Yours, Mel Bouzad, Primrose Hill, London NW3
Dear Mel,
When I was a young anarchist I used to throw pies at celebrities. But now I share your passion for c-list tittle-tattle. No need to be ashamed of that - just start explaining dialectics through the negation of the negation of Britney's love for Kev and you could have yourself a whole new revolutionary recruitment technique.
Admittedly, there was never much room for celebrities in the class struggle unless they were lauded as leaders. But there has always been plenty of space for drink, drugs and casual sex.
Marx himself loved binge drinking and spicy food, which would have lent itself well to 3am Brick Lane gutter pics. A simple Heat-style exposé would no doubt have revealed what Lenin really got up to in Paris with Inessa Armand. And as for Tito? Well, his selfmanagement didn't extend to fidelity on nights at the opera.
That'd all be okay nowadays, presumably, because celebrity-driven politics is hip. Personality is political, as my Trotskyite mates tell me. And with no trust left in political institutions - surely a good basis for revolutionary fervour - why not invest our passions in celebrity leaders who embody our values? Having gone that far, it makes perfect sense to go the whole hog and gossip like cheeky schoolkids...
Luckily, things are already starting to change in socialist publishing, with two of Britain's main socialist newspapers soliciting regular comment from a former Big Brothercontestant. Why stop there? I'd love to see this season's Big Brother winner, Pete, covering the party conference season; Jade Goody getting her teeth into commodity fetishism; and Jennifer Anniston explaining alienation (post-Brad, of course).
Bring on that revolution, and we'll have no more need for Heat.
auntie@redpepper.org.uk
The crack pipe of peace Dear Auntie
_ War, famine, economic depression and global warming - the idea that 'another world is possible' seems remoter than ever. Will we ever have a just and peaceful world?
_ Desperate for peace, Preston
Learning by number Dear Auntie
_ At one of the Gaza protests in London, Stop the War put the number of protesters at around 100,000 but the police insisted it was only 20,000. Can Auntie reassure me that the Met has a scientific methodology for estimating crowd numbers?
_ Numberless in London
No hope Dear Auntie,
All my left-wing friends seem to be overjoyed about Obama winning the US election, holding real hope that he will bring change, that he'll stop the wars, and that he'll somehow make America all cuddly and nice. But haven't we been here before? I'm getting flashbacks to the expectations people had of politicians like Tony Blair and Bill Clinton, and how quickly they betrayed us. Is it terrible that I think Obama will be just more of the same?
Hopeless, London
February 15, 2003: The day the world said no to war Phyllis Bennis argues that while the day of mass protest did not stop the war, it did change history
Egypt: The revolution is alive Just before the second anniversary of the Egyptian revolution, Emma Hughes spoke to Ola Shahba, an activist who has spent 15 years organising in Egypt
Workfare: a policy on the brink Warren Clark explains how the success of the campaign against workfare has put the policy’s future in doubt
Tenant troubles The past year has seen the beginnings of a vibrant private tenants’ movement emerging. Christine Haigh reports
Co-operating with cuts in Lambeth Isabelle Koksal reports on how Lambeth’s ‘co-operative council’ is riding roughshod over co-operative principles in its drive for sell-offs and cuts in local services
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