MARIA DUARTE picks the best and worst of a crowded year of films
Latest editorial
The ‘democratic economy’ that could radically transform Britain
Anyone who wants a socialist government should read a new book outlining the policies that would serve the common good, says NICK WRIGHT
Building an example: Corry Valley Community Land Trust constructing affordable homes
STEVE JOHNSON picks his favourites from the many memorable albums of the year, and one stunning new festival
SIMON DUFF picks his favourites, from radical African-inspired electronic rhythms to improvisations on the organ
For GORDON PARSONS, a dramatic exploration of the abuse of young men at Medomsley Youth Detention Centre trumps Beckett, a couple of Hamlets and a bracing Candide
From feminist manifestos to exiled lovers to mythic islands, LEO BOIX selects the best fiction, poetry and non-fiction
FIONA O’CONNOR picks books and films that show defiance in the face of violence and injustice
People Get Ready! Preparing for a Corbyn government
by Christine Berry and Joe Guinan
(O/R Books, £12)
THE CENTRAL thesis of this partisan programme of political action for a Corbyn government is that responses to capitalist private ownership of the economy have traditionally divided along two main lines — state socialism with ownership and control of capital held by the state and social democracy, which leaves it largely in private hands but seeks to redistribute the returns through taxation and transfers.
The book’s authors Joe Guinan and Christine Berry are the kind of policy wonks that give this necessary activity a good name. Their dissection of neoliberalism, and of New Labour’s accommodation with it, is sharply worded and perceptive.
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The Morning Star sorts the good eggs from the rotten scoundrels of the year