reviews
Reviews of books, articles, publications, music, film, events and culture.
Review - The Dutch and German Communist Left: A contribution to the history of the revolutionary movement - Red and Black Notes
Red and Black Notes review of the history of the Dutch and German communist left.
[i]The following review contains differences from the version that appeared in Red & Black Notes #16-17. The reviewer added some minor changes too late to be included in the published version, so they have been included here.
Review of B. Traven's The Death Ship
A communist in Australia reviews B. Traven's The Death Ship, and relates it to the 2002 attacks on the working conditions of maritime workers in Australian waters.
Sadly, these days B.Traven and his many novels have been assigned to relative obscurity in the world of literature and politics. Traven was but one of the many aliases used by this mysterious author, adventurer and revolutionary.
Review of The Arch Conspirator by Len Brecken - Red and Black Notes
Red and Black Notes Review of The Arch Conspirator by Len Brecken.
The Arch Conspirator
By Len Bracken,
Adventures Unlimited Press, 1999.
"Conspiracy, " n. from the Latin to breathe together. A secret agreement or combination between two or more persons to commit an unlawful act that may prejudice any third person
Review of Review of Labour of Love by Buzz Hargrove - Red and Black Notes
Review of Labour of Love by Buzz Hargrove with Wayne Skene, McFarland, Walter & Ross. Buzz Hargrove is one of the best-known trade unionists in Canada, and was at the time head of the Canadian Auto Workers.
Buzz Hargrove is one of the best-known trade unionists in Canada. As the head of the 215,000- strong Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) he is often presented by the media as the unrepentant face of trade unionism today.
Review of Living for Change by Grace Lee Boggs - Red and Black Notes
Review of Living For Chang by Grace Lee Boggs.
"If the future is to be lived the past must be understood." With this paraphrase of Kierkegaard, Grace Lee Boggs ends her effort to provide an account of both her own past and that of an American left. For those seeking to make sense of the contradictory and confusing world of left- wing politics in the US over the course of this century, it is often useful to have a guide.
A review of Joe Jacob's "Out of the Ghetto" - Red and Black Notes
Review of Out of the Ghetto Joe Jacobs, London: Phoenix Press, 1991 (originally published in 1977). For a review of this book by Al Richardson, see here - http://libcom.org/library/review-joe-jacobs-out-ghetto-al-richardson. A chapter from Out of the Ghetto is here - http://libcom.org/library/battle-cable-st-1936-joe-jacobs
It might seem curious to be reviewing a book that was posthumously published more than twenty years ago. Curiouser still, that in this age of the dismissal of the working class as a force for change this book deals exclusively with working class, predominately Jewish, life in the East End of London in the years between the first and second world wars.
In the Loop, directed by Armando Iannucci
Venturing out of Westminster reveals the limits of The Thick Of It’s satire, concludes Tom Jennings
The Thin of It. Film review – Tom Jennings
John Zerzan and the primitive confusion - En Attendant
French communist group En Attendant's critique of two key text by anarcho-primitivist John Zerzan.
John Zerzan and the primitive confusion, by En Attendant - Paul Petard
Paul Petard reviews a pamphlet criticising the primitivism of John Zerzan.
This Chronos pamphlet, John Zerzan and the primitive confusion is a reprint of a French text which was translated in September 2000 to coincide with a talk in London by the political neo-primitivist John Zerzan. The talk was hosted by U.K.
Moore is Less: a critique of Fahrenheit 9/11
Almost all movies so far, along with their creators, are part of the problem and not part of the solution: they produce a message or a story which is just a commodity to be bought - the audience remains passive, happy to be entertained or to consume the ideology. This is a critique of just one movie - "Fahrenheit 9/11".
At a meeting in Cannes a guy got up to heckle Michael Moore, asking him why he paid his workers such lousy wages. Moore had him thrown out.
