PETER MASON applauds the revival, 39 years later with the same team and cast, of Manfred Karge’s version of Brecht’s 100-year-old play, Mann Ist Mann
Capitalism and the planet – analysis reqd.
RICHARD MURGATROYD is disappointed by an ambitious survey that fails to get to grips with the relationship between human consciousness and nature
PROFIT BEFORE HUMANITY: Female pigs used for breeding - 'breeding sows' are confined most of their lives in 'gestation crates' which are so small that they cannot even turn around. The pigs' basic needs are denied, and they experience severe physical and psychological disorders
[Farm Sanctuary/flickr/CC]
MAYER WAKEFIELD applauds a fearless attempt to bring to the stage the 1984 toxic gas disaster in Bhopal, India
ALEX HALL applauds the account of a dogged, traumatic and punishing campaign for justice that has lasted from 1998 to the present day
NICK WRIGHT laments the political bias of an epic attempt to tell the history of the liberation of France from the Nazis, that excludes both the decisive contribution of the Soviet Red Army, and of the French communist party itself
JOE GILL traces the ideology and method of contemporary imperialism back to the greed, hubris and violence of the late 15th century Portuguese
Living on Earth: Life, Consciousness and The Making of the Natural World
Peter Godfrey-Smith
A CLIMATE emergency, species extinction, habitat destruction... all largely driven by human actions and choices. Why has our impact become so destructive? Logically, consciousness – whether human or animal – plays an important part.
The author begins with fundamentals. He charts the rise of life from the simplest chemical processes 3.8 billion years ago to the present. The emphasis is on the role evolution played within a unified, complex, ever-changing ecosystem. Shifts in climate are decisive, but living creatures also change their environments simply by living. No species in the long history of life on Earth has proved so dynamic as us.
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Humans are part of the ‘animal kingdom’ – and of nature in general – but also distinct from it and labour (work) is part of what makes us unique, declared Engels. His insights 150 years ago into how our species came to be and how we differ from the rest of nature, are as important today as they were then, says the MARX MEMORIAL LIBRARY
JAMES WALSH is moved by a provocative and original take on the relationship between ecology and architecture, and a plea to work with, not against, the materials and minerals of our world
Nature as well as society works dialectically, asserts the Marx Memorial Library and Workers’ School
Rising temperatures and human activity are making life far harder for these vital pollinators. ALEX DITTRICH explains