Arts

Street art 1: The art of the streets

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.

What’s Going On – The Dirty Dozen Brass Band | The Corporation

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.

Street art 5: Banksy and guerrilla art

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.

Drunk Enough to Say I Love You? by Caryl Churchill

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.

Living History | Kneehigh plays | Stray Dogs | Voices For Bethlehem | Marx

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.

World Saxophone Quartet's Political Blues - blowing George Bush away

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.

Politics in store at Cultures of Resistance concert

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."

German Film Festival | Blood Wedding | Watership Down

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.

Pan’s Labyrinth: a fantastic exploration of fascism’s horror

25 November 2006
Pan’s Labyrinth is the second film in which Mexican film director Guillermo del Toro has confronted the theme of fascism.

They Won’t Kill You - a dystopian Team Britain

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.

In The Face of History | Firsts 2006 | We Shall Overcome | Innocent Voices

18 November 2006
In The Face of HistoryBarbican, central Londonuntil 28 January Emmy Andrisse’s Girls Hanging Onto Shop Railings taken just after the liberation of Amsterdam from the Nazis in 1945 is part of the In The Face of History exhibition at the Barbican in central London. The exhibition charts the history of European photography from 1900.

Braintax: a panoramic, hip-hop view of a turbulent world

18 November 2006
It’s not every day that you come across a hip-hop album that deals explicitly with the thoughts going through the mind of a suicide bomber, or talks frankly about how scaremongering over refugees fuels the growth of the Nazi British National Party.

The Seduction of Almighty God: a wonderful example of ‘theatre of catastrophe’

18 November 2006
The Great English playwright Howard Barker has been marginalised by the London theatre establishment - none of his dramas have been staged by the National Theatre in London.

Accidental Death of an Anarchist | Failed States

11 November 2006
Accidental Death of an AnarchistWritten by Dario FoHackney Empire, LondonUntil 9 December <a href="http://www.anarchistplay.com" target = "_blank">www.anarchistplay.com</a> Dario Fo’s most famous play has become a classic. It combines wit and slapstick comedy with a devastating and chilling critique of the abuse of institutional power.

When Orson Welles and Macbeth went to Harlem

11 November 2006
For several weeks in 1936, people walking around the Harlem area of New York would have come across the word Macbeth cryptically daubed in glowing paints on every street corner.

The State Within: a nightmare for neocons

04 November 2006
The State Within begins at breakneck pace. It cuts between rapid close ups of shrink wrap, wire and explosives leaving the dizzy impression that we’re in for another imitation of the hit US series 24.

Reel News | Discovering Leicester’s Radical Past | The Wind That Shakes The Barley

04 November 2006
Reel NewsDVD out now £6 Powerplay Production has launched a monthly DVD chronicling radical movements.

Anti-war artwork by Kagan Guner

04 November 2006
The anti-war movement is the inspiration for these artworks by Kagan Guner. "When two million people marched against the war in February 2003, I felt we were one. Nobody was a foreigner in that rally," he told Socialist Worker. His work is part of the exhibition Belonging: Voices of London’s Refugees which brings together the experiences and contributions of refugees in the capital.

Director Serge Le Péron on 'I Saw Ben Barka Get Killed'

28 October 2006
The socialist Mehdi Ben Barka was a leading figure in the national liberation movement which won Morocco independence from France in 1956. While in exile in the 1960s he continued to play a role in the anti-colonial movement internationally.