Life Writing

Red Vienna: the architecture of socialist hope
Written by Dennis Broe

Dennis Broe tells the story of Red Vienna Europe’s zero interest rate is being used to further hollow out its major cities. Those people owning capital in cities such as Munich, Berlin, Paris and Amsterdam are borrowing at no cost and buying up apartments that are then being used as…
Class and Culture in Los Angeles: Fear and Loathing in the City of the Angels
Written by Dennis Broe

Dennis Broe excavates the contradictions of class and culture in the architecture, art and culture of Los Angeles Race is the way class is spoken in America, as Cornel West wisely pointed out, and that is especially true in the sprawling multi-cities that comprise Los Angeles. Money is the other…

The working class liberates itself: Review of 'Joe Stafford: A Tale of Revolution', by Charles Andrews.
Written by Jenny Farrell

When is the last time you read an exciting story about the working class engaged in determined and successful struggle? This is just what Charles Andrews sets out to do in his newly published novelette Joe Stafford: A Tale of Revolution. Not only is the working class largely excluded from…
Culture for All: Why Children's Literature Matters
Written by Kim Reynolds

As part of the Culture for All series we're proud to present a short film about children's literature by Kim Reynolds, followed by the text of her talk Why Children’s Literature Matters People often ask me why I study children’s literature. The question comes from the misconception that children’s books…

A joyful expression of solidarity: Tolpuddle Radical Film Festival
Written by Chris Jury

There has been an annual gathering to mark the story of the Tolpuddle Martyrs since 1930s. It began as a Sunday afternoon event with wreaths laid on the grave of James Hammett, followed by a procession of banners and speeches. Today, the annual event sees thousands of trade unionists from…
Meet Juan Guaidó: Capra’s Depression-Era Comedy Rerun as Imperial Farce
Written by Dennis Broe

In 1941, Frank Capra directed Meet John Doe, the last of his Depression-era populist trilogy, extolling the virtues of the common man and woman. In this film Gary Cooper, a down-on-his-luck hobo gets chosen by a newspaper magnate as the ultimate symbol of an America still ravaged by the economic…

Culture For All: Why Theatre Matters
Written by Culture Matters

As part of the Culture for All series, supported by the Communication Workers Union, we're proud to present a short film about why theatre matters, by Ed Edwards. Why Theatre Matters by Ed Edwards Like every sector of society over the 30 years since the disastrous rise of Thatcherism and…
An Enemy of the People
Written by Anthony Squiers

Anthony Squiers reviews an astonishingly relevant production of Henrik Ibsen’s An Enemy of the People, performed on Zoom by the J.T. and Margaret Talkington College of Visual & Performing Arts School of Theatre & Dance, Texas Tech University An Enemy of the People is one of Ibsen’s most famous works…

Culture for All: Why Choirs Matter
Written by Culture Matters

As part of the Culture for All series, supported by the Communication Workers Union, we're proud to present a short film about why choirs matter, by Boff Whalley.
Som independents / We are independent
Written by Culture Matters

Som independents / We are independent by Xavier I Panades, extracted from Gwrthryfel / Uprising No necessitem que ens vigilis,ni que ens suggereixis que fer.No cal que seguis a damunt nostre,ni que posis preu a la nostra fe. El fantasma del meu pare plora:per les tortures innecessàries.El fantasma de la…

Crossing Troubled Waters: A review of Jim Aitken’s 'Declarations of Love'
Written by David Betteridge

What I like about Jim Aitken’s poems is the way they can surprise us by travelling at speed from A to B, and sometimes a lot further. The starting point may be a person, a place, an image, an event, or an idea, typically taken from a real-life here-and-now, while…
The Clowns, The Crooks, The Cranks, The Chancers, The Careerists, The Charlatans and the Refugee
Written by Martin Rowson

The Clowns, The Crooks, The Cranks, The Chancers, The Careerists, The Charlatans and the Refugee by Martin Rowson (who also drew the image above) Once the clowns, the class clowns all the other kids now shrank back from in Earth-swallowing embarrassment, playpenned my country and trashed it for a laugh…

Standing Rock
Written by Gabriel Rosenstock

The Native American reservation stands as a searing metaphor for the evils of colonialism and capitalism with its dreadful legacy of forced religious conversion, language loss, cultural and environmental degradation, rampant alcoholism and a host of other social ills. How is it that when we engineered the genocide of First…
Guernica
Written by Jenny Farrell

On 26 April 1937, eighty-five years ago, the Basque town of Gernika was devastated by German Nazi bombers. This event gave impetus to Pablo Picasso's painting Guernica. The painting has become one of the most famous artistic anti-war statements of all time. Gernika, Leningrad, Hiroshima, My Lai - places that…