Reviews
The revitalisation and collapse of the US SWP
The Party, The Socialist Workers Party 1960-1988, volume I: The Sixties, A Political Memoir, by Barry Sheppard, Sydney: Resistance Books, 2005, 354 pages including index, with a rich collection of photographs.
Pedalling big changes
Zack Furness is the author of One Less Car: Bicycling and the politics of automobility (Temple University Press, 2010). He was interviewed via email by Jon Lamb.
A Bolshevik in Brisbane
The People’s Train
By Tom Keneally
Vintage 2009
Life in Russia at the start of the 20th century under Tsar Nicholas II was intolerable for the mass of workers and peasants. An intense period of capitalist expansion and development, especially over the 1890s, had transformed Russia socially and economically. The predominantly peasant population, living a semi-feudal and impoverished existence, was the primary source of labour for the new industrial districts.
US martyr to the Palestinian cause
My Name is Rachel Corrie
Performed by Hannah Norris
Produced and directed by Daniel Clarke
Designed by Cassandra Backler
FortyFive Downstairs, Melbourne, November 8-14
Frank Hardy's Power Without Glory turns 60
By Jon Lamb
Sixty years ago, on September 1, 1950, Frank Hardy published Power Without Glory, one of the most influential and provocative pieces of working-class literature ever written in Australia. It met with wide acclaim and respect from workers through to intellectuals, while being ridiculed and condemned by conservatives and reactionaries of the day.
A first-hand insight into Vietnam's long revolutionary struggle
The 30 Year War: Memoirs of War
The Gioi Publishers, Hanoi, 2009. 709pp.
Available from all Direct Action offices for $20.
Reviewed by Chris Atkinson
Peter Camejo's 50 years of struggle for socialism
North Star — A Memoir
By Peter Camejo
Haymarket Books, Chicago, 2010
Reviewed by Barry Sheppard
Doco wants you to think before you eat
Food, Inc.
Directed by Robert Kenner
Written by Robert Kenner and Elise Pearlstein
Runtime: 94 minutes
DVD available for order online
Reviewed by Dani Barley
Inside the Iraq 'surge'
The Good Soldiers
By David Finkel
Scribe Publications (2009),
287 pages (pb), $35.00
Reviewed by Allen Myers
Two vastly different takes on the Iraq invasion
Green Zone
Directed by Paul Greengrass
Written by Brian Helgeland
(based on the book by Rajiv Chandrasekaran)
Starring Matt Damon, Greg Kinnear, and Brendan Gleeson
Runtime: 115 minutes
The Hurt Locker
Directed by Katheryn Bigelow
Written by Mark Boal
Starring Jeremy Renner, Anthony Mackie, and Brian Geraghty
Runtime: 131 minutes
Both films in cinemas nationally
Reviewed by Dani Barley
