Cultural dissent

Fanaticism, On the Uses of an Idea
Alberto Toscano, Verso 2010
269 pages, $43.00

Review by Barry Healy

“Nothing great has been accomplished in history without fanaticism,” Leon Trotsky wrote in 1938. Certainly, the great turning points in human history, such as the Anabaptist peasant revolt in Central Europe or the Russian Revolution, required their participants to set aside their normal dispositions and assume a single-minded dedication to a cause greater than the self.

Love & Capital: Karl & Jenny Marx & the Birth of a Revolution
By Mary Gabriel,
Little, Brown & Company 2011
707 pages, $39.99

The spectre of Karl Marx still haunts the capitalist world. Only 11 people attended his funeral in 1883 and the corporate press still loves to dance on his grave, constantly declaring that his ideas are irrelevant. Yet with every economic crisis all eyes return to Marx's masterpiece, Capital, to understand what is really going on in our economic system.

The Statue Of Liberty: A Transatlantic Story
By Edward Berenson
Yale University Press, 2012,
229 pages , $35.95 (hb)

“We are the keepers of the flame of liberty,” said then-US president Ronald Reagan, opening the centennial celebration in 1986 of the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbour. Reagan claimed the statue as an American beacon of freedom to the world.

As Edward Berenson shows, however, the statue’s political virtue had been compromised long before Reagan’s neo-conservative hypocrisy.

Tamil Nation in Sri Lanka
By Ron Ridenour
New Century Book House
Chennai, India
Available in Australia via www.resistancebooks.com

Ron Ridenour's Tamil nation in Sri Lanka is a history of the struggle of Tamils on the island of Sri Lanka for self-determination.

Ridenour explains the reasons why many Tamils took up arms to fight for an independent Tamil state. He shows the history of racism in Sri Lanka and the violent repression carried out by successive governments against peaceful Tamil protests.

Bruno Walter ― The Early Recordings
EMI 679 0262 (Nine-CD set)
Bruno Walter Conducts Mahler
Sony 88691 920102 (Five-CD set)
Mahler ― Symphonies Nos. 4 & 5
Naxos 8.110876 & 8.110896

“My time is yet to come!” Austrian composer, conductor and pianist Gustav Mahler (1860-1911) famously declared in response to the mixture of incomprehension and hostility that greeted his musical compositions.

Mahler's greatness as a conductor was never seriously disputed, but his standing as a composer certainly was.

Fearless
September 13-22
Milk Crate Theatre production
Carriageworks, Sydney
$35/$25
www.carriageworks.com.au

Fearless is the first Milk Crate Theatre production to be presented at Sydney's Carriageworks. For the production, Milk Crate Theatre works with an ensemble of performers who have experienced homelessness or social marginalisation.

The production exposes audiences to a vastly different point-of-view. Milk Crate Theatre productions allow Sydneysiders to see the world through different eyes.

Ecuador's granting of asylum to WikiLeaks editor-in-chief Julian Assange has thrown a spotlight on the country's media policy.

In 2008, Ecuadorians voted overwhelmingly for a new constitution. Among other things, it sought to democratise the media and ban bankers from having business interests in the media industry.

See also:
Ecuador: Correa pushes free speech, challenges ‘media dictatorship’

In an act as appropriate as it is overdue, the Australian parliament began debating issuing an official state apology on August 20 to the country's late, great sprinter Peter Norman.

Norman won the 200-meter silver medal at the 1968 Olympics, but that is not why he is either remembered or owed apologies.

The spectacle of the 2012 London Olympics should be subtitled “The Bashing of the Chinese Athlete”.

On August 8, Andrew Jacobs of the New York Times published a much-discussed piece called “Heavy burden on athletes takes joy away from China's Olympic success”.

All kinds of “concerns” were raised about the toll “the nation's draconian sports system” is taking on the country's athletes.

Secrecy: The Key to Independence
Laura S. Abrantes & Beba Sequeira
Asia Pacific Support Collective Timor-Leste,
Dili 2012, 102 pp.

This is a book you should turn to whenever you think activism is too hard.

Twelve women from the remote areas of Timor-Leste (East Timor) tell how they fought for their nation's independence. In the 24-year war from 1975 to 1999, official estimates are that 18,600 people were killed by conflict and 84,200 died of hunger and disease.

Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal supporters sent Olympic boxer Damien Hooper a message of support and solidarity for his action in wearing an Aboriginal flag T-shirt at the Olympics.

While Hooper was sanctioned by the International Olympics Committee, there was a huge outpouring of support for his Aboriginal pride stance, particularly in an ever more corporatised Olympics shrouded by entities such as Dow Chemicals, BP and Macdonalds.

Filmed by Green Left TV.

Why Are We The Good Guys?
David Cromwell
Zero Books
Out September 28, 2012
www.zero-books.net

As a child, David Cromwell got an invaluable insight into the way the corporate media skews the news.

Scattered around his family's Scottish home were "mainstream" newspapers like the Daily Record and Glasgow Herald. But among them was also the non-corporate Daily Worker, later to become the Morning Star, which his father not only bought, but sold.

The Dark Knight Rises
Directed by Christopher Nolan
Starring Christian Bale, Tom Hardy, Anne Hathaway
In cinemas now

The Dark Knight Rises, the last in the trilogy of Batman films by director Christopher Nolan, may well become a favourite for many of those who despise, fear or distrust the working class.

Rupert Murdoch: An Investigation Of Political Power
By David McKnight
Allen & Unwin, 2012
285 pages, $29.95 (pb)

An adviser to the former New Labour government of Tony Blair in Britain called right-wing media tycoon Rupert Murdoch the “24th member of cabinet”.

The advisor said no big decision inside No. 10 was ever made without “taking into account the likely reaction” of Murdoch.

Congratulations on the launch of Green Left TV in Sydney on July 7. With the filming of the second Green Left Report in front of a live audience, it was a night to remember.

Let’s hope that this is the start of something big. Community media needs our support to make it grow.

Deep Green Resistance: Strategy to Save the Planet
Aric McBay, Lierre Keith & Derrick Jensen
Seven Stories Press, 2011

In its March-April issue, Canadian Dimension magazine featured a very positive review of Deep Green Resistance. The reviewer said it “made me a better strategist,” and endorsed author Derrick Jenson’s assertion that “this book is about winning.”

Beyond Tribal Loyalties ― Personal Stories of Jewish Peace Activists
Edited by Avigail Abarbanel
Cambridge Scholars Publishing 2012.

Jews who come out on the side of Palestinians generally do not face terrible physical punishment, nor are they usually thrown in jail. But they often face ostracism, and this is what makes this community-creating book ― a collection of “Personal Stories of Jewish Peace Activists” ― so valuable.

The tour has been called one of the most ambitious of all time. The show has been called one of the greatest.

Since The Wall tour started in late 2010, Roger Waters has awed hundreds of thousands of people with this astounding and complex show. And he’s taking it to one of the sites of of intense social struggle in July ― Quebec, in support of the huge student struggle that has broken out there.

Mark Stewart
The Politics Of Envy
Future Noise Music
Released March, 2012
http://www.markstewartmusic.com/

"Genius and lunatic are two sides of the same coin," says Mark Stewart. The post-punk pioneer is telling Green Left Weekly about "Method to The Madness", a song on his star-studded new CD, The Politics Of Envy.

But he could just as easily be talking about dub-reggae doyen Lee Scratch Perry, Clash co-founder Keith Levene or mindbending moviemaker Kenneth Anger, all of whom appear on the album.

Or he could, of course, be talking about himself.

Co-editors Jeff Sparrow and Antony Loewenstein discuss their new book with contributors Tad Tietze and Larissa Behrendt at the June 14 launch at Sydney's Gleebooks.

The book's essays seek to spark a wider discussion about an Australia where "crisis stalks the old political order and yet no new alternatives seem possible". Loewenstein and Sparrow say alternatives to the status quo are urgently needed.

Bindi-eye Bop: Singable Songs for Aussie Kids
Margaret Bradford
http://margaretbradford.com

Bindi-eye Bop is a delightful collection of songs for kids and kids-at-heart. Most of the songs are Margaret Bradford’s original songs and the words are all presented in this beautifully illustrated, hard-covered book.

The full-colour illustrations that accompany the songs are the work of Janet Selby. This talented artist has skillfully created some wonderful illustrations to complement the songs.

Anti-Flag's Justin Sane and Chris (Barker) #2 dropped in to Martin Place on June 2 to show their support and perform a few songs for Occupy Sydney, including "1 Trillion Dollars" (above) and the Clash cover "Should I Stay or Should I Go" (below).

Film by Green Left TV, subscribe to the You Tube channel at http://www.youtube.com/user/GreenLeftTV for more progressive, activist news. Contact us at GreenLeftTV@gmail.com, http://www.facebook.com/GreenLeftTV

Too Much Luck: The Mining Boom & Australia's Future
By Paul Cleary
Black Inc., 2011
156 pages, pb, $24.95

Paul Cleary’s book Too Much Luck: The Mining Boom and Australia's Future, published last year, raises important questions, and provides much useful information for answers.

But the real elephant in the room, coal mining, is largely left untouched.

BORDERS

Rivers don’t interrupt their flow
at national borders.
Mountain ranges don’t answer to their names
in different languages.
The air is not confined within the limits
of national air space.
The waves don’t stay still
to preserve their nationality.
Birds don’t need a passport
to migrate.
Souls don’t carry identity cards
to be certified.

And humans live in their parallel world.
But that’s a different history…

WHERE HAS YOUR SMILE GONE?

Your smile
a mask of despair
from an ancient tragedy.
Your look

Megrahi: You are My Jury ― The Lockerbie Evidence
John Ashton
Birlinn 2012
￡14.99, 497 pages

Abdelbaset Al-Megrahi was convicted in 2001 of blowing up Pan Am flight 103 over the Scottish town Lockerbie in December 1988 and is usually described in the mainstream media as “the Lockerbie bomber”.

Readers familiar with Paul Foot’s series of penetrating articles on Lockerbie in Private Eye will already be familiar with the potentially problematic nature of Megrahi’s trial and conviction. But this book brings the story up to date.

The Party, The Socialist Workers Party 1960-1988, volume I: The Sixties, A Political Memoir
By Barry Sheppard,
Chippendale, Australia: Resistance Books, 2005, 354 pages including index, with a rich collection of photographs.

The Party, The Socialist Workers Party 1960-1988, volume II: Interregnum, Decline and Collapse, 1973-1988, A Political Memoir
By Barry Sheppard
London: Resistance Books, 2012
345 pages including index.

Together
Ngaratya
www.myspace.com/ngaratya

Female acoustic duo Ngaratya have received advice from the best in the business in starting their musical journey.

Help from the likes of Aboriginal hip hop pioneer Wire MC and soul singer Emma Donovan has given the sisters' debut EP Together an accomplished, mature sound that belies their teenage years.

Unmasked
By Nate Anderson
Ars Technica, 107 pages

What kind of a jerk would want to bring down WikiLeaks? The kind of socially inept and morally bankrupt arsehole that is Aaron Barr, CEO of internet security firm HBGary Federal.

This book documents Barr's WikiLeaks-whacking work, apparently for the US government, that brought him into contact with the Julian Assange-supporting hacktivist group Anonymous. It eventually led to Barr's downfall.

NT Consultations Report 2011: By Quotations
Published by Concerned Australians
72 pages, hard cover, $15
www.concernedaustralians.com.au

NT Consultations Report 2011: By Quotations, published in February 2012, is an important sequel to the highly regarded This Is What We Said (February 2010) and Walk With Us (August 2011).

“Belief in Winter’s iron music turns the lands of home to Spring.” Kenneth Patchen, “Nocturne for the Heirs of Light”

Even your blood
seems cold slush
so
we come, bearing
scientific warmth
and clean blades

Of faith and all
such crude early things
we moderns strive to sharpen,
your mystic heart alone
beats most desperate
beneath our lazer aim:
true tempered love
at gunship point
thrusts in you
bleeding you clear
in sha'Allah

by dread hand of
surgeon- drone,
bootkick- blessing,
your shabby portal
opens

upon us

we ash-cross your brow:

In a recent interview with Hip-Hop DX, a hoodie-clad Nas exhibited an understandable amount of despair at the case of African American youth Trayvon Martin, the shot dead by George Zimmerman while walking home from the shops in Florida in February.

The US hip hop artist said: “You never want to hear that kind of news. When it happens, you remember how many Trayvon incidents happen everyday all over the world...

“It doesn’t seem like the race problem will ever get solved. I like to be optimistic, but it doesn’t seem like it’ll ever get solved.”