ALEX HALL recommends an exhaustive investigation of the means by which the Starmer faction assassinated the left
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Rising to the bait
An outstandingly original film addresses burning issues of class conflict head on, says MIKE QUILLE
DAVID MORGAN recommends a refreshingly inspiring novel that features encounters with some tremendous women
BOB NEWLAND recommends a political thriller from former anti-apartheid activist Peter Hain
JAMES WALSH speaks to Chris Thorpe-Tracey - among many things, a one-time Morning Star columnist — about songs, cities, politics and prophecy
New releases from Max Richter, Julius Asal, and Jean-Michel Jarre
RON JACOBS applauds a reading of black history in the US that plots the path from autonomy to self-governance and then liberation
ESCHEWING the straightforward narrative arcs of social realism employed by a Ken Loach or a Mike Leigh, in Bait director Mark Jenkin’s Brechtian approach never lets us forget we’re watching a film.
That sense of confronting material reality is there in the hand-processed images, scratchy and lined and a soundscape that engages yet disturbs.
The dialogue, recorded and then dubbed, imbues the uncomprehending, Pinteresque conversations — clipped and occassionally comic — with an eerie sense of alienation, abetted by moments where the plot runs ahead of itself.
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ANDY CROFT rallies poets to the impossible task of speaking truth to a tin-eared politician
MIKE QUILLE applauds an excellent example of cultural democracy: making artworks which are a relevant, integral part of working-class lives
As climate change makes vast mineral deposits accessible, the island’s 56,000 residents face unprecedented pressure from Trump’s territorial ambitions while struggling to maintain their traditional way of life, writes JOHN GREEN
MIKE QUILL reports on a lively conference in Barnsley that took stock of working-class access to culture and proposed strategies to embed culture within the trade union movement