worse than Dave Sinclair’s book of photographs, ‘Liverpool in the 1980s’. If a good photograph tells a story, then this book covering his photography in those years is a volume of stories, providing evocative images of the class struggle in Thatcher’s Britain.
United We Stand tells the story of the 1972 building workers’ strike and the conspiracy trial that followed, resulting in the imprisonment of three building workers with Des Warren receiving the harshest sentence of three years. However, the most famous of these prisoners is the now actor Ricky Tomlinson, who has collaborated with actor/playwright Neil Gore to tell this story.
Three years on from the release of his first book, Chavs: The Demonization of the Working Class, Owen Jones is now a well-known journalist and activist. Ed Taylor of the Sheffield Marxists reviews Jones’ latest book, The Establishment: And how they get away with it, in which the author examines the personalities and interests of those in Westminster, The City, and the media.
Following on from his last letter describing the attempts to knock down the Cremorne estate in London, we publish here a report by Nico Baldion, a Socialist Appeal supporter on the estate, who describes the mood at a recent meeting of the Cremorne residents association, at which the class hatred of the Tories towards the working class was laid bare.