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I will not cease from mental fight

Nor shall my sword sleep in my hand

Till we have built Jerusalem

In England's green and pleasant land.

- William Blake

Culture Matters is part of our cultural struggle or ‘mental fight’ against class divisions, to achieve a cultural commons in a socialist society – a new Jerusalem, as William Blake called it, and not only in England, but across the world. As you can see from the About Us section, we aim to promote a progressive political approach to the arts and all other cultural activities.

You'll find recent material on this Home page, and every piece sent in since our launch a couple of years ago is available under the relevant topic sections in the Arts and Culture Hubs.

Everything on Culture Matters – articles, poems, images, editorial and technical support – has been contributed freely. We are a registered co-operative, rooted in the labour movement, and apart from managing this website we publish books, run Arts Awards in partnership with trade unions. If you would like to help with this work, please visit Shop & Support. You're also welcome to contribute articles, essays, poems and artworks to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

We hope you enjoy browsing the site, and that you find it entertaining, enlightening and inspiring. Culture Matters!

Arts hub

destroying angel Poetry
Written by Fran Lock

destroying angel by Fran Lock this delicate supremacist, our cipher. tonightunder the fractioned moon, we wait. we arewaiting. for the angel, rankly warriored outof soft ground. or the long, expectant trenchof the year. an angel, yes, the melting stenchof him. how the mouth is swollen with moistpique, and the spade…
Farewell to Smokestack Books Poetry
Written by Culture Matters

John Green talks to Andy Croft about the achievements of Smokestack Books, in an article from the Morning Star Poetry is the most democratic form of literary expression — it only takes a pencil, a scrap of paper and/or a voice to create a poem of a few lines or…
When the Council owns the building you live in Poetry
Written by Jennifer Johnson

When the Council owns the building you live in by Jennifer Johnson When the Council owns the building you live inyou may find that the front is detaching itself from the back,the underpinning needed too expensive for that Council.You may find that large cracks are continually monitoredbut the delays in…
Four poems from 'What Rough Beast' Poetry
Written by Culture Matters

The following four poems are taken from the What Rough Beast anthology of poems about Trump and Trumpism, available to download here. Image above: Rise Up My Pretties, by Martin Gollan, who also made the drawings below. Trumpet So bashed from its last fall I can’t removethe mouthpiece. A mouthpiece…
The Policy Unit, Westminster Poetry
Written by Martin Hayes

The Policy Unit, Westminster by Martin Hayes the Prime Minister has told his ministersthat they need to find outwho it waswho while coming up in the lift with the potential new donors said‘here we go againup to Mickey Mouse land’and who when questioned by the potential new donors as to…
Call Out for Palestine Anthology Poetry
Written by Culture Matters
What Rough Beast Poetry
Written by Culture Matters

In the summer of 2024, Culture Matters put out a call for poetry and artwork related to Donald Trump and Trumpism. Taking the title from WB Yeats’ ‘Second Coming’, the resulting anthology explores the havoc that a second term would unleash on the US and the wider world. With unjust…
Poverty at the Movies Films
Written by Alan McGuire

Being able to afford something, or for a child not being able to have something, is where the narrative of poverty begins. However, it has been obscured by the liberal idea of progress – the idea that some people are more advanced than others because that's how nature has played…

MORE FROM THE ARTS HUB

Culture hub

Ramping up the cultural struggle: CPB conference on class and culture Cultural Commentary
Written by Culture Matters

Around 60 people gathered last Saturday in Barnsley for the Communist Party’s first-ever conference on culture. Called ‘Class and Culture’, the conference was held in the inspiring surroundings of the NUM headquarters in Barnsley, and was chaired by Ron Brown, co-convenor of the Party’s Culture Commission. The aim of the…
Boycott of Israeli cultural institutions Cultural Commentary
Written by Culture Matters

More than 1,000 authors have launched a boycott of Israeli publishers complicit in the dispossession of the Palestinian people, and Culture Matters supports the boycott. These writers and authors have pledged to boycott Israeli cultural institutions. The letter (published below) represents the largest commitment to cultural boycott ever made by…
Brewing & Pubs: Notes from the first 100 days of the Labour government Eating & Drinking
Written by Keith Flett

Brewing & Pubs. Notes from the first 100 days While there was nothing in the formal Labour election manifesto, Labour had made it clear beforehand that there was an understanding of the issues faced by craft brewers and the hospitality industry. Starmer visited a micro-brewery in Camden Town, for example.…
Fair Play Cabaret: shows with a social and political purpose Cultural Commentary
Written by Culture Matters

Fair Play Cabaret With the backing of Equity, a cultural campaign is being launched which is centred around an ongoing series of events across the country. They are attempts, both onstage and offstage, to address aspects of social and cultural changes which have been so detrimental to working people during…
'A deep, poetic beauty': Review of 'This Albion: Snapshots of a Compromised Land' by Charlie Hill Cultural Commentary
Written by Culture Matters

Bobby Seal from the Psychogeographic Review reviews This Albion: Snapshots of a Compromised Land by Charlie Hill I had for some time believed the key to effective writing was to concentrate on the surface of things. Record them faithfully, and they’d do the work for you. After all, the world…
Cultural heritage and cultural democracy Cultural Commentary
Written by Richard Penderyn

Richard Penderyn outlines some of the current problems in the heritage industry, and some ways of introducing cultural democracy Heritage and the historic environment in the UK is rich. It spans millennia and includes amazing sites, from Stonehenge to Caernarfon Castle and from Orkney to Osborne House. Such sites include…
What's the source of alienation? Jim Aitken reviews 'Soil and Soul' by Alistair McIntosh Cultural Commentary
Written by Jim Aitken

Soil and Soul was first published in 2001 and it was a thoroughly well-received book. In his Foreword to it, George Monbiot described it as ‘a ground-breaking book.’ The plaudits that McIntosh was given were indeed wholly justified and it seems that Monbiot was the most perceptive of all McIntosh’s…
Class and Culture: Conference and Social Cultural Commentary
Written by Culture Matters

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MORE FROM THE CULTURE HUB

Every document of civilisation is a document of barbarism
Walter Benjamin
The arts are just a part of the weapons of life. Art can make us see and feel reality and help change that reality. Art is revelation. Art is hard work. Art is part of protest.
Jayne Cortez
Art is not a mirror held up to reality, but a hammer with which to shape it.
Bertolt Brecht
The individual will reach full realization as a human creature, once the chains of alienation are broken. This will be translated concretely into the reconquering of one's true nature through liberated labor, and the expression of one's own human condition through culture and art,
Che Guevara Socialism and Man in Cuba

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