Reviews

One of Tariq Ali’s identities (activist, novelist, broadcaster and so on) is participant-observer of his native Pakistan.

The Duel is a highly timely, well-informed, readable, sometimes-not-very-chronological study of Pakistan’s political evolution. Peace activists will probably skip straight to chapters eight and nine, dealing with US influence on Pakistan (heavy), and recent Afghan-Pakistani interactions (mutually destabilising). There is a lot of interesting material here, but not as many references to follow up or verify as there…

In history, women who failed to adopt traditional gendered roles have been characterised as “the bad, the mad and the good”. Similarly, narratives of mothers, monsters and whores are used to deny the agency of women who confound the stereotypes of passive victims of war or non-violent peace women, and who act with violence in the context of war or armed conflict.

These narratives have their roots in western myths: Medea, the vengeful mother, who killed all of her children; the beautiful, fearsome Medusa who turned men into stone;…

Mike Marqusee has an amazing story to tell in If I Am Not For Myself. Although the book follows his own journey through life, it reaches well beyond this and becomes a fascinating hybrid of family autobiography and detailed history of the Jewish left during the 20th century. The book traces the threads of leftist radical thought and Zionism through three generations of his family.

As a young adult, Marqusee’s anti-Zionism put him at odds with his family and many other Jewish Americans. Marqusee illustrates how his views were a…

As a physicist myself (though of an altogether lowlier and grubbier variety), Oppenheimer’s story has always interested me.

How did a left-leaning, New York Jewish intellectual end up leading the Manhattan Project (the Second World War effort to develop the first nuclear weapons at Los Alamos in New Mexico), only to be crushed by the political system that he had served so well, in a much-publicised 1954 hearing which ended up withdrawing his security clearance? This book tells the story in its full complexity for the first time, and…

This book is a must for anyone interested in deepening his or her understanding of civil (nonviolent) resistance both in general and in the particular context of the first Palestinian Intifada.

That Intifada – literally “shaking off” – began in response to the death in December 1987 of four Palestinians at an Israeli checkpoint. However, as Mary King shows in this meticulously researched study, the groundwork was laid by the development of civil society organisations, including notably women’s organisations, during the 1970s and…

Afghan Women: Identity & Invasion is an important book that challenges prevailing stereotypes and misconceptions widespread even amongst many progressive peace and anti-war activists.

The academic and activist Elaheh Rostami-Povey shows how Afghani women, far from being just passive victims, have been historically struggling to improve their rights and every-day living conditions, even under the rule of the Taliban.

The focus of the book, however, is on the impact of the recent US-led invasion. Rather than having liberated…

Jonathan Cook is a journalist of rare commitment and integrity. In 2001 he left his job as a staff-writer at The Guardian to work freelance from the Arab majority city of Nazareth in Israel, in the belief that such independence from the mainstream papers, coupled with geographical proximity, would allow him to more freely evaluate and reflect on both the Israel-Palestine conflict and the wider problems of the Middle East. This book is a shining example of this newfound freedom.

Short but wide-ranging in its analysis, it focuses on…

In his 1961 farewell address to the nation, president Eisenhower warned that the US “must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence… by the military-industrial complex.”

In this book investigative journalist Solomon Hughes updates Eisenhower’s advice for the 21st century, noting that we now face an increasingly powerful “security-industrial complex”.

Since 9/11, Hughes argues, private companies have played a growing role in the “war on terror”. Through extensive lobbying and intimate links with the UK and US…

118 Days celebrates the “explosion of goodness” that arose from the kidnapping of four peace activists in Baghdad on 26 November 2005.

In 22 articles by 24 different authors, the book explores how this terrible event touched so many people in positive ways – from increased cooperation between peace and faith groups in Britain, to demonstrations of solidarity in the West Bank, and from discussions on the value of self-sacrifice in a US penitentiary to the media frenzy in the UK, the book explores how all these threads – of global and…

Kate Evans’ Thank you Greenham (Laughing Moon Press; 2008;ISBN 978-0956006103; 100pp; £7) is an account of her visits to Greenham in the early ’80s, with a particular stress on “how difficult it was to be a part-time activist”.

Interesting, it’s often hard to read: it’s a very honest account, brutally so at times. The experience seems to have damaged the author emotionally, yet she still manages to make the book a positive read, looking at Greenham as part of a wider struggle against oppression and war.

Finally, if you don’t…

Tony Gibson’s previous book The Power in Our Hands (Jon Carpenter, 1996) demonstrated truly participatory grassroots organising using methods as open to the verbally unconfident as to the fluent.
Surprisingly (to me), his follow-up book is an autobiography. But what an autobiography!

Tony Gibson’s experiences in just-pre-revolutionary China with the (Quaker) Friends Ambulance Unit are a wonderful description of how outsiders can truly support and empower poor people

His ingenious adventures in educational broadcasting…

“Every death an opportunity” is a subversive slogan our local campaign has used, on many occasions, against Brighton’s resident bomb factory EDO MBM.

Reading Anna Stavrianakis’ The Façade of Arms Control I discovered that there is a government-approved version of this statement. It comes in the shape of the MoD form 680 – used to assist weapon manufacturers through the process of obtaining an export licence – which states that its aim is to give “an indication of what markets may provide viable export opportunities for their products…

Hundreds of thousands of people in the world engage in nonviolent struggle. Be it a labour strike, a boycott of a business, or an attempt to overthrow an oppressive state, people are practicing nonviolent methods to resolve their disputes. Considering the extent to which the technique is used, it is surprising how little literature exists to help activists to go about their campaigns.

Few have done more to help demystify nonviolent action and make it a practicable activity than Gene Sharp. Sharp has spent the last 50 years bringing a…

Ten Tiny Toes looks at the impact of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan on the families who have sons and daughters serving there.

Like every mother, Gill wants the best for her sons. Raise them well, keep them safe, clean and out of trouble. But for Michael and Chris the choices are few and far between. The only way to have the best and be the best is to join the army.

The play opens with a montage of news footage on a screen that forms the whole of the backdrop to the stage. Tony Blair tells us that Saddam Hussein has weapons…

I heard David Ferrard sing in April at the launch of the Festival of Nonviolence and the hairs stood up on the back of my neck.

In the very simplest manner of music appreciation, hearing a voice that can touch, with great finesse and sweetness, one’s body is a strange wonder.

This collection has the current wars weaving their way through a series of love songs.

There is the subtle story of a Chechen refugee drawn to England by the music coming from his pocket radio, and falling in love with his language teacher in a…