Solidarity reviews books, mags, movies, gigs, exhibitions…

Undesirable alien: Zuzenko and the early days of the Communist Party of Australia

Undesirable:  Captain Zuzenko and the workers of Australia and the world
Kevin Windle, Australian Scholarly Press
$39.95 RRP

Night Games: An apology for football rape

Night Games
Anna Krien
Penguin, $29.95

Latin America’s new left governments—on the road to socialism?

Latin America’s Turbulent Transitions
By Roger Burbach, Michael Fox and Federico Fuentes
Zed Books $34.95

An apology for American wars and racism

The Reluctant Fundamentalist
Directed by Mira Nair
Coming to DVD

Weather Underground: dead end strategy for fighting US power

The Company You Keep
Directed by Robert Redford
In cinemas now

Marx’s theory of alienation: A world where workers have no control

Alienation: an introduction to Marx’s theory
by Dan Swain Bookmarks

Dead Wrong: Latham’s recipe for killing what’s left of Labor

“Not dead yet: Labor’s post-left future” Quarterly Essay 49
By Mark Latham, Black Inc $19.99

Understanding the economic crisis: putting profit rates at the centre

The Failure of Capitalist Production
By Andrew Kliman, Pluto Press $39.95

World War II—people’s war or class war?

A People’s History of the Second World War
By Donny Gluckstein
Pluto Press
$35 from Solidarity

Fighting the market in schools: lessons from US teachers

The Future of Our Schools
Lois Weiner
Haymarket Books $24

Debating a one state solution for Palestine

After Zionism: One State for Israel and Palestine
Edited by Antony Loewenstein and Ahmed Moor
Saqi Books

Mythologising Lincoln’s opposition to slavery

Lincoln
Directed by Steven Spielberg
In cinemas now

The myths behind Zionism’s claim to Palestine

The Invention of the Jewish People
By Shlomo Sand
Verso, $25

Argo: flawlessly reproducing US propaganda on Iran

Argo, Ben Affleck’s gripping, highly entertaining and commercially successful thriller, depicts a little-known episode within the infamous 444-day hostage crisis that followed the Iranian Revolution. Without necessarily intending to be, the film is also one of the most effective pieces of US propaganda to have emerged from Hollywood in recent years.

Chomsky’s “Occupy” reflects the good and the bad

Occupy
By Noam Chomsky
$9.95, Penguin

Occupy by Noam Chomsky is the first of the Zuccotti Park Press/Occupied Media Pamphlet Series produced by the US Occupy movement. The short book is a collection of Chomsky’s speeches made at various Occupy events and pays homage to the political significance of the movement.

Sexual liberation and the politics of pornography

Money Shot: A Journey into Porn and Censorship
By Jeff Sparrow
$29.95, Scribe

The left is tangled up in knots over the politics of pornography. Left-wing academics like Clive Hamilton are trying to fight sexist objectification by forming anti-porn alliances with pro-lifers like Melinda Tankard-Reist. In search of sexual empowerment, feminists are creating guides to encourage women to produce and consume pornography.

The Casual Vacancy exposes middle class prejudice

The Casual Vacancy
J.K Rowling
Little Brown and Company
$39.95 (Hardback)

It may not be as “socialist” as Britain’s Daily Mail thinks, but JK Rowling’s new novel lays bare the class divide in society.

Go Back shows (again) that we can challenge ideas

Go Back To Where You Came From season two was filmed in early 2012, but the timing of its showing, two weeks after federal parliament endorsed the Pacific Solution, was perfect.

The Sapphires: radical history shines strong amidst the glitz and glamour

The Sapphires
Directed by Wayne Blair
In cinemas now

1835—False hopes in fair governments won’t win Aboriginal rights

1835: The founding of Melbourne and the conquest of Australia
By James Boyce
$44.95, Black Inc

Telling the story of socialist refugees who resisted Hitler

All That I Am
By Anna Funder
Penguin, $29.95

Australian racism explored, but not explained

Dumb, Drunk and Racist
A Cordell Jigsaw Production
ABC 2, Wednesdays at 9.30pm

Freud and Jung’s debates take centre stage

A Dangerous Method
Directed by David Cronenberg
Available on DVD soon

Can’t pay, won’t pay: debating solutions to Europe’s debt

Crisis in the Eurozone
Edited by Costas Lapvitsas
Verso Books
$29.95

Clicking off everywhere? Social media and social movements

Why it’s kicking off everywhere: the new global revolutions
By Paul Mason
Verso Books
RRP $27.95

Tweetin’ about a revolution

Revolution 2.0: The power of the people is greater than the people in power
By Wael Ghonim
Fourth Estate
RRP $29.95

Debating ideas to grow the left’s influence on politics

Left Turn: Political Essays for the New Left
Edited by Antony Loewenstein and Jeff Sparrow
Melbourne University Publishing
$27.99

Alex Mitchell: Trotskyist with some stories to tell

Come the Revolution: A memoir

By Alex Mitchell, NewSouth Publishing $39.95

Resisting Capitol in The Hunger Games

The Hunger Games
Directed by Gary Ross
In cinemas now

The Mad Square: Revolution and reaction in Weimar Germany

Mad Square
Modernity in German Art 1910-1937, formerly at Melbourne NGV

Rebuilding fighting unions: Lessons from the US

The Civil wars in U.S. Labor: Birth of a New Workers’ Movement or Death Throes of the Old?
By Steve Early, Haymarket Books, $24.95

Weekend: Honest depiction of homophobia in everyday life

Weekend
Directed by Andrew Haigh
Out now, selected release

Thatcher’s real legacy: rule for the rich

The Iron Lady
Directed by Phyllida Lloyd
In cinemas now

The need for an anatomy of the trade union bureaucracy

Review: We Built This Country
By Humphrey McQueen, Ginninderra Press, $30

Marxism and anarchism

Anarchist and autonomist ideas have influenced many recent movements, including Occupy. Lachlan Marshall takes a look at a new booklet that weighs up their merits. 

Dissecting Murdoch’s hold on the news

Review: Quarterly Essay 43 “Bad News”, by Robert Manne, Black Inc, $19.95

Tony Cliff: a revolutionary thinker

Tony Cliff
A Marxist For His Time
Bookmarks, $30, available from Solidarity

The unknown Mozart

Mozart’s Sister
Directed by Rene Feret
In cinemas now

Telling glimpse into Tamil Tigers’ doomed route to national liberation

Tamil Tigress
By Niromi de Soyza
Allen & Unwin, $32.99

Nationalist myths of Australia’s war in the Pacific

Australia’s Pacific War: Challenging a National Myth
By Tom O’Lincoln, Interventions $20.00

Nagasaki bombing: a war crime to boost US power

Nagasaki: the massacre of the innocent and unknowing, by Craig Collie, Allen and Unwin, $32.99

Sexism, psychology and pseudo-science

Review: Delusions of Gender By Cordelia Fine, Allen and Unwin, $29.99

Smoke bombs, sit-ins and sixties’ student radicalism at Monash

Review: All Along the Watchtower, by Michael Hyde, The Vulgar Press, $32.95.

Exploring Stephen Jay Gould’s ideas on science and evolution

The Science and Humanism of Stephen Jay Gould
By Richard York and Brett Clark, Monthly Review Press $16.95

A proud history of Aboriginal struggle on display

From Little Things Big Things Grow
Exhibtion developed by National Museum of Australia, touring nationally see website for details 

Immigration Nation: Probing Australia’s racist roots

Mark Goudkamp takes a look at the SBS series Immigration Nation and its history of the White Australia policy

Percy Brookfield: MP who used parliament to agitate and organise

The Best Hated Man in Australia: The Life and Death of Percy Brookfield 1875-1921
By Paul Robert Adams, Puncher and Wattmann, $34

Asking why Labor stands for nothing

Review article: Power Crisis, by Rodney Cavalier, Cambridge University Press, $34.99 and
All That’s Left: What Labor Should Stand For, Edited by Nick Dyrenfurth and Tim Soutphommasane UNSW Press, $29.95

Competition, sexism and rich kids rule in Facebook film

Review: The Social Network
Directed by David Fincher, in cinemas now

The Pacific Solution: never again!

Review: The Pacific Solution
By Susan Metcalfe, Australian Scholarly Publishing, $24.95

Understanding redneck America

Rainbow Pie: a redneck memoir
By Joe Bageant
Scribe, $35

Exposing raunch culture and the new sexism

Living Dolls: The Return of Sexism
By Natasha Walter
Virago, $35

Equal love, equal rights: rediscovering the red in the rainbow

Amy Thomas reviews Hannah Dee’s The Red in the Rainbow, an essential look at why fighting homophobia means fighting the system

Dispelling the modern ‘Malthus myth’

Review: Peoplequake by Fred Pearce
Random House, $32.95

Working class heroes were made in Dagenham

Review: Made in Dagenham, directed by Nigel Cole
In cinemas October 28

Spying eyes: ASIO and the Communist Party


James Hardie: The Killer Company exposed

Review: Killer Company
By Matt Peacock, ABC Books, $35.00

Goodbye to all that?

Review: Goodbye to all that: The failure  of neoliberalism and the urgency of change
Edited by David McKnight and Robert Manne, Black Inc, $32.95

Anzac—a new front in the history wars

Review: What’s Wrong with Anzac? The Militarisation of Australian History
Edited byMarilyn Lake and Henry Reynolds, University of New South Wales Press, $29.95

Refugee policy is the real crime

Review: Border Crimes
By Michael Grewcock, The Federation Press, $49.95

Glorifying life as a US solider in occupied Iraq

Review: The Hurt Locker
Directed by Kathryn Bigelow, In cinemas now

Defending Stalin does socialism no favours

Review: The Idea of Communism
By Tariq Ali, University of Chicago Press, $22.95

Challenging portrayal of life at the bottom

Precious
Directed by Lee Daniels, In cinemas now

Invaluable guide to climate science, but not solutions

Review: Storms of my grandchildren
By James Hansen, Bloomsbury, $35

Pearson’s Radical Hope: Assimilation

Conservative Indigenous leader Noel Pearson uses his new essay Radical Hope to argue for a neo-liberal agenda in Aboriginal education, argues Shannon Price

Hollywood fights imperialism in 3D

Review: Avatar
Directed by James Cameron, in cinemas now

Bases of the US Empire

Review: The bases of Empire
Edited by Catherine Lutz, Pluto Press $58

Guidebook for understanding the system

Unravelling Capitalism
By Joseph Choonara, Bookmarks, $20

When Hurricane Katrina brought the war home

Review: Zeitoun
By Dave Eggers, Penguin $32.95

Academic gloss for the new assimilation

Review: The Politics of Suffering
By Peter Sutton, Melbourne University Press, $34.95

Moore’s condemnation of capitalism falls flat

Review: Capitalism: A love story
Directed by Michael Moore, In cinemas now

The Brisbane Bolshevik and the Russian Revolution

Review: The People’s Train
By Tom Keneally, Vintage Books, $32.95

Film points finger at Australian complicity over deaths in Balibo

Balibo
Directed by Robert Connolly, In cinemas now

Bosses build their profits on toll of workers’ lives

Review: Framework of Flesh
By Humphrey McQueen, Ginninderra Press, $30

A frock-coated communist: rediscovering Friedrich Engels

Review: The frock-coated communist By Tristram Hunt
Allen Lane $59.95

Guide for climate campaigners reflects movement’s weak points

Review:Climate action By Mark Diesendorf
UNSW Press, $34.95

Confronting the myths used to justify dispossession

Review: Possession
By Bain Atwood, Melbourne University Press, $54.99

Bruno: A homophobic and tedious failure of a film

Review: Bruno
Directed by Larry Charles, in cinemas now

The bloody history Stalin tried to hide

Review: Katyn,
Directed by Andrzej Wadja

The Red Army Faction—flawed product of 1960s radicalism

Review: The Baader-Meinhof Complex Directed by Uli Edel
In selected cinemas now

Cannes winner an indictment of Australian racism

Review: Samson and Delilah, Directed by Warwick Thornton
In selected cinemas now

Illzilla’s political hip hop a flower in the wasteland

Review: Wasteland
Illzilla, Out now through Shock

Excusing responsibility for the Holocaust?

Review: The Reader
Directed by Stephen Daldry, In cinemas now

Raw challenge to the realities of racism

Review: The Combination
Directed by David Field, In cinemas now

Former insider exposes carbon lobby deception

Review: Quarterly Essay “Quarry Vision: coal, climate change and the end of the resource boom”
By Guy Pearse, Black Inc, $16.95

Milk

I was born in 1970 in small town New Zealand. I grew up in the 80s in country NSW. I was in a closet inside a closet. I came out in 1995 in Sydney. My family coped. Nearly all my friends stayed friends. I can be open at work. I owe a lot to the previous generations of sexuality and gender rights activists for making my life so easy.

Labor goes missing in The Howard Years

We survived the Howard years, and now you want us to watch it on Monday night prime time!

1949 coal strike: How Chifley lost Labor’s supporters

Infamous Victory: Ben Chifley’s Battle For Coal
ABC1, November 6
Watch online at www.abc.net.au/tv/iview

Solutions to global warming but no way to get there

Review: “Now or never”, Quarterly Essay 31
By Tim Flannery
Black Inc, $15.95

How ordinary people paid for the boom

Review: The Land of Plenty
By Mark Davis
Melbourne University Publishing, $36.95

The politics of Rudd’s ‘family values’

Review: The Henson Case
By David Marr
Text Publishing, $24.95

Jonathan Neale’s Stop Global Warming: Change The World

Review
Bookmarks, 2008, $30.00 from Solidarity

Before abortion rights were won

Review: The Racket

A graphic and haunting soldier’s tale

Review: Waltz With Bashir
Directed by Ari Folman, Limited cinema release

A fresh look at America’s urban decay

Review: The Wire

WHEN US presidential candidate Barack Obama was asked his favourite TV show and character, his answers were The Wire and Omar Little (more on him later).

Australian atrocities at war

Review: Australians At War: A Pictorial History
By A. K. MacDougall, The Five Mile Press, RRP $39.95, 2008 edition

Greer’s rage no answer to the NT intervention

Review: On Rage
By Germaine Greer, Melbourne University Press, $19.95

Persepolis: Iran through a rebel’s eyes

Directed by Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud, Now showing

Inside Kevin 07: Danger signs right from the start

By Christine Jackman, Melbourne University Press, $34.95

The Dark Knight: Fighting terror with terror

Directed by Chris Nolan

A history that’s on our side

Review: A People’s History of the World
By Chris Harman, Palgrave Macmillan $39.95

Greenpeace Energy [r]evolution report

AUSTRALIA’S ENERGY [R]evolution is a useful tool for the climate movement. Greenpeace researchers have drawn together the best science and technology to build a concrete and achievable vision of a viable transition to a low-emission society.

The Tall Man: Death and Life on Palm Island

By Chloe Hooper, Hamish Hamilton, $32.95

CHLOE HOOPER, a novelist whose first book won international praise, recently released The Tall Man, a book on the Palm Island inquest into the death in police custody of Cameron Doomadgee.

Inside the Al Sadr movement

Review: Muqtada Al-Sadr and the Fall of Iraq
By Patrick Cockburn, Allen and Unwin $29.95

Military mayhem

Review: A Military History of Australia
Jeffrey Grey, Cambridge University Press, RRP $39.95

Salute - “I’m not talking about the 200 metres, I’m talking about the human race.”

Who is Australia’s fastest sprinter ever? At which Olympic Games did he win the silver medal? Why is he a hero for many US track athletes? Don’t know, don’t care? Well watch Salute and you will.

Last Drinks: Toohey’s racist diatribe

THE WIDESPREAD acclaim for The Australian journalist Paul Toohey’s Last Drinks: The Impact of the Northern Territory Intervention (Quarterly Essay 30, June 2008), demonstrates just how deeply racist attitudes to Aboriginal people are embedded in Australian politics and culture.

Let them in, but never mind the neo-liberalism

Review of Let Them In: The Case for Open Borders
Jason L. Riley, Penguin USA

Deported to danger

Review of A Well Founded Fear
Directed by Bentley Dean and Anne Delaney

Shopping, sex and the city

Review of Sex and the City, directed by Michael Patrick King
Coming to DVD

Entertaining series fails to probe crime’s roots

Underbelly

Superhero fights for the US war machine

Iron Man

Missed chance to map out agenda for change

Dear Mr Rudd

Hollywood’s faith shaking tale of war

In the Valley of ElahWritten and directed by Paul Haggis

‘The torture word’

IN LATE February Alex Gibney’s Taxi to the Dark Side won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.

Fear and fantasy in the ‘war on terror’

The Terror Dream: Fear and Fantasy in Post-9/11 America

Artists tackle anti-Muslim racism

Fear of a Brown Planet

1968–the year the world revolted

Of all the articles, features, memoirs and books devoted to 1968, “The Fire Last Time: 1968 and After”, by Chris Harman, the editor of International Socialism journal, is still, by some distance, the best.

Oil–an American obsession

ONE HUNDRED years ago the United States was the biggest oil producer in the world. California alone accounted for 22 per cent of global output.