News

Inside Bush's other 'rogue state'

ONE IMPORTANT product of the worldwide anti-capitalist movement is that information is available as never before about events thousands of miles away. A new video, Un altro modo e' posibile...in Venezuela (Venezuela, another way is possible), is an excellent example of this.

Historian for a revolution

ON SATURDAY 15 February democracy came onto the streets to demonstrate against war and barbarism. The demos are part of a process where politics has become so generalised that a casual conversation about the weather becomes a full blown discussion about the lies and deceits of George Bush. Old-timers start to look for comparable events, to explain, in the words of Marvin Gaye, "What's Going On".

Fiery portrait

THE NEW film Frida explores the life of Frida Kahlo, the Mexican artist and socialist. Frida was an artist of startling power, and was married to the artist Diego Rivera.

Poets speak out against the war

AN INSPIRATIONAL evening of poetry took place on the eve of the great London demonstration against the war. Adrian Mitchell and Michael Rosen performed the poems we print here at the packed event which took place in London.

Accusing past and present wars

BUSH AND Blair's plans to attack Iraq will create devastation and kill thousands of civilians. We are unlikely to be shown the full extent of the horror while the war goes on. But there have been many films, books and songs that have shown the true face of war and protested against it.

Scaling walls of Fortress Europe

ADF have been out of the spotlight for the last few years-what have you been doing? We've been all over the world and what we've seen influenced us enormously. We've played in the former Yugoslavia to 28,000 Bosnians and Serbs. We went to Brazil and took an idea for a track called "19 Rebellions" with us. We worked with young Brazilian musicians to create the track as it appears on the album.

Graphic tales of Gaza resistance

BETWEEN 1987 and 1992 Palestinian youth undertook a heroic uprising-the first intifada-against their Israeli oppressors. Towards the end of this period the journalist and artist Joe Sacco took himself to the West Bank and Gaza to try to understand what was happening.

Eminem raps to a different beat

IN THE film 8 Mile, Rabbit is a young white rapper attempting to deal with his anger and alienation through music. The part is played by the US rapper Eminem.

House divided against itself

THIS NEW edition of Our House in the Last World, the first novel by Cuban-American writer Oscar Hijuelos, tells the story of the Santinio family, who leave Cuba to emigrate to New York in the 1940s. The novel begins with the story of Mercedes and Alejo, young lovers who will become the mother and father of two children, Hector and Horacio.

Ghetto film hits all the key notes

THE PIANIST is based on the account by Wladyslaw Szpilman, an accomplished pianist, of his survival of the Warsaw Ghetto. When the Nazis invaded Warsaw in September 1939, 360,000 of the city's one million population were Jewish.

City of violence, despair and hope

CITY OF God is a powerful film that every reader of Socialist Worker should make an effort to see. It is a Brazilian film with subtitles, but don't let that put you off. The "City of God" is the name of a run-down slum, called a favela, on the edges of the giant Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro.

A tragic satire

THE BITTER and bloody Israeli-Palestinian conflict is, you would imagine, hardly the subject for satire. Palestinian film-maker Elia Suleiman has achieved the impossible with his latest film Divine Interventions. It presents a funny and profound look at the situation.

Thrilling tale of anti-capitalism

THE NEW book Small Acts of Treachery by Kitty Fitzgerald begins in a secret military barracks, where Eileen Mahoney is being detained by the state as a suspected terrorist. Brought up by her socialist father, Mahoney has been involved in the major movements of the last three decades, from civil rights in Ireland to the 1984-5 miners' strike.

Voices of the powerless, rhythms of the movement

NOMMO IS a great album by the band Slovo. It is influenced by music from around the world and has very political lyrics. Slovo is the new project of Dave Randall, former guitarist with the band Faithless.

Poetry in motion

CARRYING THE Elephant is a wonderful collection of prose-poems by author, broadcaster and Socialist Worker columnist Michael Rosen. This is a book that can be dipped into, as each piece stands alone. But it can also, unlike many other poetry books, be read from beginning to end as the story of one man's life.

Face at the Window: gripping TV drama on side of refugees

An angry demonstration gathers outside a detention centre to protest against the deportation of refugees, chanting "To send them back is murder!" A young refugee, traumatised by war, sits in a stark room being screamed at by insensitive officials. These are just two of the powerful scenes from the first episode of a new BBC TV drama, Face at the Window.

Talking about a 'world on fire'

HEARTLESS CREW are one of the leading acts behind the Anti Nazi League's Love Music Hate Racism organisation. They played at the carnival in Manchester in September and at the London launch party on Friday last week.

Books that can stir the fighting spirit

A NEW generation of activists is discovering the power of socialist ideas. Here trade unionists and socialists from across Britain recommend books that changed how they see the world. All of the books that feature would make great presents. They are all available from Bookmarks bookshop.

War film with a loud message

A BOMB blast rips through a market square full of people. The horrific aftermath is blamed on terrorists. More standard Hollywood fare post 11 September? In fact it is part of an excellent film, The Quiet American. This is directed by Philip Noyce (who also directed Rabbit-Proof Fence), and it stars Michael Caine and Brendan Fraser.

Rhythms of resistance to Nazis

AFTER THE huge success of the anti-racist carnival in Manchester in August, the Anti Nazi League (ANL) is launching Love Music Hate Racism as a national campaign. We want to use it to target the areas where groups like the Nazi BNP and NF are trying to grow. Music is a very good way of getting people involved in the fight against the Nazis. Lots of people are getting in touch and saying, "Manchester was great - we want to do something in our area." There have been gigs in Barrow-in-Furness and Oldham. There are others coming up in Huddersfield, Burnley and Blackburn. The leader of Sunderland council has approached us to set something up there. Trade unions are getting involved.