Culture

Culture

• Coronavirus: how effective are facemasks?

  

  In his second note on the political economy of the imminent Covid-19 pandemic, Dr Yannis Gourtsoyannis looks at the antinomies of facemasks

• 6 steps toward rebuilding the left

  

  Six practical and theoretical suggestions to build a broad, united and fighting left, by David McAllister

• William Blake: prophet and seditionary

  

  William Blake was above all else a revolutionary, writes Jacqueline Mulhallen

• Saving Essex libraries: protest works, so we'll keep campaigning

  

  NEU member Jean Quinn speaks with Katherine Connelly about the successes of the Save Our Libraries Essex campaign

• Rolling Thunder Revue: a Bob Dylan story by Martin Scorsese

  

  Scorsese's new documentary shows Dylan grasping at the truth of an America that was figuring out what it wanted to be

• A Marxist guide to crime drama

  

  At its best, crime drama does not simply try to terrify us with pure unblinking evil but gives us studies of dysfunctional human beings mangled by capitalism, argues Sofie Mason

• Luther – Marx’s theory of alienation or biblical redemption?

  

  Despite potential allusions to alienation under capitalism, Luther risks becoming a tired exploration of man vs evil, argues Sofie Mason

• The dialectics of Doctor Who

  

  Although a part of the establishment media, Doctor Who has always had a subversive thread running through it and today is no different, argues Sean Ledwith

• Tales of Two Londons - book review

  

  This collection of writings on London has some striking moments, but is lacking class politics, despite its stated theme, finds Tom Lock Griffiths

• Culture as Politics: Selected Writings of Christopher Caudwell - book extract

  

  David Margolies gives an introduction to a new edition of writings by Christopher Caudwell 

• Phony Beatlemania has bitten the dust: Joe Strummer remembered

  

  The punk pioneer and agitprop legend would have been 65 this week, this is what John Rees wrote when he died in 2002

• Break the wheel: the politics of Game of Thrones

  

  The wildly popular series has attracted a number of interesting attempts to analyse what it tells us about the contemporary state of capitalist culture

• Sound System: The Political Power of Music

  

  Dave Randall’s Sound System is a wide ranging and highly engaging discussion of politics and music that you just can’t put down, finds Sofie Mason

• For the many, not the few: Jeremy Corbyn and Percy Bysshe Shelley

  

  A look at the radical history of the poem the Labour leader quoted at Glastonbury

• 'There have always been exciting political artists'

  

  Dave Randall, activist, musician and writer, talks about the politics of music and his recently published book

• Trump up the volume

  

  Now is the time to get creative and infuse our music and culture with politics, argues Dave Randall

• Art review: ‘Exhibit A’

  

  Hugh Tisdale and Dan Murrell present a thoughtful blend of reflection, comment and protest, writes Sanjiv Sachdev

• Seeing red: the wisdom of John Berger

  

  Revolutionary writer and art critic John Berger has died, aged 90. Chris Nineham reflects on his life and work 

• Art, Literature and Culture from a Marxist Perspective

  

  Tony McKenna’s cultural essays show the rich possibilities of Marxist analysis for a range of art and literature, argues Sean Ledwith

• Anarchy in the UK: iconoclasm’s greatest hit

  

  Forty years ago The Sex Pistols’ debut single was released. Philosophy Football’s Mark Perryman remembers it well

• Culture matters to us all

  

  As libraries, galleries and museums face cuts across the board, Jonathan Maunders reports from the fight-back on the streets

• Bristol film festival celebrates 40 years of radical British cinema

  

  We spoke to Bristol Radical Film Festival organiser Steve Presence about the rare gems showcasing this year

• Greece: bread, education, freedom… and roses too

  

  Kevin Ovenden looks at street culture in this, his fifth dispatch from Greece, and argues that our survival in this crisis decade cannot be through bread alone – we need roses too