I read John Newsinger's review of the recent biographies of Orwell (July/August SR) with a smile, as it seemed to bear out my contention that 'Orwell' is primarily used today as a political weapon to bash opponents rather than as the basis for a discussion of socialism.
As co-editor of the rank and file paper for firefighters, Red Watch - and, indeed, a member of the Labour Party - I can assure Martin Wicks that our publication is not an SWP front (Letters, July/August SR).
Saying, as Nick Grant does (Letters, July/August SR), that all violence in films constitutes a drip-drip effect making us inured to the real violence inflicted on us every day by the ruling class is a rather weak argument.
At the Marxism 2003 event anti-racist activist Asad Rehman talked, quite rightly, of the BNP's shift to focusing on northern England, largely as a result of the resistance the Nazis have faced every time they tried to rear their heads in east London.
