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Gaza Climate Crisis Workers' rights Austerity Far right Labour
Culture
round up
Cinema / 3 April 2025
Film round-up: April 3, 2025
3 April 2025
The Star's critic MARIA DUARTE reviews Sebastian, Four Mothers, Restless, and The Most Precious of Cargoes
normal
Books / 3 April 2025
Against the medicalisation of mental health
3 April 2025
JOHN GREEN explores the argument that psychiatry needs to move away from the idea of just seeing and treating the individual
house
Books / 3 April 2025
Solidarity in the housework place
3 April 2025
SYLVIA HIKINS applauds a polemic against “cleanfluencers” and considers radical alternatives to current inequalities of housework
swell
Poetry review / 2 April 2025
Class reproduction
2 April 2025
RUTH AYLETT admires the blunt honesty with which a woman’s experience is recorded, but detects the unexamined privilege that underlies it
deluge
Books / 1 April 2025
Brace yourselves for the deluge
1 April 2025
IAN SINCLAIR draws attention to the powerful role that literature plays in foreseeing the way humanity will deal with climate crisis
crime
Crime fiction / 1 April 2025
Crime fiction with Mat Coward: April 1, 2025
1 April 2025
High quality pulp, rollicking online murders, Abnorman Britain, and high skates drama: reviews of The Get Off, Everyone In The Group Chat Dies, Pagans and First To Fall
BROE TV
Decoding Network TV / 31 March 2025
On not speaking truth to power
31 March 2025
DENNIS BROE notes what happens to content when the streaming giants incorporate AI and deregulation into their economic models
MB albums
Music / 31 March 2025
Album reviews with Michal Boncza: March 31, 2025
31 March 2025
New releases from The Tenementals, Nik Bartsch’s Ronin, and Kuunatic
video
Books / 27 March 2025
Game changing
27 March 2025
SCOTT ALSWORTH hears the call to burn down and rebuild the video game industry from the bottom up
china
Opinion / 28 March 2025
Ta for noticing
28 March 2025
The Chinese language only introduced a feminine pronoun in the 1920s. Now, it might adopt a gender-inclusive one, suggests JANET DAVEY 
gaza
Book Review / 27 March 2025
Where Gaza came from
27 March 2025
ALEX HALL is intrigued by a detailed history of Gaza that demonstrates its historic resilience and changing economy
weiss
Books / 28 March 2025
Resistance is not futile
28 March 2025
RON JACOBS welcomes the long overdue translation of an epic work that chronicles resistance to fascism during WWII
last tango
Theatre Review / 27 March 2025
Last tango at the butcher’s
27 March 2025
MAYER WAKEFIELD is chilled by the co-dependency of two lost souls as portrayed by German communist playwright Franz Xaver Kroetz
round up
Cinema / 27 March 2025
Film round-up: March 27, 2025
27 March 2025
The Star's critics BRETT GREGORY, JOHN GREEN, MICHAEL BONCZA and ANGUS REID review The Stimming Pool, Misericordia, La Cocina, Irena’s Vow, and The End
Liverpool
Books / 27 March 2025
Liverpool’s sell-by date
27 March 2025
CHRIS MOSS welcomes a radical history that brings marginalised stories and overlooked people and agencies to the centre
edifice
Book Review / 25 March 2025
Once upon a time in Engelstadt
25 March 2025
ANDREW HEDGECOCK relishes visual storytelling with no respect for genres, movements or styles
webb
Live Music Review / 25 March 2025
Happy jazz
25 March 2025
MARK TURNER is staggered by a gifted jazz pianist from the Welsh Valleys
korea
Literature / 25 March 2025
Living in this brief, violent world
25 March 2025
JESSICA WIDNER explores how the twin themes of violence and love run through the novels of South Korean Nobel prize-winner Han Kang
fotw
Film of the week / 3 April 2025
Drop the accent, boyo
3 April 2025
The Star's critic MARIA DUARTE recommends a drama that explores the formative years of Richard Burton’s life
love
Theatre review / 2 April 2025
The trials of a Cypriot mother
2 April 2025
ANGELA COBBINAH applauds the success of a tribute in drama by a daughter to her immigrant mother
21st Century Poetry / 2 April 2025
White Noise
2 April 2025
by Maria Ferguson
Melsonby
Archaeology / 1 April 2025
The Melsonby hoard
1 April 2025
DUNCAN GARROW introduces a remarkable Iron Age discovery in Yorkshire that reveals ancient Britons’ connections with Europe
uprising
Opera Review / 31 March 2025
In search of Greta things
31 March 2025
STEF LYONS is stirred by a new opera that toys with ecological themes, but doesn’t get properly polemical
punishment
Books / 27 March 2025
Class exercise
27 March 2025
JOHN GREEN recommends an entertaining, if harsh and instructive, study of bullying, discipline and power dynamics in schools and at work
fotw
Film of the Week: / 27 March 2025
Not painting the full picture
27 March 2025
CHRISTINE LINDEY welcomes a film that focuses exclusively on women war artists, but deplores its omission of feminism, political context and Soviet anti-war art
manning
Interview / 26 March 2025
‘Rock and pop music were the unexpected consequences of the working-class entering history’
26 March 2025
BRETT GREGORY speaks with TOBY MANNING, author of Mixing Pop and Politics: A Marxist History of Popular Music
21st Century Poetry / 26 March 2025
More Matriarchal
26 March 2025
by Lorraine Voss
show
Book Review / 25 March 2025
Authentic worlds
25 March 2025
SARAH TROTT explores short fictional slices of life in the American midwest from a middle-aged and mostly female perspective
IS web
Album reviews / 24 March 2025
Albums reviews with Ian Sinclair: March 24, 2025
24 March 2025
New releases from Black Country, New Road, Anouar Brahem, and Jaywalkers
TV
Decoding network TV / 24 March 2025
Shock! US corporation promotes ‘evil corporation’ thriller 
24 March 2025
DENNIS BROE points out that Apple is part of the corporate and state surveillance network which the new series Prime Target rails against
welfare
Book Review / 22 March 2025
Welfare not warfare
22 March 2025
RICHARD CLARKE recommends a hugely valuable text for those seeking theoretical analysis and practical action to defend public services
homeless
Book Review / 22 March 2025
The casualties of prosperity
22 March 2025
JOHN HAWKINS is moved by an oral history that examines five black families pushed into homelessness in the US
life
Book Review / 22 March 2025
South Africa’s complex relationship with the camera
22 March 2025
BOB NEWLAND recommends an outstanding study of how images have shaped narratives of identity, resistance and power in South Africa
Second Cumming
Exhibition review / 21 March 2025
Eh? Aye! Definitely!
21 March 2025
In an exhibition of the graphic art of Lorna Miller, MATT KERR takes a lungful of the oxygen of dissent
retrograde
Theatre review / 21 March 2025
On not selling out
21 March 2025
PAUL DONOVAN applauds a timely play that explores the resonances of McCarthyite nationalism in today’s US
colourists 1
Exhibition review / 21 March 2025
In the ring with the Colourists
21 March 2025
While the group known as the Colourists certainly reinvigorated Scottish painting, a new show is a welcome chance to reassess them, writes ANGUS REID
attila
Attila the Stockbroker Diary / 21 March 2025
Attila the Stockbroker Diary: March 21, 2025
21 March 2025
Given the global plague of Agent Orange, the bard channels his energy into community self-help
round up
Cinema / 20 March 2025
Film round-up: March 20, 2025
20 March 2025
The Star's critics review The Sinking Of The Lisbon Maru, Two Strangers Trying Not To Kill Each Other, American Dreamer, When Autumn Falls, and Flow
family
Film of the Week: / 20 March 2025
Chinese family under the microscope
20 March 2025
ANGUS REID recommends an exquisite drama about the disturbing impact of the one child policy in contemporary China
21st Century Poetry / 19 March 2025
Universals
19 March 2025
by Steven Taylor
nubya
Live Music Review / 19 March 2025
Self-healing technologies
19 March 2025
GEORGE FOGARTY is mesmerised by the messages made when jazz is played by people who grew up steeped in jungle and hip-hop
zara
Jazz album review / 19 March 2025
McFarlane salutes Vaughan
19 March 2025
MARK TURNER is thrilled by the the British singer’s tribute to the late great Sarah Vaughan
on falling
Interview / 18 March 2025
Victims of the gig economy
18 March 2025
RITA DI SANTO speaks to Laura Carreira about her study of workers in an Amazon warehouse,  On Falling
clark
Book Review / 18 March 2025
The expression of the economy in culture
18 March 2025
NICK WRIGHT delicately unpicks the eloquent writings on art of an intellectual pessimist who wears his Marxism lightly
Giovanni
Follow the Movement / 18 March 2025
Wiggle room
18 March 2025
MATTHEW HAWKINS appreciates an interpretation in dance of James Baldwin’s landmark novel of doomed homosexual desire
SJ
Music / 17 March 2025
Folk album reviews with Steve Johnson: March 18, 2025
17 March 2025
New releases from Jenn Butterworth, Liz Overs, and Gigspanner Big Band
Jane Eyre
Ballet Review / 17 March 2025
Defeating the D-men
17 March 2025
SUSAN DARLINGTON applauds the translation of Jane Eyre into a ballet that preserves the drama of her formative years
wild rose
Theatre Review / 17 March 2025
There ain’t no yellow brick road running through Glasgow
17 March 2025
STEF LYONS is swept along by the infectious energy of an ex-con single mother’s dreams of Nashville
meuross
Music review / 14 March 2025
This music is your music
14 March 2025
STEVE JOHNSON recommends that you catch an unforgettable tribute to Woody Guthrie
sarkar
Books / 14 March 2025
Embrace the differences
14 March 2025
MARJORIE MAYO recommends a punchy demonstration of the the way class politics are being fragmented by the right
stuffed
Books / 13 March 2025
Food for thought
13 March 2025
STEVE ANDREW welcomes a political interrogation of the contradiction between ecological awareness and a dietary crisis in today’s food consumption
Cuba
ScreenCuba Film Festival / 13 March 2025
Screen Cuba, Take Two 
13 March 2025
Festival Coordinators TRISH MEEHAN and DODIE WEPPLER introduce some of the highlights of Screen Cuba Film Festival 2025
leningrad
Books / 13 March 2025
Comrades, not colleagues
13 March 2025
HENRY BELL is moved by the account of scientists under seige in Leningrad who preferred to starve rather than sacrifice their life-saving work
hooke
Books / 13 March 2025
A man for all seasons
13 March 2025
WILL PODMORE recommends an excellent and useful introduction to a lesser-known giant of the scientific revolution in Britain
Who
Books / 13 March 2025
Dr Who and the scourge of capitalism
13 March 2025
JOHN GREEN surveys the remarkable career of screenwriter Malcolm Hulke and the essential part played by his membership of the Communist Party
round up
Cinema / 13 March 2025
Film round-up: March 13, 2025
13 March 2025
The Star's critic MARIA DUARTE reviews Last Breath, Sister Midnight, Opus, and The Electric State 
FOTW
Film of the week / 13 March 2025
Mid wife crisis
13 March 2025
The Star's critic MARIA DUARTE recommends a deliciously dark thriller that explores the complex loyalties within a marriage
Cartoon / 12 March 2025
The unkindest cuts of all
12 March 2025
DEE HUEZ contemplates the cruelty of the Chancellor
21st Century Poetry / 12 March 2025
Lollipops
12 March 2025
by Tracey Rhys
anth
Poetry Review / 12 March 2025
Through fire and water
12 March 2025
RUTH AYLETT recommends two anthologies: one that bears witness to refugee and immigrant experiences, and the other to our political relationship to water
R1
Exhibition review / 11 March 2025
Resist and connect
11 March 2025
JON BALDWIN appreciates the way Steve McQueen has curated the evidence of our resistance, and is inspired by their cumulative effect
Gatsby
Books / 11 March 2025
Wasters
11 March 2025
SETH SANDRONSKY appreciates a fresh take on a 100-year-old novel that helps to contextualise the current moment of conspicuous wealth, waste and climate chaos
crime
Crime fiction / 11 March 2025
Crime fiction with Mat Coward: March 11, 2025
11 March 2025
A no-nonsense ex-Garda female cop, Scandi-noir’s newest flawed hero, the lure of Aussie gold, and unexpected decency in Silicon valley
IS albums
Music / 10 March 2025
Album reviews with Ian Sinclair: March 10, 2025
10 March 2025
Reviews of Ella Fitzgerald, My Morning Jacket, and Toria Wooff
white rose
Theatre Review / 10 March 2025
Anti-fascist musical?
10 March 2025
JAN WOOLF doubts that soft-core musical is the best way to transmit an important story of heroism and resistance
punch
Theatre Review / 10 March 2025
Routine delinquency
10 March 2025
MARY CONWAY admires an accomplished drama that explores the consequences of a fatal punch on a desolate housing estate
Edward 2
Theatre Review / 7 March 2025
King queen
7 March 2025
GORDON PARSONS admires a version of Marlowe’s grim tragedy that strips it down to its gay essentials
attila
Attila the Stockbroker Diary / 7 March 2025
Attila the Stockbroker Diary: March 7, 2025
7 March 2025
The Bard encounters Laibach’s revival of their 1987 album Opus Dei, and is stirred to verse
Flack
Culture / 7 March 2025
Subverting me softly
7 March 2025
LEIGH CARRIAGE remembers Roberta Flack, a spellbinding virtuoso of musical interpretation
bubble
Short Story / 7 March 2025
Bubble Man by Jonathan Taylor
7 March 2025
When Cassy’s father fails to connect with his daughter — and misses out on  an evening in the Bitter End — a stranger’s self-mocking charm brings seething resentment. 
morton
Books / 6 March 2025
The enduring power of radical ideas
6 March 2025
PHIL KATZ applauds the biography of a man of principle that is a vibrant excavation of the radical tradition itself
TrAd
Books / 6 March 2025
Hope for the best, expect the worst
6 March 2025
IAN SINCLAIR welcomes the first word on Transformative Adaptation, a new group that has grown out of Extinction Rebellion
Crim Gov
Books / 6 March 2025
Gang warfare and class struggle
6 March 2025
GAVIN O’TOOLE welcomes a masterful study of gang behaviour in the favelas of Sao Paulo
fiery
Books / 6 March 2025
The power of mass demonstration
6 March 2025
ANDREW MURRAY is compelled by the moment of revolution in British history when Parliament had political intimacy with society
round up
Cinema / 6 March 2025
Film round-up: March 6, 2025
6 March 2025
The Star's critic MARIA DUARTE Reviews of Twiggy, Mickey 17, Day of the Fight, and Marching Powder
fotw
Film of the week / 6 March 2025
The persecuted witness of apartheid
6 March 2025
The Star's critic MARIA DUARTE recommends the story of a courageous photographer whose life and work were dedicated to exposing racism
21st Century Poetry / 5 March 2025
Growing Up Is For Adults
5 March 2025
by Gordon Scapens
Hinds
Poetry review / 5 March 2025
Uncanny echoes
5 March 2025
ALAN MORRISON hears the tradition of English Modernism in an unusually accomplished debut volume of poetry
cuba ff
ScreenCuba Film Festival 2025 / 4 March 2025
Free tickets for ScreenCuba 2025
4 March 2025
Helen Colley introduces this year’s ScreenCuba film festival with an exclusive offer to Morning Star readers
boix
Letters from Latin America / 4 March 2025
Letters from Latin America with Leo Boix: March 4, 2025
4 March 2025
A pamphlet by British Latinx poet Patrick Romero McCafferty, poetry by Anglo-Argentinian  Miguel Cullen, and a book of conjuring poems by Mexican Pedro Serrano
punching
TV Series review / 4 March 2025
Punching up
4 March 2025
DENNIS BROE appreciates the work of TV writer Steven Knight, and his systematic exposure of the debilitating effects of British capitalism
valedictorians
BenchMarx / 4 March 2025
Don’t allow art - a common good - to be ripped off by corporations
4 March 2025
CAILEAN MCBRIDE proposes a response to the encroachment of AI in the arts by reducing the duration of copyright and assuring full protection
Call for short stories
Call for short stories / 4 March 2025
Submit your short stories
4 March 2025
We want to publish work that lights up the page
TB albums
Album Reviews / 3 March 2025
Global Routes with Tony Burke: March 3, 2025
3 March 2025
New releases by Samba Touré, Santrofi, and Piers Faccini & Ballake Sissoko 
alterations
Theatre Review / 3 March 2025
Coming apart at the seams
3 March 2025
MAYER WAKEFIELD wonders why this 1978 drama merits a revival despite demonstrating that the underlying theme of racism in the UK remains relevant
2006
Culture / 2 March 2025
You can’t murder liberation
2 March 2025
RON JACOBS recommends a book filled with history and political theory that provides both a basis and inspiration to create a way forward
bolsheviks
Book Review / 2 March 2025
A socialist heroine
2 March 2025
DAVID NICHOLSON is fascinated by one of the early pioneers of the women’s movement and of the early days of the Labour Party
wei wei
Exhibition Review / 28 February 2025
War-games: no way way
28 February 2025
SIMON DUFF explores the latest offering of the Chinese artist in exile AI WEI WEI    
knock
Theatre Review / 28 February 2025
Preparing for trauma
28 February 2025
MARY CONWAY applauds the dramatic reconstruction of one woman’s experience in one precise location in Gaza in the present era
black angels
Book Review / 27 February 2025
How black nurses beat TB
27 February 2025
MARJORIE MAYO recommends a remarkable book that restores another of history’s racially biased omissions