IAN SINCLAIR reviews new releases from The Beaches, CMAT and Katheleen Edwards
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
RICHARD MURGATROYD is intrigued by a study that asks why the ability to diagnose outstrips the ability to cure
SYLVIA HIKINS recommends a sweeping survey of the world's biggest desert and the people who live there
MICHAL BONCZA highly recommends a revelatory exhibition of work by the doyen of indigenous Australians’ art, Emily Kam Kngwarray
The Bard commutes to work for the first time in 45 years
DAVID RENTON is puzzled by an ambitious attempt to look back on world culture from the future without engaging with or understanding it
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.
More from this author
Starmer sabotaged Labour with his second referendum campaign, mobilising a liberal backlash that sincerely felt progressive ideals were at stake — but the EU was then and is now an entity Britain should have nothing to do with, explains NICK WRIGHT
Deep disillusionment with the Westminster cross-party consensus means rupture with the status quo is on the cards – bringing not only opportunities but also dangers, says NICK WRIGHT
Holding office in local government is a poisoned chalice for a party that bases its electoral appeal around issues where it has no power whatsoever, argues NICK WRIGHT
From Gaza complicity to welfare cuts chaos, Starmer’s baggage accumulates, and voters will indeed find ‘somewhere else’ to go — to the Greens, nationalists, Lib Dems, Reform UK or a new, working-class left party, writes NICK WRIGHT
