Reviews & Letters

Zero Dark Thirty, directed by Kathryn Bigelow and written by Mark Boal, sets out to depict – but according to Bigelow not necessarily endorse – the “greatest manhunt in history”, the hunt for Osama bin Laden. Despite Bigelow’s claims of artistic neutrality, her film is a grotesque and blatant propaganda [...]

“Plagued with leadership anxiety”, “suffering from an identity crisis”, and “dying internally”, this is Troy Bramston’s analysis of the situation facing the Labor Party today. While you could agree with all three statements in isolation, ‘Looking for the Light on the Hill’ misses the central contradiction facing Labor – the [...]

Speechless is a book for politics junkies written in the easy-to-read style of a skilled journalist, James Button, once the Europe Correspondent for The Age and Sydney Morning Herald. Button is of ALP blue-blood stock. His father was Senator John Button, Industry Minister in the Hawke and Keating governments from [...]

Reviewed by Stephen Jolly, Socialist Party Hugh White is a professor of strategic studies at Canberra’s Australian National University. He is one of the most respected mainstream commentators on China in the country today. His 2010 article in Quarterly Essay had a major impact in generating debate about the growing [...]

Fifty Shades of Grey. Reviewed by Kat Galea, Socialist Party Fifty Shades of Grey has been hyped as a love story that is empowering for women and has been praised for shedding light on erotic behaviour. In reality it is a piece of reactionary drivel, with its main theme being [...]

The 72nd anniversary of the assassination of the great Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky was commemorated even within the capitalist press. An interview with Trotsky’s grandson Esteban Volkov, in the Guardian recalls his last months and the assassination attempts that ended his life in August 1940. Trotsky’s life and ideas still [...]

“There’s a storm coming”, Selina Kyle (Anne Hathaway) warns billionaire Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) in “The Dark Knight Rises”. “You and your friends better batten down the hatches, cause when it hits, you’re all going to wonder how you ever thought you could live so large, and leave so little [...]

Somalia: The New Barbary? By Martin N Murphy Published by Columbia University Press (2011) Reviewed by Iain Dalton Somalia is a relatively recent construction, formed from the merger of British and Italian territories in the Horn of Africa. It became independent in 1960. In 1969, after the assassination of president [...]

Thursday May 17, The Esplanade Hotel, St Kilda, Melbourne Reviewed by Dean Roberts, Socialist Party Public Enemy are not your usual hip hop outfit. Their career has spanned 25 years during which they have become one of the most famous and influential groups on the planet. Not only has their [...]

By Chris Dite, Socialist Party The Hunger Games franchise has become a runaway hit, with the release of the Hollywood adaptation reviving interest in Suzanne Collins’ book trilogy. The series is set in what we imagine to be North America in the future. This cruel society is strictly divided into [...]