There is no left alternative to Biden
While Republican politicians are queuing up to take on Donald Trump for the party’s nomination next year, there’s hardly anything going on in the other camp. Unless he falls ill or changes his mind, Joe…
Articles by admin
Review: Self-Discipline for Writers: Writing Is Hard, But You Too Can Write and Publish Books Regularly, by Martin Meadows
This is an example of a book with a very good title, but little else. The author appears to have done hardly any research, mostly tells you stuff any writer would know, and the good…
Review: Adventures in the Orgasmatron: Wilhelm Reich and the Invention of Sex, by Christopher Turner
Don’t be put off by the silly title. “Orgasmatron” was an inside joke in Woody Allen’s 1973 film “Sleeper”. And no, Wilhelm Reich did not invent sex (as far as I know). But title aside,…
Review: Freud – A very short introduction, by Anthony Storr
This very short book is unfortunately not a very good book. If you want to know what Freud thought about things, probably the best place to start is Freud himself. Author Anthony Storr concedes that…
Workers’ rights violations at record high – and what to do about it
On the last day of June, the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) released its annual “Global Rights Index”. It presented a bleak picture of a world where workers’ rights are routinely trampled upon. And according…
50 years later …
This week marks the 50th anniversary of my first visit to Israel. It was July 1973 and I was one of a group of six members of the Young People’s Socialist League (YPSL) sent to…
Review: Damascus Station, by David McCloskey
Remember a time when the CIA was seen as either the bad guys or at best morally complicated? Back in the Seventies, post-Watergate, if the CIA put in an appearance in a book or film,…
Review: The Russian Revolution and Leninism or Marxism? by Rosa Luxemburg
This is effectively two long articles combined in one small book, and re-reading it after many years, I can now understand it in a different light than before. Rosa Luxemburg has been claimed by many…
Review: Reich for Beginners, by David Zane Mairowitz, illustrated by German Gonzales
A very good introduction — in graphic novel format — to the life and work of Wilhelm Reich, a brilliant psychoanalyst and a man who attempted to reconcile the teachings of Freud and Marx. His…
Review: The Practice and Theory of Bolshevism, by Bertrand Russell
In 1920, when this book first appeared, there were not very many critics of the new Soviet government on the Left (outside of Russia). Anarchists including Emma Goldman visited Russia and came away disenchanted. Rosa…