Culture
Guy Taylor watches an important and urgent film about refugees in Greece caught between the repression of Fortress Europe and the street violence of Golden Dawn
Lorna Stephenson looks at theatre groups giving a voice to the voiceless – and making social change happen in the process
Desiree Reynolds looks at Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
Why are We the Good Guys? Reclaiming your mind from the delusions of propaganda, by David Cromwell, reviewed by Richard Goulding
The Invention of the Land of Israel: from holy land to homeland, by Shlomo Sand, reviewed by Richard Kuper
Mark Pendleton reviews two film histories of the inspiring story of AIDS activism in the US
Murdoch’s Politics: how one man’s thirst for wealth and power shapes our world, by David McKnight, reviewed by Benedetta Brevini
Tate Britain’s L S Lowry exhibition seeks to rescue his work from the enormous condescension of the art world. Michael Calderbank spoke to co-curator Anne Wagner
The March That Shook Blair: An oral history of 15 February 2003, by Ian Sinclair, reviewed by Paul Anderson
Genes, Cells and Brains: the Promethean promises of the new biology, by Hilary Rose and Steven Rose, reviewed by Alice Bell
Edd Mustill reviews Home, a play at the National Theatre Shed
Taking on the Empire: How We Saved the Hackney Empire for Popular Theatre by Roland Muldoon, reviewed by Jane Shallice
Debra Benita Shaw picks her top ten sci-fi novels that punch holes in capitalist reality
Leigh Phillips joins authors Gwyneth Jones, Marge Piercy, Ken MacLeod and Kim Stanley Robinson to discuss the role of science fiction in extending the radical horizons of our imaginations
Catherine Hoskyns reviews A Season in the Congo at London's Young Vic
The haunting and abrasive new album from The Knife challenges common assumptions about political music, says James Taylor
Siobhan McGuirk experiences Oil City, an immersive, site-specific play produced by campaign group Platform
Soldier Box by Joe Glenton, reviewed by Josh Watts
Liam Sheehan reviews You Can't Evict an Idea, by Tim Gee
Mel Evans takes a look back at The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath, 50 years on
Borderline Justice: the fight for refugee and migrant rights, by Frances Webber, reviewed by Matt Carr
From the Ruins of Empire: the revolt against the west and the remaking of Asia, by Pankaj Mishra, reviewed by Jonathan Steele
Jan Rocha writes on Bernado Kucinski’s novel K, with its insight into the experience of military dictatorship in Brazil
Gross Domestic Problem: the politics behind the world’s most powerful number, by Lorenzo Fioramonti, reviewed by Marco Berlinguer
New South Asian Feminisms: paradoxes and possibilities by Srila Roy (ed), reviewed by Adele Webb
Capitalism is a racket, its power underwritten by violence. BBC TV’s Gangsters from the 1970s has a depth of insight that most contemporary dramas lack, argues Frank Carney
Haiti’s New Dictatorship by Justin Podur, reviewed by James O’Nions
Filmmakers Mike Wayne and Deirdre O’Neill discuss their new Engels-inspired documentary, The Condition of the Working Class, with Clive James Nwonka
Raphael Schlembach reviews Against the Nation: Anti-National Politics in Germany, by Robert Ogman
Ken Loach’s The Spirit of ’45 is not just an exercise in nostalgia but a compelling intervention into the politics of the present, writes Alex Nunns
Brian Precious reviews a documentary that shows the calculated brutality of Israel’s security services – using their own words
Michael Pooler reviews a film that gives an alternative view of the 2011 riots
Socialist singer-songwriter Dave Boardman reviews Union Made, the new album by radical folk supergroup Union of Folk
As Beyond the Fragments by Sheila Rowbotham, Lynne Segal and Hilary Wainwright is set to be republished, Jane Wills looks at its significance
Cruel Britannia: a secret history of torture, by Ian Cobain, reviewed by Frances Webber
Catastrophism, by Sasha Lilley, David McNally, Eddie Yuen and James Davis, reviewed by Nic Beuret
Beyond Walls and Cages: prisons, borders and global crisis, eds Jenna M Loyd, Matt Mitchelson and Andrew Burridge, reviewed by Lioba Hirsch
John McDonnell MP reviews The Question of Strategy - Socialist Register 2013
Kaspar Loftin says a caravan across Africa is a revitalisation of the genre’s original political power
Michael Calderbank speaks to Tony Crowley, author of Scouse: A Social and Cultural History
Ian Hunter looks at an exhibition and project remembering persecuted artist Kurt Schwitters
Nicholas Beuret looks at E P Thompson's classic The Making of the English Working Class
Flight Behaviour, by Barbara Kingsolver, reviewed by Kitty Webster
Discordia: Six nights in crisis Athens, by Laurie Penny and Molly Crabapple, reviewed by Mel Evans
Scattered Sand: the story of China’s rural migrants, by Hsiao-Hung Pai, reviewed by Greg Fay
London’s Overthrow by China Miéville, reviewed by Frank Carney
Everyday Revolutions: horizontalism and autonomy in Argentina, by Marina A Sitrin, reviewed by Isabelle Koksal
Philosophy Football's Mark Perryman introduces his best left-wing books of 2012 for a hopeful materialist's seasonal gift list
The Making of Global Capitalism: the political economy of American empire, by Leo Panitch and Sam Gindin, reviewed by Patrick Bond
The Artist Placement Group brought artistic practice to British workplaces in the 1960s and 1970s. Janna Graham reviews a new exhibition of their work
Are You My Mother? by Alison Bechdel, reviewed by Mel Evans
Edward Webster looks at Working for Ford, by Huw Beynon (1974)
Untouchables: dirty cops, bent justice and racism in Scotland Yard, by Michael Gillard and Laurie Flynn, reviewed by Kevin Blowe
Wrestling in the Daylight: a rabbi’s path to Palestinian solidarity, by Brant Rosen, reviewed by Richard Kuper
Koos Couvée reviews a film about the riots that gives a different point of view
Philosophy Football’s Mark Perryman reveals the football books any fan would welcome as an addition to their bookshelf this Christmas
Revolution at Point Zero by Silvia Federici and The Problem with Work by Kathi Weeks, reviewed by Nicholas Beuret
The Oil Road, by James Marriott and Mika Minio-Paluello, reviewed by Andy Rowell
Chumbawamba, the anarchist band that topped the charts and tipped an ice bucket over John Prescott, have decided to call it a day. Founder member Boff Whalley explains why
From oil tanks to magic forests, Andy Field considers some of the unlikely homes offered to live art
Ken Fero, director of 'Who Policies The Police?' writes about the making of the film which examines the complicity of the IPCC in deaths in custody and the struggle of one family for justice
Jane Shallice reports from Manifesta in Genk, a biennial Europe-wide contemporary art exhibition which this year had a coal mining theme
Huw Beynon and Steve Davies consider the significance of an artist whose new album targets the bankers’ crisis
Mads Ryle looks at the continuing relevance of Mary Shelley's classic to debates about science, technology and nature today
Michael Calderbank visits the suburban garden of radio broadcaster and DJ Mark Coles, an unlikely location for an internet-based radio show
Knowing Too Much: why the American Jewish romance with Israel is coming to an end, by Norman Finkelstein, reviewed by Richard Kuper
Leila Khaled: Icon of Palestinian Liberation, by Sarah Irving, reviewed by Hilary Aked
Beautiful Trouble: A Toolbox for Revolution, eds Andrew Boyd and Dave Oswald Mitchell, reviewed by Justin Jacoby Smith
Socialism with a Northern Accent, by Paul Salveson. reviewed by Michael Calderbank
Why The Olympics Aren’t Good For Us, And How They Can Be, by Mark Perryman, reviewed by Kevin Blowe
The uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt have been sustained by an active countercultural scene, discovers Lorenzo Fe
Nick Caistor takes another look at Domitila Barrios de Chungara's story of life in Bolivia's mining villages
Marine Ices, by Tony Garnett, reviewed by Sheila Rowbotham
To Cook a Continent: destructive extraction and the climate crisis in Africa, by Nnimmo Bassey, reviewed by Tim Gee
Jan Goodey meets poet Alan Morrison and explores his latest work on mental illness
The Only House Left Standing: the Middle East journals of Tom Hurndall, reviewed by Ewa Jasiewicz
Rebel Cities: from the right to the city to the urban revolution, by David Harvey, reviewed by Andre Pusey
Plan B's debut film portrays extreme anti-social behaviour in working-class and ethnic minority communities. The film could prove to be Conservative propaganda for Broken Britain, argues Clive Nwonka
As UK Uncut win their case at the high court to challenge the Goldman Sachs tax deal, Kitty Webster reviews the new documentary 'The Missing Billions'
Bernard Regan reviews Nur Masalha’s account of Palestinian history and the significance of the Nakba in the Israel-Palestine conflict
Johnny Lynch (aka The Pictish Trail) tells Emma Hughes that artist-run record label Fence is staying true to its roots
By Richard Murphy, reviewed by Heather Blakey
Palestinians in Israel: Segregation, Discrimination and Democracy, by Ben White, reviewed by Richard Kuper
Social Movements and Leftist Governments in Latin America: Confrontation or Co-option? by Gary Prevost et al (eds), reviewed by Federico Fuentes
Ghosts of Afghanistan: The Haunted Battleground, by Jonathan Steele, reviewed by Gabriel Carlyle
Debt: The First 5,000 Years, by David Graeber, reviewed by Nick Dearden
Mel Evans looks at Woman on the Edge of Time, by Marge Piercy, first published 1979
Rare Earth, by Paul Mason, reviewed by Amanda Sebestyen
As a digitally restored version is released, Michael Pooler revisits Jean Renoir's anti-war masterpiece
Richard Pithouse on The Wretched of the Earth, by Frantz Fanon
Counterpower: Making Change Happen, by Tim Gee, reviewed by Ed Lewis
Don’t Take No for an Answer: The 2011 Referendum and the Future of Electoral Reform, by Lewis Baston and Ken Ritchie, reviewed by Callum Michaels
Revolutionary Communist at Work: A Political Biography of Bert Ramelson, by Roger Seifert and Tom Sibley, reviewed by Mary Davis
The Shadow World: Inside the Global Arms Trade, by Andrew Feinstein, reviewed by Chris Browne
The Cost of Inequality: Three Decades of the Super-Rich and the Economy, by Stewart Lansley, reviewed by Christopher Hird
The Assault on Universities: A Manifesto for Resistance, by Michael Bailey and Des Freedman (eds), reviewed by Hilary Aked
Jody McIntyre and Pablo Navarrete report on Venezuela’s Hip Hop Revolución movement
Richard Kuper reads two books which consider the grotesque realities of industrial meat production and the wilful 'forgetting' needed to accept them.
Siobhan McGuirk speaks to John Akomfrah about his new film – and the 2011 riots
On the bicentenary of Charles Dickens' birth, Terry Eagleton looks at the contradictions of the man and his work
Newsnight’s Paul Mason, author of a new book on the revolts sweeping the world, speaks to Red Pepper
Filmmaker Clive Nwonka responds to the recently published UK Film Policy Review paper, and David Cameron’s questionable stance on film funding.
Catch 22, by Joseph Heller, reviewed by Matt Owen
No Land! No House! No Vote! Voices from Symphony Way, reviewed by Martin Legassick
The White Van Papers by Roland Muldoon, reviewed by Jane Shallice
More Bad News from Israel, by Greg Philo and Mike Berry, reviewed by Miri Weingarten
Britain’s Empire: Resistance, Repression and Revolt by Richard Gott, reviewed by Jonathan Steele
From Dictatorship to Democracy: a conceptual framework for liberation, by Gene Sharp, reviewed by Alex Nunns
Sean Gittins talks to Mark Kermode about modern cinema and the role of the film critic
In this extract from his latest book, Ghost Milk, Iain Sinclair looks at the toxicity of the soil under the Olympics
Red Pepper speaks to Martin Rowson about his 30-plus years as a scourge of the political establishment
Selina Nwulu reviews new civil rights movement documentary Black Power Mixtape
Cuba’s isolation has seen hip hop develop in a different direction, discovers Sujatha Fernandes
Leigh Philips reviews Castro by Reinhard Kleist
Richard Seymour reviews The Reactionary Mind: Conservatism from Edmund Burke to Sarah Palin by Corey Robin
Jennie O’Hara reviews Meat Market: Female Flesh under Capitalism, by Laurie Penny
Daisy Jones takes aim at BBC4’s quixotic attempt to wrap modernist art in a union jack
Polemic documentary challenges sensationalist media portrayal of youth crime, but suffers from staid approach and lack of young voices, says Georgia Rooney
Emma Hughes looks at Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media by Edward S Herman and Noam Chomsky (1988)
Amy Hall reviews the film 'Unwatchable' but finds real life even more disturbing
Antonio David Cattani reviews Ours to Master and to Own by Immanuel Ness and Dario Azzellini (eds)
Peter McMylor considers Alasdair MacIntyre's classic After Virtue: a study in moral theory, first published in 1981
Michael Calderbank reviews Magical Marxism: subversive politics and the Imagination, by Andy Merrifield
Jan Goodey reviews Seedbombs: going wild with flowers, by Josie Jeffery
Sami Ramadani reviews Fuel on the Fire: oil and politics in occupied Iraq, by Greg Muttitt
Ashok Kumar reviews Fight Back! A reader on the winter of protest, ed. Dan Hancox
Steve Pretty looks at the musical and political life of the poet
Kevin Blowe reviews Chavs: the demonisation of the working class, by Owen Jones
Siobhan McGuirk on the way inspiring new documentary Just Do It was made
Alex Nunns reviews 33 Revolutions Per Minute: a history of protest songs by Dorian Lynskey
Michael Calderbank reviews Why Marx was Right by Terry Eagleton
Leigh Phillips reviews Treasure Islands by Nicholas Shaxson
Isabel Parrott revisits Colin Ward's classic The Child in the City
Siobhan McGuirk reviews ‘Cocaine Unwrapped’, a documentary that asks good questions but avoids too many answers
High-rise homes are derided, but some show that a progressive architecture is possible argues Owen Hatherley
Chris Browne goes to Mutiny’s latest ‘On Trial’ event
Siobhan McGuirk traces the history of social realism in British cinema as the genre starts to make a comeback
Social realism was a strong tradition in British cinema. Clive James Nwonka argues that we need it as much as ever
Lorna Stephenson reviews The Devil’s Milk: a social history of rubber by John Tully
Michael Calderbank considers utopian dreaming and political engagement in the Joan Miró exhibition at Tate Modern
Christine Haigh reviews The Fair Trade Revolution by John Bowes (ed)
James O'Nions reviews Celebrate People’s History: the poster book of resistance and revolution
Tim Hunt reviews An Open Web
Ross Eventon reviews A Poetics of Resistance: the revolutionary public relations of the Zapatista insurgency
David Broder reviews From Rebellion to Reform in Bolivia
Richard Seymour reviews Eric Hobsbawm's latest book, and a new biography of this influential historian
Ingo Scmidt discusses the relevance of Rosa Luxemburg's Accumulation of Capital
Peter Hudis, editor of the newly published Letters of Rosa Luxemburg, speaks to Red Pepper
Mike Marqusee on Mahmoud Darwish, the poet of the Palestinian people
Red Pepper investigates a theatre project dramatising the cuts
Dancing with Dynamite: Social movements and states in Latin America, by Benjamin Dangl (AK Press), reviewed by Mike Geddes
Whose Crisis, Whose Future? Towards A Greener, Fairer, Richer World, by Susan George (Polity Press), reviewed by Sylvie Wynn
The Verso Book of Dissent: From Spartacus to the Shoe Thrower of Baghdad, edited by Andrew Hsiao and Audrea Lim, reviewed by Jennie Bailey
Jilted Generation, by Ed Howker and Shiv Malik (Icon Books), reviewed by Adam Ramsay
Beating the Fascists: The untold story of Anti-Fascist Action, by Sean Birchall (Freedom Press), reviewed by Ben Aylott
The Great Transformation, by Karl Polanyi, reviewed by Tom Malleson
The performances of art activists Liberate Tate are celebrated in a new postcard collection.
Severed limbs and a splatter of anti-capitalism. Raph Schlembach watches Machete
Red Pepper talks to Illegal Art founder Philo T Farnsworth
Leigh Phillips traces the emergence of comic-book journalism
J. Sadie Clifford on John Pilger's latest documentary.
Red Pepper's Latin America editor Pablo Navarrete interviews John Pilger ahead of the release of his new film, 'The War You Don't See.'
Meat: a benign extravagance, by Simon Fairlie (Permanent Publications), reviewed by Christine Haigh
Isabel Parrot assesses the continuing relevance of In and Against the State
What Would it Mean to Win? by Turbulence Collective (PM Press), reviewed by James O’Nions
The Rise of the Green Left, by Derek Wall (Pluto Press), reviewed by Peter McColl
The Language of Silence, by Merilyn Moos (Cressida Press/Writersworld), reviewed by Amanda Sebestyen
Pornland: How porn has hijacked our sexuality, by Gail Dines (Beacon Press), reviewed by Jennie O’Hara
Peter Lazenby reviews an exhibition of the work of Britain’s most important trade union banner maker
Siobhan McGuirk talks to the Adbusters Media Foundation
Gavin Grindon looks at convergences of the political and the aesthetic
In his best work, director John Ford depicted a complex world through the lens of an understated but powerful critique says Mike Marqusee
Siobhan McGuirk meets collaborative art and architecture practice muf
James O'Nions reviews a compelling piece of invented history at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park
Barbara Kingsolver's The Lacuna (Faber and Faber), reviewed by James O'Nions
Stephen Graham's Cities Under Siege: the new military urbanism (Verso), reviewed by Matthew Carr
Alain Badiou's The Communist Hypothesis (Verso), reviewed by Bertie Russell
Kolya Abramsky's Sparking a Worldwide Energy Revolution (AK Press), reviewed by Kevin Blowe
Noam Chomsky's Hopes and Prospects (Hamish Hamilton), reviewed by Nick Dearden
Alastair Hemmens celebrates a book that had a major influence on 'les événements' of 1968
Oliver Stone's new documentary chronicles the emergence of progressive governments in Latin America. Roberto Navarrete talks to him and Tariq Ali, one of the film's scriptwriters.
Beyond the Tipping Point? Director: Stefan Skrimshire ‘That it goes on like this is the catastrophe,’ the German critic Walter Benjamin once wrote, a comment all the more prescient given that our present lifestyles threaten to change the climate beyond the point of reversability. This film is not about the climate science behind the suggestion […]
Samuel Grove reviews South of the Border, directed by Oliver Stone
Music producer Matthew Herbert's inventive methods are informed by a critical perspective on the wider politics of production and consumption under contemporary capitalism, finds Brendan Montague
Dreamers of a New Day: Women Who Invented the 20th Century by Sheila Rowbotham (Verso), reviewed by Andrea D'Cruz
Against the Wall: The Art of Resistance in Palestine by William Parry (Pluto), reviewed by Mike Marqusee
Speaking Truth to Power by Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem (Fahamu Books & Pambazuka Press), reviewed by Fatima Mujtaba
More Work! Less Pay! Rebellion and Repression in Italy 1972-77 by
Phil Edwards (Manchester University Press), reviewed by Paul Anderson
Secret Affairs: Britain's Collusion with Radical Islam by Mark Curtis (Serpent's Tail), reviewed by Jonathan Steele
Simone de Beauvoir's seminal work The Second Sex laid the foundations for the second wave of feminism and is essential reading for the feminist resurgence today, writes Rosie Germain
Emilie Bickerton celebrates Cahiers du cinéma, the French film journal that insisted on seeing film as an art form
Pablo Navarrete meets the British-Iraqi rapper Lowkey, a rising star whose growing popularity is tapping into a mood of rebellion
The Black Jacobins by CLR James (Penguin, new edition 2001), reviewed by Selma James
Gaza: Beneath the Bombs by Sharyn Lock with Sarah Irving (Pluto Press), reviewed by Andrea D'Cruz
The Protestor's Handbook by Bibi van der Zee (Guardian Books), reviewed by Tom Walker
Zapatistas: rebellion from the grassroots to the global by Alex Khasnabish (Zed Books), reviewed by Duncan Smith
Disgusting Bliss: the brass eye of Chris Morris by Lucian Randall (Simon and Schuster), reviewed by Kevin Blowe
The Enigma of Capital and the crises of Capitalism by David Harvey (Profile Books), reviewed by Alexander Gallas
Commonwealth by Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri Scathingly described by the Wall Street Journal as ‘a witches’ brew of contemporary radicalism’, Hardt and Negri’s most recent book Commonwealth is a timely contribution to our understanding of contemporary capitalist relations and the potential revolutionary conditions they create. Michael Hardt is a professor of literature at Duke […]
John Robb celebrates the 20th anniversary of an event that captured the cultural and political moment, and a band whose anthemic, euphoric music for a brief time perfectly matched the sense of possibility and change
Violence by Slavoj Zizek (London, Profile Books 2009), reviewed by Clare Woodford
Lyn Marven considers Nobel Prize-winner Herta Müller's compelling fictional exploration of state oppression
Nathaniel Mehr reviews Newspeak in the 21st Century by David Edwards and David Cromwell (Pluto Press, 2009)
Public cost and private benefit Global Auction of Public Assets Dexter Whitfield Spokesman, £18 Dexter Whitfield has been one of the most well-informed and effective critics of the whole programme of privatisation of Britain’s public services, begun by Margaret Thatcher and continued by New Labour. He is the director of the European Services Strategy Unit, […]
It's often said that flamenco is not political because it dwells exclusively on the individual. That seems to imply a narrow definition of both the political and the personal, writes Mike Marqusee
Liz Davies reviews Memoirs of a Radical Lawyer by Michael Mansfield QC
(Bloomsbury, 2009)
Maddy Power reviews (People First Economics) by David Ransom and Vanessa Baird (eds) New Internationalist, 2009
James O'Nions meets two members of the Italian novel-writing collective Wu Ming as they publish Manituana, their 'story from the wrong side of history'
With a new adaptation of Bertolt Brecht's Mother Courage and Her Children at the National Theatre, Steve Platt assesses the legacy of one of the 20th century's greatest dramatists
The Ecological Revolution by John Bellamy Foster (Monthly Review Press, 2009), reviewed by Derek Wall
Instead of GM crops and a new 'green revolution for Africa', the answer to the food crisis and climate change lies in smaller-scale, local 'agroecology'. Reviews by James O'Nions
Mike Marqusee reviews Listening to Grasshoppers: Field Notes on Democracy by Arundhati Roy
Liberal and conservative Europe alike are guilty of a new 'xeno-racism' against Muslims, according to veteran anti-racism campaigner Liz Fekete. Review by Matt Carr
As the anti-corporate pranksters the Yes Men launched their new film, {Red Pepper} dispatched Brendan Montague to meet them and get the lowdown on their unusual form of activism
Derek Wall reviews Pablo Navarrete's new documentary
Pop stars are swapping guitars for banners to take the power back from the record companies, writes Paul Campbell
Ireland's Hidden Diaspora by Ann Rossiter (Irish Abortion Solidarity Campaign), reviewed by Laurie Penny
Nathaniel Mehr reviews Judith Butler's Frames of War: When is Life Grievable?
Helen Yaffe explores impact of Che Guevara as an economist and politician
The Tricycle Theatre's production of The Great Game - 12 plays on the history and contemporary realities of the struggle for control over Afghanistan - brings to the fore what will be one of the central political issues in the coming years. Co-director Indhu Rubasingham reflects on the project
John Lennon and Yoko Ono's 'Bed-In' at the Amsterdam Hilton in 1969 was only a part of their broad-ranging commitment to peace campaigning. Colin Robinson looks back at one of the most famous - and media-savvy - protests of all time
He was a pimp, pusher and political activist, with a penchant for the outlandish and an ability to attract support from the rich and famous. Until his murder conviction and hanging in Trinidad in 1975, Michael X was one of the best-known figures of 1960s radicalism. Michael Horovitz reviews a new account of the life of this self-styled black Muslim revolutionary
Radical poetry just sloganises, argues BRIGG57. Good poetry is about much more than its politics
Comrade or Brother? A History of the British Labour Movement by Mary Davis (Pluto Press, second edition 2009, reviewed by Nathaniel Mehr
Are people freely swapping music, films and other files over the internet undermining corporate control of entertainment and creating a revolutionary culture of sharing and universal access to knowledge? Nick Buxton explores the political edge of the digital piracy and 'free culture' movements
Now in his eighties, A Sivanandan remains an important figure
in the politics of race and class, maintaining his long-held
insistence that only in the symbiosis of the two struggles can a
genuinely radical politics be found. By Arun Kundnani
The young British Muslim artist Sarah Maple has been at the centre of controversy since first bursting onto the art scene at the end of 2007. Interview by Anikka Weerasinghe
Hilary Wainwright and Ian Rickson pay tribute to the politics, plays and life of Harold Pinter, who died on Christmas Eve 2008
Nathaniel Mehr reviews (Feminism and War) and writes that it is essential reading for anyone who is remotely convinced by the feminist pretensions of the US-led invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq
Mike Marqusee talks to 'Red Riding' quartet author David Peace about 'GB84', his dark novel on the 1984 miners' strike
The Israeli film considered favorite to win an Oscar for best foreign language film lost out, but Gideon Levy, for one, was not disappointed by this decision
Six days a week they toiled down the mine, making art in their spare time after attending a Workers Education Association art appreciation class. The Ashington Group of miner-artists is the subject of a witty and wise play by Billy Elliot writer Lee Hall, currently showing at the National Theatre, that has much to tell us about art, culture and the working class, writes Steve Platt
Laurie Penny speaks to Mary Wilson, the longest-standing member of Motown's most successful group, the Supremes
The pioneering black music label, Tamla Motown, marks its 50th anniversary in 2009. Fiona Osler assesses its impact
Keith Somerville gives a journalist's view of the BBC's rejection of the DEC Gaza aid plea
Six days a week they toiled down the mine, making art in their spare time after attending a Workers Education Association art appreciation class. The Ashington Group of miner-artists is the subject of a witty and wise play by Billy Elliot writer Lee Hall, currently showing at the National Theatre, that has much to tell us about art, culture and the working class, writes Steve Platt
Mark LeVine says at their core Led Zeppelin were a black band and need to look outside the 'white rock 'n' roll box' if they change their mind about not reforming
Hilary Wainwright wrote the following note about Harold Pinter's involvement with Red Pepper for a collection published by Faber to celebrate his 70th birthday
Hilary Wainwright reflects on Harold Pinter and Red Pepper
On Adrian Mitchell’s answerphone - bells ring, birds sing, saxophones swing! On Adrian Mitchell’s answerphone - Blake works a miracle, Big Ben sounds hysterical, the world waxes lyrical! On Adrian Mitchell’s answerphone - the passwords sigh, the terrorists cry, the children fly! On Adrian Mitchell’s answerphone - leave plenty of love - after the tone! […]
Matthew Beaumont welcomes Sheila Rowbotham's biography of Edward Carpenter
From publishing translations of the only known female poet whose work has survived from Roman times to editing a successful poetry column in the Morning Star, the anarchist-communist John Rety is well respected in the poetry world. Here he describes his long involvement with poetry and chooses four poems from his new book Well Versed, an anthology of his Morning Star column, to share with Red Pepper readers
I built the best of England With my brain and with my hands. Liberty Equality Fraternity – That’s where I took my stand, And the people called me Old Labour The brave heart of this land I walked out of the smoky streets To enjoy some country air, But when I came to the crossroads, […]
Inside December 2008
Day breaks, at a pace that makes the face ache and just for his faith’s sake, he tries to stay calm he looks down at his young man’s hands and at his arms and remembers a time when they seemed so much smaller outside it’s grey and as the rain beats a rhythm on the […]
Scene 1: Interior fort The noise of the sea slapping against the walls of Cape Coast Castle. The sound of many different African languages, talking fast, scared. ANNIWAA: I am a girl. I am in the dark. I don’t know how long I’ve been kept in the dark. High above me, there is a tiny […]
A poem by Carol Ann Duffy has been removed by a school exam board. Michael Rosen thinks poets may have a battle on their hands
Poet and writer Andy Croft talks to Neil Astley, the founder and editor of Britain's most important poetry publisher, Bloodaxe Books, about putting the politics into poetry
Extracts of What's Going On by Mark Steel (Simon and Schuster)
Wherever he has found himself - with the freedom fighters in the mountains of northern Iraq, as a prisoner in an Iranian jail, and now filling a whole room at the Imperial War Museum - Osman Ahmed has always gone on drawing. He spoke to Amanda Sebestyen about his passionate journey to make his art bear witness for the hidden people of Kurdistan
Can poetry provide a means for change? Dave Toomer, Christina McAlpine and John G Hall, the editors of Citizen 32 magazine, believe it can. Here they explain the importance of combining poetry and activism The contemporary black American poet Amiri Baraka declared that ‘art should be used as a weapon of revolution’, and indeed poetry […]
John Stuart Mill: Victorian firebrand by Richard Reeves (Atlantic Books), reviewed by Anthony Arblaster
From graffiti and street art to massive corporate-funded structures such as the Ebbsfleet Landmark (the size of the Statue of Liberty, twice as tall as Antony Gormley's Angel of the North), public art has never been more in vogue. Steve Platt, a reformed 'graffitist', surveys the artistic landscape
Manu Chao could be the most famous singer that many English speakers have never heard of. Yet he is to the alter-globalisation movement what Bob Dylan was to peace and civil rights in the 1960s. Oscar Reyes caught up with him by a campfire at Glastonbury, where he created a little 'neighbourhood of hope'
Laurie Penny interviews Rebecca Schoenkopf about politics, life, feminism and getting 'finger-fucked' by Hillary Clinton
The organisers claimed it as a huge success. But the BNP continued its advance in local elections and won a seat on the London Assembly a few days later anyway. So what did the Love Music Hate Racism carnival in east London in April achieve, and what is the importance of such events for the left in the future? Lena De Casparis and Alex Nunns report
Mat Little interviews psychologist and writer Oliver James about his book, The Selfish Capitalist
The annual Human Rights Watch film festival promises to highlight the power of the human spirit - and it doesn't disappoint, writes Angela Saini
Hollow Land by Eyal Weizman, reviewed by Michael Kustow
Hostility towards migrants is on the increase. David Renton reviews a new book by Arun Kundani which puts contemporary racism in perspective
The so-called War on Terror has created a global bonanza for the world of commercial military suppliers, writes Solomon Hughes in this exclusive extract from his new book War on Terror, Inc
In this extract from his book, If I Am Not for Myself: Journey of an Anti-Zionist Jew, Mike Marqusee says that no one should be deterred from criticising the Israel lobby by charges of anti-semitism
Will Atkinson talked to Ken Loach
Siobhan McGuirk talks to Kim Longinotto about the growing interest in documentaries, their potential power to move and stir people and explores what kind of documentaries give people a sense of agency
There are some really interesting Italian films coming out – probably Hungarian, French and Polish ones too – but you’d never know it. We are still suffering the results of post-war agreements that gave the US film industry the power to dominate our culture as if films were like motor cars. The Italian champion of […]
Soundbite science and self-help manuals would have you believe that men and women can't communicate. Deborah Cameron's new book shows that the real issues are to do with power, writes Romy Clark
Tony Benn reviews Michael Horovitz's powerful new anti-war polemic
The Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy by John Mearsheimer and Stephen M Walt (Allen Lane 2007), reviewed by Richard Kuper
From the CAST theatre company to New Variety and the Hackney Empire, Roland and Claire Muldoon have been at the heart of cultural dissent for the past four decades. By Jane Shallice
Laurie Penny explains what it means to have hopes dashed twice, first by the Spice Girls and second by Blair's Babes
Sports books fill the bestseller lists every Christmas. Anne Coddington and Mark Perryman examine the rise and rise of the new sports writing
Comedian Mark Thomas on his top books
The triumph of the free market after the end of the Cold War doesn't mean a free market in ideas. Tariq Ali discusses the way literature can still be a crime against the state
Hip-hop star Chuck D says black artists must fight for control of their own music and the money it earns. Donald Harding talked to him
