Culture

On his latest EP, A Dose Of Reality, Adelaide-based emcee Eskatology raps about the refugees he works with. "I've worked with many refugees in my job as a youth worker," says the rapper, who is giving the 10-track EP away as a free download.

Chris Ruen reckons he is already seeing results from his anti-music piracy book, Freeloading: How Our Insatiable Hunger For Free Content Starves Creativity. "I think the book is giving some in the industry more confidence that this battle isn't over, as many have believed it is," the Brooklyn-based author tells Green Left Weekly.

Karl Marx: A Nineteenth Century Life Jonathan Sperber Liveright Publishing, 2013 In life, Karl Marx lived a tumultuous, revolutionary life. His death, too, has been less than tranquil. Alive, he was the best hated man in Europe. For the ruling classes and police spies he personified the “spectre” that was haunting the continent, the demonic rise of workers’ revolution. After his death he was bleached of his humanity, canonised by admirers and slandered by enemies. Both misrepresented him.

Groggy Art exhibition by Todd Williams & Therese Ritchie Northern Centre for Contemporary Art Viney Lane, Darwin Until October 12 “My name is Chips Mackinolty and I am an alcoholic … “Everyone assumes that grog is an exclusively Aboriginal problem. That is simply not true. Around 50% of Aboriginal people don’t drink at all. “If the Northern Territory were a nation, we would have the third-highest per capita consumption in the world, and that is not down to Aboriginal Territorians, but to non-Aboriginal people living here.”

Clive: The Story of Clive Palmer Sean Parnell HarperCollins, 2013 328 pages, $39.99 (hb) When the local council denied planning permission for the Queensland National Party’s media director, Clive Palmer, to build a 66-story townhouse development on peaceful rural land in Caloundra on the Sunshine Coast in 1984, Palmer’s party and state government mate, Russ Hinze, helped the rich guy out by overturning the council decision.

When he was assaulted by a gang of black-shirted Golden Dawn thugs on the night of September 18 in the Keratsini district of Athens, 34-year-old Pavlos Fyssas — a big and powerful man — was with his girlfriend and another couple.

It smells like everything sweet and nice but you can never get enough of it. It tastes like chocolate that turns into vinegar but you can’t stop eating it because the chocolate’s so good and you think one more bite can’t hurt. It sounds like drums echoing in the hallway drawing you into a small room, almost controlling you. It feels like you have everything but not enough. It looks like a moth attracted to a burning flame only soon to turn into ashes. [Jada Pearl Narkle is a 12-year-old student in Perth.]

Australian hip-hop pioneer Urthboy told The Music Network last year: “I was asked to write about the state of hip-hop in Australia. I’d prefer to shine a light on what may be the future of it: Indigenous Hip-Hop.

As US president Barack Obama ramped up his rhetoric about Syria's chemical weapons on September 17, US rapper Sole released his latest album, which reflects on his country's chemical weapons attack on the Iraqi city of Fallujah. Green Left's Mat Ward spoke to the prolific political emcee, who started releasing records in 1994, when he was just 16.

Red or Dead By David Peace Faber & Faber, August 2013 No socialist in 60 years of British life has had more followers than Bill Shankly; no-one on the left has had greater success. Taking over as manager of Liverpool Football Club in 1959, with his team struggling in the second division, by his retirement in 1974 Shankly had guided Liverpool to three league titles, two FA cups and the club’s first European trophy, the UEFA cup.

The election showed Most people in our country Still unwilling to take the plunge Towards system overhaul Chosing instead to remain Blind in the face of climate change Deaf to the groans of the earth and its poor Dumb to the call for justice and peace Heads spinning with doublespeak And massive media manipulation Wondering how to cope with this Collective conservatism and the Pettiness of political leaders I wander around the flat A little bewildered and sad To find myself in front of My bedside bookshelves Metamorphosis Why Marx was right Unfinished Animal

When award-winning author Robert McChesney wrote a much-needed political and economic analysis of the internet, the reaction from his peers was not quite what he expected.