Bread and Roses Songwriting and Spoken Word Award

Cultural democracy in practice: alternatives to artwashing and the Great North Exhibition

Cultural Commentary

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The Song of the Low: The Chartist Ernest Jones advises the Labour Party

Poetry

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Don't mention the word class! The theft of working-class culture

Poetry

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'The future of art hangs on the future of civilisation': The Artists' International and the Spanish Civil War

Visual Arts

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Reds Behind the Sofa: The Radical Politics of Doctor Who

TV, internet and other media

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Brexit: A Positive or Negative for Britain’s Working-Class Actors?

Theatre

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A Day's Work

Poetry

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Monday, 08 October 2018 22:14

Bread and Roses Songwriting and Spoken Word Award

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We'll shortly be announcing a new Bread and Roses Songwriting and Spoken Word Award, sponsored by the Communication Workers Union and the Musicians Union. Watch this space.....

Read 4144 times Last modified on Monday, 08 October 2018 22:14

Mike Quille

Mike Quille is a writer, reviewer and chief editor of Culture Matters.

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Arts hub

'The future of art hangs on the future of civilisation': The Artists' International and the Spanish Civil War Visual Arts
Written by Christine Lindey

Christine Lindey looks at the role of the Artists International Association in supporting the cause of the Spanish Republic. The early 20th century’s momentous upheavals politicised many people and artists were no exception. The mechanised carnage of the First World War, the 1920s Hunger Marches, the increased immiseration caused by…
A Day's Work Poetry
Written by Chris Norris

A Day’s Work by Chris Norris Will not even the massacre of children in Yemen end the silence over the murderous complicity of the British government? They were little kids on a bus on the way back from a picnic, no doubt laughing and raucous as large groups of children…
Brexit: A Positive or Negative for Britain’s Working-Class Actors? Theatre
Written by Luna Williams

Luna Williams considers the implications of Brexit for the theatre industry, and particularly its lack of working class representation. With Brexit day (29th March, 2019) just around the corner, Theresa May and her cabinet appear to be struggling to strike up a deal with the EU which fulfills the promises…
Burning Books Theatre
Written by Doug Nicholls

There will be a performance of “Burning Books” at Quorn Grange Hotel, Loughborough, Leics., on 23rd November. Jess Green’s most recent story of protest, teaching and what is happening in today’s schools has struck a chord with many, and we hope that you are able to come along. Ask yourself,…
To the Wrong-Siders Poetry
Written by Chris Norris

To the Wrong-Siders by Chris Norris There is something in human history like retribution; and it is a rule of historical retribution that its instrument be forged not by the offended, but by the offender himself. The first blow dealt to the French monarchy proceeded from the nobility, not from…
National Poetry Day: you ask us why we fight Poetry
Written by Fran Lock

you ask us why we fight by Fran Lock you can make an inkblot of your nosebleed if you want to. talk and tsk and suckyour teeth. conspiracy and crucible, and last of all is cliché: fighting irish. Tell mehow my fist offends propriety, then name me one good thing…
National Poetry Day: Anatomy of a Bomb Scare Poetry
Written by Kevin Higgins

Anatomy of a Bomb Scarefor Jacqueline Walker by Kevin Higgins Tasks such as this are typically implementedon deniable mobile phones,ordered by a raised eyebrow or nodfourth or fifth floor of an unpainted, concrete building,about which no more can be said because, for reasons obvious to both The Guardian and the…
National Poetry Day: Symptomatic Poetry
Written by Edward Mackinnon

Symptomatic by Edward Mackinnon The crisis consists precisely in the fact that the old is dying and the new cannot be born; in this interregnum a great variety of morbid symptoms appear.- Antonio Gramsci, Prison Notebooks I have watched the wars being re-run nightly,become humane, democretinisationgoing forward, going global, light…

Culture hub

Cultural democracy in practice: alternatives to artwashing and the Great North Exhibition Cultural Commentary
Written by Mike Quille

Theresa Easton and Martin Gollan are two members of a group of artists who staged protests about The Great North Exhibition and who organised an alternative – and ongoing – series of events, The Other Great Exhibition of the North. They were recently interviewed by Mike Quille. MQ: There was a…
Reds Behind the Sofa: The Radical Politics of Doctor Who TV, internet and other media
Written by Sean Ledwith

As we get ready for the next series of Doctor Who, Sean Ledwith praises a show which regularly features forces of emancipation outwitting forces of oppression. This October Jodie Whittaker will make her debut in one of the most eagerly awaited British television seasons of the decade. For the first…
Lying to the Land Cultural Commentary
Written by Paul Victor Tims

In the first of a series of articles on aspects of modern culture, Paul Tims tells us about 'fauxgress' as exemplified in the film, TV and music industries as well as elsewhere – and how we can make things better. The most pernicious and successful lie in western culture is…
Minding the depth and breadth: a round-up of books for the Left Cultural Commentary
Written by Mark Perryman

As Labour gathers for its annual conference Mark Perryman welcomes the variety of thinking a range of authors, new and old, are offering the Left at this vital time It has taken a while but the past few months have seen a near avalanche of books seeking to explain, from…
The Labour Manifesto and cultural democracy Cultural Commentary
Written by Mike Quille

Mike Quille outlines what should go into a democratic, socialist Labour manifesto for the next election We desire to assure to our people full access to the great heritage of culture in this nation. Those words are from the Labour Party Manifesto of 1945 (see above). What does culture mean…
Why the cultural struggle matters Cultural Commentary
Written by Chris Guiton

Chris Guiton develops the theoretical reasoning for the struggle for cultural democracy. It was refreshing to read David Morgan’s feature ‘Reclaiming the Future’ in the Morning Star. As David and many others recognise, there’s a pressing need for socialists to move beyond an often narrowly defined and reactive anti-austerity agenda…
A drinking culture for the many, not the few: the importance of beer and pubs Eating & Drinking
Written by Keith Flett

Keith Flett offers some ideas on how a socialist Labour government could improve our drinking culture. In the stimulating essay on Culture for the Many, not the Few: Notes towards a Socialist Culture Policy, the authors state this: In our social cultures of eating and drinking, we face the terrible effects…
Radical Sacrifice Religion
Written by Sean Ledwith

Other articles in this section of Culture Matters have dealt with the revolutionary strands and meanings, often deeply buried, in various religions. Here, Sean Ledwith reviews Terry Eagleton's latest book, which focuses on radical strands in the Catholic religion. The image above is Marc Chagall's White Crucifixion, 1938, in which…