News

From 'bring it on' to 'bring us home'

A Soldier's Sad Story Various Artists

Dude, where’s my futuristic revolution?

Book

'Movement today so much bigger'

ARTISTS AGAINST the War has attracted wide numbers of talented artists, writers and performers.

Loud message from 1930s

EARLY NOVEMBER with the Remembrance industry in full swing is an awkward time for us.

Justifying War

THIS IS a dramatisation of the Hutton inquiry by the anti-war director Nicholas Kent.

From LA in the 1950s to Crimean War

Fear Itself - Walter Mosley THIS IS the US author's follow-up to his much acclaimed novel Fearless Jones.

I MARRIED a Marxist is a great radio play, set during the height of the anti-Communist witch-hunts in 1950s America. The drama unfolds against the real story of the execution of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg.

Some things should be remembered

12 Memories - Travis I NEVER cared for the group Travis much-they always promised so much but left you disappointed with their obvious courting of a commercial market. But with 12 Memories Travis have finally come alive. "Quicksand" is the opening salvo of the album, laid down like a manifesto of their intent. On the track the rhythm is matched by the beautiful songwriting that they were always capable of.

A movement springs to life

MY BOOK The Fountain at the centre of the World is based in Britain, Mexico and the US. It ends with the anti World Trade Organisation riots in Seattle in 1999. I was there during the protests. It was the first time I was part of proper history.

Ricky Tomlinson's autobiography: 'New Labour my arse!'

Most of today's Socialist Worker readers will probably know Ricky Tomlinson best as Jim "My arse" Royle in the hugely popular Royle Family TV comedy, or his past role in Brookside.

Mystic River: their past is a river of no return

Three young boys play ball in the street of an Irish working class neighbourhood in Boston. What follows will haunt them into their very different adult lives. Dave, in a great performance by Tim Robbins, has been left a broken man who won't let his own son out of his sight. Sean, played by Kevin Bacon, is a detective who is pulled back into the old neighbourhood to investigate a murder.

Anti-racism hits the right note

"THERE IS a mood among millions of people who understand that racism is on the increase fuelled by the attacks on asylum seekers," says Lee Billingham of the Anti Nazi League (ANL). "The majority of people are against the Nazis in huge numbers but it's a question of galvanising them."

Growing pain can't be silenced

A Little Piece Of Ground Elizabeth Laird McMillan Books, £8.99

The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists: laying bare the system

The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists is no ordinary novel.

Remixing propaganda to blast Bush

Micah Ian Wright

Mark Steel talks about his new TV series on great historical figures

The recent TV drama about the poet Lord Byron concentrated on his sex life. Was there more to him than that?

Beat from the streets

WHEN 18 year old working class garage MC Dizzee Rascal picked up the Mercury Music Prize I was pleased, but something bugged me. It had nothing to do with his oversimplistic beats or the lack of content in his lyrics. I quite like his voice and style of flow.

Ned Kelly

NED KELLY is Australia's most famous bushranger. This new film shows how Ned tried to live a normal life but was continually set up by the local police, who are portrayed as brutal, corrupt and vengeful. He only turns to crime for revenge when he is accused of the attempted murder of a policeman. The police punish Ned's family by poisoning their wells and locking his mother up.

An outlaw hero and a prime minister

THIS CRACKING film about the power struggle between Tony Blair and Gordon Brown was dropped by ITV as "too sensitive". Luckily Channel 4 are screening it on the eve of Labour's conference. Like the recent The Project, it combines memorable newsreel footage with drama. The actors playing Blair and Brown are scarily true to life, although the Peter Mandelson character never gets close to explaining the man's power. The film shows how the drive to "modernise" Labour was born out of frustration with years of defeat by the Tories.