reviews
Reviews of books, articles, publications, music, film, events and culture.
Le Donk and Scor-Zay-Zee, directed by Shane Meadows
Tom Jennings chuckles along with the pointed proletarian poignancy of Meadows’ latest chamber-piece.
Freestyle Manifesto. Film review – Tom Jennings
Film Fictions of the Iraq War
Tom Jennings examines television and cinema stories about the US/UK ‘war on terror’ in terms of the notion that ‘war is the health of the state’.
The Ill-Health of the State. Film review / essay – Tom Jennings
Another Life, by Andrew Vachss
Tom Jennings salutes the eyepatched crusader’s superhero child abuse revengers on their final outing.
Trojan Horse Noir. Book review – Tom Jennings
The Street, series 3, by Jimmy McGovern, BBC 1
The final series of The Street demonstrates the possibilities and limitations of its form – both of which may now disappear from television drama
Neighbourhood Nervous Breakdown. Television review – Tom Jennings
Frozen River, directed by Courtney Hunt
This heartfelt debut film about dodgy decisions prompted by force of circumstance is several cuts above standard American independent cinema fare
Borderline Psycho Sis. Film review – Tom Jennings
Review of Return: the case against Zionism - The Red Menace
Review of the March 1989 issue of the anti-zionist magazine Return.
Return are a group who "hope to become a focus and a voice for those Jews and others who are opposed to the Israeli state and its policies". This magazine is based on a conference they held in London last year.
Demolition Derby: reflections on 'primitivism' - The Red Menace
The Red Menace review the Canadian primitivist magazine, Demolition Derby.
Demolition Derby is a new revolutionary newspaper from Canada. Politically it situates itself in what could loosely be described as the "anti-authoritarian primitivist" tendency, with an emphasis on opposition to technology and environmental themes.
Help the economy: sleep on the streets - The Red Menace
The Red Menace reviews No Reservations: Housing, Space and Class Struggle.
"More and more the city is a monolithic temple to the power of money over us, as the pyramids were to the power of the pharoahs over the slaves- and like the servants of the pharoahs, we are buried alive inside it."
Review: Non-market socialism in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries - The Red Menace
The Red Menace reviews Maximilien Rubel and John Crump's book, Non-Market Socialism in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries.
Communism has got nothing to do with state control of the economy (as leninists suggest) nor for that matter with workers owning their own factories and exchanging products with other workers (as advocated by some anarchists). Communism, as the authors of this book make clear, is the abolition of all forms of the state, exchange (buying and selling) and property- including "collective property".
Review: Anti-Parliamentary Communism in Britain, 1917-1945 - The Red Menace
Review of Mark Shipway's book, Anti-Parliamentary Communism: the Movement for Workers' Councils in Britian, 1917-1945, from The Red Menace.
The existence and activity of revolutionaries in Britain before the end of World War II has been either ignored or distorted In the various histories of the period written by apologists for the "Communist" Party and the Labour Party. Several books have recently become available which give us a clearer picture of our predecessors in this country.
