Arts
13 January 2007
In September 1940 the Marxist literary critic and essayist Walter Benjamin committed suicide in the Spanish border town of Port Bou.
13 January 2007
A State of Denmarkby Derek Raymond£7.99 Serpent’s Tailpublished 18 January
Cult crime novelist Derek Raymond wrote this dystopian novel in the mid 1960s. It concerns a future England where an openly fascist regime has taken power, led by Jobling, a former Labour politician.
13 January 2007
According to the New Testament, St Andrew was the first disciple to be called by Jesus Christ. He was later executed by the Romans at Patras in present day Greece on the X-shaped cross which now bears his name.
16 December 2006
In recent years there has been a renewed interest in street art, coinciding with the rise of the anti-capitalist movement. One element of this is "culture jamming" or "adbusting", where activists use guerrilla art techniques to subvert the advertising that pervades our society.
16 December 2006
The creative flowering that followed the Russian Revolution of 1917 is an extraordinary example of how art can play a major part in the struggle for a better society.
16 December 2006
Acclaimed jazz musician Courtney Pine performed at the hugely succesful Cultures of Resistance gig in London on Friday of last week. Gilad Atzmon, Rodney P and Skitz, and Sam Beste also performed. The gig was a fundraiser for the Socialist Worker appeal
16 December 2006
All respect to Spike Lee. After Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, he felt he had a political duty to make a documentary about it, to make it long – and to make it for television so as many people as possible saw it.
16 December 2006
Mexico was rocked by a revolution between 1910 and 1919. The post-revolutionary government attempted to harness art to its cause.
16 December 2006
Sam Beste
Presumption of Innocence performed at the Cultures of Resistance concert in London on Friday 8 December 2006
16 December 2006
Benjamin Britten was the greatest of the British classical composers of the second half of the 20th century. He ranks among the greatest British composers ever.
16 December 2006
In 1968 France was brought to a standstill by a huge movement of students and workers. This movement paralysed the French state and also saw an explosion of experimental street art.
16 December 2006
A basic feature of capitalism is that aspects of life that should be accessible to everyone become controlled and restricted to a privileged elite – the ruling class. Works of visual art, such as paintings or sculptures, are no exception to this general rule.
16 December 2006
What’s Going OnThe Dirty Dozen Brass BandCD out now
It is testament to the power of Marvin Gaye’s album What’s Going On that its songs have been covered by hundreds of artists, almost from the moment it was released in 1971.
09 December 2006
A new play by Caryl Churchill is a genuine cultural event. The author of such acclaimed plays as Light Shining in Buckinghamshire, Cloud Nine and Top Girls, is one of the most distinctive, intelligent and (both artistically and politically) radical playwrights of her generation.
09 December 2006
Living HistoryTate Modern, central Londonuntil 28 JanuaryFree
Living History explores the response of artists to major political events of the past 100 years. Highlights include Chris Ofili’s No Woman No Cry, a moving painting about the racist murder of black teenager Stephen Lawrence.
09 December 2006
The extraordinary new jazz album Political Blues by the World Saxophone Quartet is a howl of rage at the state of the US.
02 December 2006
"I like the idea of artists from different musical traditions and from all corners of the world coming together to oppose racism, to demand world peace and support the Socialist Worker appeal."
25 November 2006
German Film FestivalGoethe-Institut and Curzon Soho, London23 November to 1 December
This is a great chance to see a few films that will most likely not make it to general release.
25 November 2006
Pan’s Labyrinth is the second film in which Mexican film director Guillermo del Toro has confronted the theme of fascism.
25 November 2006
This political satire imagines a future where Britain has been rebranded as Team Britain, and a Team Leader has taken the place of the prime minister.