Culture

  • Poem: Smoke

    Smoke SmokeCovering thousands of square milesChoking millions of people.The government blames the peasantsThen they blame the timber merchantsThen they blame the weather MeanwhileThe lungs of the planetare pollutedBy governments and loggersBy

  • Liberal myths and Japan's resurgence

    Japan's capitalism: creative defeat and beyondBy Shigeto TsuruCambridge University Press, 1993; Canto edition 1996. 277 pp., $18.95 Review by Eva Cheng A vast amount has been published on Japan's spectacular economic recovery from the ruins of

  • Timeless issues in a slave rebellion

    HOWARD JONES is the university research professor and chairperson of the University of Alabama's College of Arts and Sciences (Department of History) at the Tuscaloosa campus. He is author of Mutiny on the Amistad: The Saga of a Slave Revolt and its

  • Poem: You

    You You steal their land —you take their children —incarcerate their young menand too many died:You apportion blame.You assault their pride,have you no shame?Now you cut their educationit provides no exultation.You undermine their healthas you

  • Poem: Viva Timor

    Viva Timor Freedom fighters on dark shadowed island.Righteous men and women confronting theEnemy with courage, tenacity and truth.They face death and incarceration daily.Indonesian justice inflicts seven years gaol forLevelling charges of invasion,

  • Racism: what can the law do?

    Faces of Hate: Hate Crime in AustraliaEdited by Chris Cunneen, David Fraser & Stephen TomsenHawkins Press, 1997. 272 pp., $25 (pb) Review by Stuart Russell Australia has witnessed an upsurge in the incidence of hate crime and hate speech,

  • Ancient Irish without the new age

    The Seven Steps to MercyIarla O LionairdReal World Records through Festival Review by Barry Healy One of oldest forms of Irish singing is the sean nos (literally "in the old style"), which has severely declined since the great English invasions

  • Rory McLeod: Left-wing troubadour

    Rory McLeod: Left-wing troubadourRory McLeod is in Australia until April 20. If he's playing somewhere near you, make the effort to see him. Rory is hard to pigeonhole. His bio says he's an "ex-circus clown and fire eater —

  • The politics of dynamite

    The '60s produced some inspirational politics and music of protest in the USA. But one of the less glorious products of this decade of defiance was the Weather Underground, which borrowed its name ("Weatherman", initially) from the Dylan classic, "Subterranean Homesick Blues".

  • Spectacle for the rest of us

    The Activist Cookbook: Creative Actions for a Fair EconomyBy Andrew Boyd96 pp.Send US$16 to United for a Fair Economy, 37 Temple Place Boston, MAQ 02111 Review by Dave Riley In my time trying to pilot coalitions hither and thither so that we'd win

  • Sexuality in the suburbs

    Sexuality in the suburbs Ma Vie En RoseStarring Georges Du FresneDirected by Alain BerlinerScreening nationally from February 19 Review by Tamie Meem and Conrad Barrett Ludo just wants to grow up, get married and live in a big pink house with her

  • Art is for the rest of us

    Art is for the rest of us ART IS NOT A COMMODITY OR A PLAYTHING OF CORPORATE POWER . ART IS FOR THE REST OF US . art for the rest of us TRANSFORMS THE WORLD . art for the rest of us CAN BE MADE BY "NON ARTISTS" . art for the rest of us IS POLITICAL