by Joe Auciello & Jeff Mackler / August 2006 issue of Socialist Action Barry Sheppard, “The Socialist Workers Party 1960-1988, A Political Memoir,” Volume 1: The Sixties, (Resistance Books: Chippendale, Australia, 2005), 354 pp., $16. At a certain point in a person's life there comes a need for reflection and assessment. Socialist veteran Barry Sheppard … Continue reading The Life of the Party: Barry Sheppard, the SWP & the 1960s
Category: Arts & Culture
Review of the Da Vinci Code
by Andrew Pollack / August 2006 issue of Socialist Action Dan Brown’s novel, “The Da Vinci Code,” and the movie based on it, have come in for their share of artistic criticism. The book often reads like a supermarket potboiler, and the movie crams in too many of the book’s “facts” to flow smoothly. But … Continue reading Review of the Da Vinci Code
Innocents on the ‘Road to Guantanamo’
by Gaetana Caldwell-Smith / July 2006 issue of Socialist Action newspaper To question the authenticity of events depicted in Michael Winterbottom’s and Matt Whitecross’s recent docudrama, “The Road to Guantanamo,” is to be ignorant of the many testimonies that have come from others—of men being picked up, blindfolded, shackled, dumped into trucks and planes, eventually … Continue reading Innocents on the ‘Road to Guantanamo’
‘A People’s History of Science’ Cuts Through Elitist View of Human Accomplishments
by Mary Scully / June 2006 issue Socialist Action "A People’s History of Science" by Clifford D. Conner is an important book. For those interested in the history of science, it is an essential read. For those interested in social transformation but not science, it is a wonderful introduction to the political importance of science. … Continue reading ‘A People’s History of Science’ Cuts Through Elitist View of Human Accomplishments
‘A People’s History of Science’ Cuts Through Elitist View of Human Accomplishments
by Mary Scully / June 2006 issue Socialist Action "A People’s History of Science" by Clifford D. Conner is an important book. For those interested in the history of science, it is an essential read. For those interested in social transformation but not science, it is a wonderful introduction to the political importance of science. … Continue reading ‘A People’s History of Science’ Cuts Through Elitist View of Human Accomplishments
‘A People’s History of Science’ Cuts Through Elitist View of Human Accomplishments
by Mary Scully / June 2006 issue Socialist Action "A People’s History of Science" by Clifford D. Conner is an important book. For those interested in the history of science, it is an essential read. For those interested in social transformation but not science, it is a wonderful introduction to the political importance of science. … Continue reading ‘A People’s History of Science’ Cuts Through Elitist View of Human Accomplishments
Choose Your Poison
by Gaetana Caldwell-Smith / June 2006 issue Socialist Action “Thank You for Smoking.” Written and directed by Jason Reitman, from a novel by Christopher Buckley. Starring Aaron Eckhart, William H. Macy, Robert Duvall, and Katie Holmes. These days, it’s all about spin, the technique used by spinmeisters, from the government to the guy or gal … Continue reading Choose Your Poison
Todos somos Zorro!
By Gaetana Caldwell-Smith / May 2006 issue of Socialist Action newspaper In March, Berkeley Rep’s Roda Theatre, in partnership with Berkeley-based ZPI (Zorro Productions, Inc.), presented Culture Clash’s world premiere of their latest play, “Zorro in Hell,” directed by Tony Taccone. It is a Latino look behind the mask of this Irish-American concoction of a … Continue reading Todos somos Zorro!
Review of the Documentary ‘Why We Fight’
by Gaetana Caldwell-Smith / March 2006 issue of Socialist Action newspaper In the documentary film “Why We Fight,” writer-director Eugene Jarecki uses rare, incriminating film footage, declassified files, and interviews with ordinary people as well as government and corporate luminaries. Jarecki has created a sweeping, controversial, factual account of America’s rise as a military power … Continue reading Review of the Documentary ‘Why We Fight’
Review of the Movie ‘Munich’
by Gaetana Caldwell-Smith / March 2006 issue of Socialist Action newspaper The 1972 Summer Olympics had just begun when a group of Palestinian terrorists known as Black September kidnapped 11 Israeli athletes from the Olympic Village, in Munich, Germany, and murdered them. The incident was a reaction against the Israeli government’s atrocities against Palestinian Arabs. … Continue reading Review of the Movie ‘Munich’
Bob Dylan Sang What Many Felt
by Joe Auciello / December 2005 issue of Socialist Action newspaper Review of: Bob Dylan, “Chronicles Volume I” (New York: Simon and Schuster Paperbacks, 2005), 304pp., $14. Early one morning the Socialist Action editors asked me to write a review of “Chronicles”; later that afternoon the lawyer who was making out my will, with no … Continue reading Bob Dylan Sang What Many Felt
The Constant Gardener
by Gaetana Caldwell-Smith / October 2005 issue of Socialist Action newspaper A FILM REVIEW OF: “The Constant Gardener,” a U.S./U.K. independent film directed by Fernando Mierelles; screenplay, Jeffrey Caine. Starring Ralph Fiennes, Rachel Weiz, and Danny Houston Fernando Mierelles, who directed “City of God,” has a new film, “The Constant Gardener,” based on John Le … Continue reading The Constant Gardener
Interview With Muralist Mike Alewitz
by Joe Auciello / July 2005 issue of Socialist Action newspaper The following interview was conducted by Joe Auciello in written correspondence with the artist, Mike Alewitz. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ • Could you explain the organizing principles used generally in the murals, the designs, patterns, and geometric figures that draw in the viewer's eye? How is your … Continue reading Interview With Muralist Mike Alewitz
The Agitprop Murals of Mike Alewitz
by Joe Auciello / July 2005 issue of Socialist Action newspaper Book Review: Paul Buhle and Mike Alewitz, "Insurgent Images: The Agitprop Murals of Mike Alewitz" (New York: Monthly Review Press, 2002), paper, 160 pp., $27.95. "Insurgent Images" is a literary and political collaboration between Paul Buhle, a radical activist and scholar, and Mike Alewitz, … Continue reading The Agitprop Murals of Mike Alewitz
Review of Trotsky’s “Literature and Revolution”
by Joe Auciello / June 2005 issue of Socialist Action Leon Trotsky, "Literature and Revolution" (1923), ed. William Keach, (Chicago: Haymarket Books, 2005), paper, 300 pages, $16. Leon Trotsky’s study of literary movements within the young Soviet Republic, and his argument for a partisan but broad-minded government policy towards those trends, is … Continue reading Review of Trotsky’s “Literature and Revolution”
Women and the Media
by Jeni Johnson / May 2005 issue of Socialist Action When discussing the role of media in the average woman’s life, I decided the best place to see what the media wanted woman to want was in a very popular magazine called Cosmo. When I looked at the table of context, it all looked pretty … Continue reading Women and the Media
Review of “Guantanamo: Honor Bound to Defend Freedom”
by Gaetana Caldwell-Smith / May 2005 issue of Socialist Action “Guantanamo Bay: Honor Bound to Defend Freedom” is based on the lives of real prisoners in the U.S. concentration camp in Cuba. The play, written by Victoria Brittain and Gillian Slovo, opened to acclaim a year ago in London and in New York … Continue reading Review of “Guantanamo: Honor Bound to Defend Freedom”
Cuba: A Revolution in Motion
by Derrel Meyers / April 2005 issue of Socialist Action Book Review “CUBA—A Revolution in Motion,” by Isaac Saney. Fernwood Press and Zed Press, 240 pages, $20. On a visit to Cuba in 1996 I was asked by Segundo Piñan, a representative of the Cuban Institute for Friendship with the People (ICAP), … Continue reading Cuba: A Revolution in Motion
College of St. Scholastica Tries to Block Vagina Monologues
Below is an interview conducted by Socialist Action newspaper with a pair of student activists at the College of St. Scholastica in Duluth. The Vagina Monologues is a performance that highlights violence against women and girls, and has become an important fundraiser for numerous programs dealing with these issues. It has become an annual event … Continue reading College of St. Scholastica Tries to Block Vagina Monologues
In Memory of Ossie Davis
by Gaetana Caldwell-Smith / March 2005 issue of Socialist Action Actor, activist, playwright Ossie Davis died on Feb. 5 of natural causes in Miami while making the film, “Retirement.” His wife of over five decades, actor Ruby Dee, was in New Zealand at the time of his death. She had starred with him in … Continue reading In Memory of Ossie Davis
Loaded Language in the Media
by Joe Auciello – February, 2005 Last August Arundhati Roy began a speech to the American Sociological Association by referring to a problem with language. Words, she said, have been “butchered and bled of meaning.” (Her talk, “Public Power in the Age of Empire,” has been published by Seven Stories Press). This is … Continue reading Loaded Language in the Media
Review of William Kunstler’s “The Emerging Police State”
by Joe Auciello – February, 2005 The countless number of jokes about lawyers reveals a fear and animosity towards members of this profession, which, to the average citizen, appears powerful and mysterious. Only in fiction—and the self-serving autobiographies that read like fiction—does the lawyer emerge as the admirable figure, the hero. Think of Perry … Continue reading Review of William Kunstler’s “The Emerging Police State”
Black poet harassed for travel to Cuba
Brock Satter, an African American poet and bandleader of a “spoken-soul-hop fusion” group, was a featured artist at the Ninth Annual Hip-Hop Festival in Havana in 2003. Satter traveled legally to Cuba under the U.S. regulations in force at the time. But subsequently, he received a letter from the U.S. Treasury Department requesting information on … Continue reading Black poet harassed for travel to Cuba
Science vs. Creationism
by Mark Ostapiak The latest episode in the long struggle between the ideas of evolution and creationism was marked by a Dec. 14 federal lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and Americans United for Separation of Church and State on behalf of 11 parents in Dover, PA. They insist that the … Continue reading Science vs. Creationism
Review of the Film “Motorcycle Diaries”
by Gaetana Caldwell-Smith Walter Salles’s beautifully photographed film (by French photographer, Eric Gautier), could be a South American travelogue were it not based on an iconic revolutionary. "Motorcycle Diaries," was adapted from the diaries from 1952 that Ernesto "Che" Guevara and his friend, Alberto Granado, wrote while riding around South America on a 1939 Norton … Continue reading Review of the Film “Motorcycle Diaries”