What’s in the April/May issue

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Cover story
1968: The mysterious chemistry of social change
Mike Marqusee questions the nostalgic legacy of ‘68

Editorial: Dog whistles and guard dogs
Oscar Reyes examines the best course of action for London voters in the Mayoral elections

Wrong man, wrong Europe
Referendums killed off the EU Constitution, a ’blackmail’ that Europe’s elites will now avoid by forcing through the Lisbon Treaty without debate, writes Susan George

A red guide to Italian politics
The Italians face a crisis that could mean the return of Berlusconi. Hilary Wainwright reports as they prepare for the April elections

Under the knife
Stewart Player and Colin Leys investigate the proponents of marketisation undermining the NHS

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Art and politics special

Life in the art world
John Slyce and Peter Kennard debate the relationship between art and social change

Repelling borders
Melanie Friend’s ‘Border Country’ exhibition gives a voice to the voiceless

It’s the climate, stupid
Lena de Casparis speaks to Franny Armstrong and Lizzy Gillet, director and producer respectively of the Age of Stupid

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Other America: Redrawing the map of US politics
Could Barack Obama’s campaign for the US presidency neutralise the racist ‘southern strategy’? Frances Fox Piven and Lorraine C Minnite investigate

Greens on trial
The Greens often meet with suspicion from the left. Are they given a fair hearing? Alex Nunns weighs the evidence

Ecuador’s red tide
Nick Buxton visits a constituent assembly debating a model of ecological sustainability and indigenous rights

EU spotlight: Turning up the heat on healthcare
The threat of healthcare privatisation stalks Europe writes Westby Swift

Essay: The trouble with food
Raj Patel explains why the world’s poorest farmers and farm workers are the only ones not to benefit from the recent soaring food prices

The new race for the poles
The UK government is claiming an area of ocean the size of Egypt in the race to secure new oil and gas supplies. Jax Jacobsen investigates

Cultural taboo
When 12 undergraduate oil painting students from Shanghai Normal University had their dissertations rejected in 2006, the event caused a major scandal in China, writes Johanna Zhang

Earning from learning
Andy Bowman introduces Manchester University’s self-styled ‘president’, professor Alan Gilbert

Up for a fight
Reforms to the abortion law are needed that extend women’s reproductive freedoms argues Laurie Penny

Hope in dark times
Ewa Jasiewicz talks to Kenyans trying to make peace in the wake of the agreement between between Mwai Kibaki and Raila Odinga

Plus regulars

Temperature gauge
A new ‘kitemark’ suggests most carbon offset schemes are flawed but fails to address a more fundamental problem

Know Your Enemy
Richard Branson

Pictorial Cultural taboo

Democracy Now
Can democracy by exported?

Plattitudes
The world according to Steve Platt

Booktopia
Peter Tatchell

Auntie
Nice smelling poo

Rearview
Alfredo Jaar: Politics of the image