“Peggy [his mother] became a flame of optimism in my young life [during WW2]. And when I once asked what was the point of struggling with my homework when we were all going to die, she replied: “By the time you grow up, they may have found a cure for that ...” “She asked me repeatedly [during the Israeli siege of Lebanon in 1982] why governments spend so much money on guns.” (p793.)
For nearly thirty years, Fisk has been a journalist in the Middle East - through peace, war…
The main aim of this book, as its editors make clear at the outset, is to provide a collection of readings on the ethics of war that will “prove useful to many students, teachers and researchers”. What they have produced is likely to prove an invaluable resource for many readers for years to come.
The book has a variety of strengths. First, there is its sheer size, with nearly 700 pages of readings. The editors have not stinted on the index, which itself runs to nearly 40 pages, and…
Having made a living out of ridiculing the evil antics of arms companies and other corporate criminals in his stand-up shows and on national television, Mark Thomas has finally got round to writing his first book.
Unsurprisingly, the butt of his written jokes is of course the arms trade. Well, the arms trade, the government, fellow activists and anyone else he cares to point the finger at. Starting with a good old rant about “why the reader should care about the arms trade”, it's…
Worlds Apart is a comparison of the dual worlds of formal and non-formal (or democratic) education. As the publisher's name implies, the book is written by a supporter of free education but it cannot be accused of being overly partisan in its approach. It seeks, rather, to cut through prejudice on both sides and to provide information through the words of the schools and the pupils themselves. It would be fair to say that positive and negative aspects come out of both accounts although the…
At the end of the 18th century well over three-quarters of humanity lived in bondage of one form or another, in a world in which, in the words of one historian, “freedom, not slavery, was the peculiar institution”. This amazing book - packed full of unforgettable heroes and villains - tells the story of the pivotal role played by popular campaigning in the termination of two of the worst manifestations of this global system: the British slave trade and Britain's West Indian slave plantations…
Written and directed by best selling War Plan Iraq author Milan Rai - and featuring interviews with Bruce Kent and Michael Foster MP, as well as a host of Vox Pops from the proverbial man/woman in the street - this DVD is an excellent, short, and thought-provoking primer, explaining why the UK Government's “war on terror” is not only wrong but is actually endangering UK citizens.
Counter terror: Build Justice demonstrates clearly how alQaeda draws upon legitimate grievances…
Despite weak reviews in the mainstream left press, I really wanted to like this album.
Having nominally followed Franti's musical career since his early work with the Beatnigs in the late 80s, through Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy in the early 90s, and later into Spearhead, I feel like I have witnessed a decline in musical passion over the years. Perhaps age, fatherhood and a penchant for weed have mellowed him a little too much. However, Spearhead's numerous albums have spanned an…
A veteran of the anti-roads movement, Jo Wilding first travelled to Iraq in August 2001 as part of the UK anti-sanctions movement, returning in February 2003 to witness the (re)invasion and then again in November 2003 to tour the country with the circus of the title. In April 2004 she was one of a tiny handful of internationals to witness the US siege of Fallujah first-hand, riding an ambulance in the city (over 300 women and children were killed during the siege as fighter bombers attacked…
Reverend Michael Scott, once an iconic figure in the campaigns for racial justice, colonial freedom and nuclear disarmament, is now largely forgotten. Anne Yates and Lewis Chester's The Troublemaker: Michael Scott and his Lonely Struggle Against Injustice, should go some way to ending the neglect of this quiet, introspective yet determined pioneer of nonviolent direct action.
Born into a clerical family in Sussex in 1907, Scott was ordained in Britain as an Anglican priest in 1930…
Perhaps for most women who had a close involvement with Greenham, a new book on the subject will be approached with a certain trepidation. Over the years there have been a few - some written by academics, others by women who lived at the camp - and for reasons including remoteness and subjectivity, none has been fantastically well-received. One reason for this is that not one of us has the “whole story”. We each have our own - and we know it.
In this book however, Ann Pettit has…
Twenty-five years after the Greenham march, David Fairhall has contributed an enjoyable and informative history of Greenham Common.
It doesn't plod chronologically through the decades, but mixes the more interesting vignettes of the women's peace camp into the wider political and military context. As a history of a place it also includes quite detailed accounts of the complex legal manoeuvres which led to the partial restoration of the common. The women's peace camp is treated…
Formed in 1991, Fun Da Mental have been producing urgent - sometimes frenetic - music, constantly crossing styles and boundaries.
All is War is the band's fifth studio album and continues in a similar musical vein as previous endeavours, mixing up intense and driving electronic beats with traditional tabla, strings and vocal styles, socially conscious rap and an emphasis on race and religion. It was recorded in London, Pakistan and South Africa. I have two earlier albums (…
In January, Hamas - the Palestinian “Islamic Resistance Movement” that became notorious during the 1990s for its suicide attacks on Israeli civilians - won the legislative elections in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Since then the US and Israel - aided and abetted by the EU - have waged an unremitting campaign to punish Palestinians for their choice at the ballot box and to destroy the new government. But who are Hamas and what do they want? Is a two-state solution still possible…
It's rare that I cry over any book, except possibly the closing chapters of my favourite novel, Ahdaf Soueif's the Map of Love. I get angry, depressed or inspired, but only very occasionally cry. But that's what I found myself doing on reading the children's tale that is The Boy and the Wall, not because of its powerful telling of the effects of occupation on a child's life, but for the moving simplicity of this beautiful tale of a boy and his mother.
Written by Amahl…
September 11, 2001, is a date that is sure to remain as firmly fixed on the mind of the current generation as certainly as 23 November, 1963 or 6 June, 1944 were for earlier ones. Likewise, the events of 9/11 are just as easy to summarise as those earlier, landmark dates. Four planes were hijacked in US airspace: two were flown into the two towers of New York's World Trade Centre, one was flown into the Pentagon; the fourth crashed into a field in Pennsylvania after a struggle between a…
