Magazine Issues

tim_toon2348.jpg
Issue - 403

Can we topple the Tories?

Sign up for our daily email update ‘Breakfast in Red’

In this issue

Reviews & Culture

Frontline Ukraine

The front cover of February’s issue of ‘The Week’ portrays Russian president Vladimir Putin as The Terminator, eyeing us menacingly while clutching a pistol. Sakwa’s book is a necessary corrective not only to this kind of foolishness, but also to the dominant narratives on the crisis in Europe’s “borderlands”. In place of Russo-phobic fears of...
02 June 2015
Socialist Review Archive

Wrong for human rights

The appointment of the loathsome Michael Gove as justice secretary bodes ill for human rights in Britain. Solicitor Madeleine Corr seeks inspiration from teachers who ousted him from the education department.
02 June 2015
Socialist Review Archive

Bloodbath at Waterloo

The Tories' commemoration of the bicentenary of Waterloo is another example of their wish to boost the image of the armed forces today. John Newsinger relates the real reasons for the battle in June 1815.
02 June 2015
News Image
Reviews & Culture

Private Island

A £50 billion high-speed rail line built and run by private firms and the sale of — extension of “Right to Buy” to — 1.3 million social housing properties are key parts of the new Tory programme. Barely anyone in parliament batted an eyelid when the plans were laid out at the end of May....
02 June 2015
News Image
Reviews & Culture

Enemy on the Euphrates

Imperial power lands troops near Basra. Imperial power seizes control of oil supplies. Imperial power brutally crushes opposition. Imperial power imposes puppet government based on one religious group. This was Iraq, then known as Mesopotamia, between 1914 and 1920. This fascinating book describes these events culminating in the biggest anti-colonial revolt faced by Britain during...
02 June 2015
Reviews & Culture

The Left Side of History

The Left Side of History: World War II and the Unfulfilled Promise of Communism in Eastern Europe is a moving book, though initially it appears composed of disparate elements that do not comprise a whole. There is the story of Frank Thompson, brother of historian EP Thompson. A Communist and British army officer, Frank was...
02 June 2015
Reviews & Culture

African Titanics

The people who risk their lives on the African Titanics, the barely seaworthy boats that set out to bring migrants across the Mediterranean to Europe, are rarely seen as individuals. But some of their perspectives are brought to life in this novel, newly published in English. Author Abu Bakr Khaal is from Eritrea, the east...
02 June 2015
Reviews & Culture

Northern ReSisters

Bernadette Hyland’s purpose in presenting nine short biographies of radical northern women is to celebrate the struggles and achievements of political activists who might otherwise be overlooked but who “follow in the footsteps of many working class men and women who changed the history of this country”. She hopes that young women drawn into political...
02 June 2015
Reviews & Culture

Can Openers

At a Social Work Action Network Conference a few years ago one delegate shocked those present when he stated that, in his area team, management’s definition of the good social worker was the person who could make the biggest cuts to his or her clients’ care packages. The fascination of this novel from mental health...
02 June 2015
Socialist Review Archive

Putting solidarity back into Pride

Nicola Field and Gethin Roberts of Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners spoke to Socialist Review about politicising this year's Pride season.
02 June 2015
Reviews & Culture

Freaks: One of us!

Tod Browning’s Freaks, re-released this month, is a 1932 horror film about sideshow circus freaks that was banned in the UK for 30 years. Yet its treatment of disability is notably refreshing compared to most of what the contemporary mainstream media has to offer. One of the film’s central themes is the concept of solidarity...
02 June 2015
Reviews & Culture

We Are Many

We Are Many tells the story of 15 February 2003 when millions marched against war in Iraq on the biggest day of protest in history. It starts with the terror attacks of 11 September 2001 and the decision of Bush within 24 hours to bomb Iraq. The first half depicts the build up to the...
02 June 2015