John Green talks to Andy Croft about the achievements of Smokestack Books, in an article from the Morning Star Poetry is the most democratic form of... Continue reading
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Farewell to Smokestack Books
John Green talks to Andy Croft about the achievements of Smokestack Books, in an article from the Morning Star Poetry is the most democratic form of literary expression…
destroying angel
destroying angel by Fran Lock this delicate supremacist, our cipher. tonightunder the fractioned moon, we wait. we arewaiting. for the angel, rankly warriored outof soft ground. or…
What Three Words
What Three Words by Marilyn Longstaff A clever app pinpointing a precise location,useful, simple, when it works: if you understand,if there’s a decent signal. what3wordssaw we oldies…
Four poems from ‘What Rough Beast’
The following four poems are taken from the What Rough Beast anthology of poems about Trump and Trumpism, available to download here. Image above: Rise Up My Pretties, by Martin Gollan, who…
Black History Month: Holding the Fort
Holding the Fort by Mark Cassidy In April 1802, African slave soldiers took over the Fort Shirley garrison (on the Cabrits peninsula of Dominica) for three days…
Tombstones and Toolboxes
Tombstones and Toolboxes by Fred Voss In the corner of our machine shop behind a 10-ton press sits Howard’s toolbox a toolbox Howard got from an old…
what if war were measured in baby teeth
what if war were measured in baby teeth by Lisa Kelly the kiloton of bombsdropped in baby teeththe incendiary grief of lives lost in baby teeth all…
How can we mourn?
How can we mourn? by Janet Sillett how can we mourn a citywho are not its victims?we do not hear the dronesor smell decay we do not…
‘Cobwebs, stinky food and trick mirrors’: Review of Caleb Femi’s ‘The Wickedest’
This is a brief review of a relatively brief text, although the brevity of the text does not reflect its significance or relevance. Caleb Femi has already…
Which is the Dream?
Which is the Dream? by Ann Irwin Last night I dreamedI walked the crunchy grass at Duacheenspeckled purple and yellowragged robin vetch and trefoilsthe scent of rising…
All of You Raising a Glass: Review of ‘May Day’ by Jackie Kay
May Day is Jackie Kay’s latest poetry collection. It is addressed to her parents, Helen and John Kay, who adopted her as a baby. They had both…
Talking with Mr Strummer about the nature of the world
Talking with Mr Strummer about the nature of the world by Steve Pottinger “They’d send a limousine anyway…” – The Clash You were right, Joe.More right than…
Capitalism: A Horror Story’: An interview with the author
Brett Gregory interviews Jon Greenaway, author of ‘Capitalism: A Horror Story’ BG: Hi, my name’s Brett Gregory, and I’m an associate editor of the UK arts, culture, and politics…
‘Capitalism: A Horror Story’: An interview with the author
Brett Gregory interviews Jon Greenaway, author of ‘Capitalism: A Horror Story’ BG: Hi, my name’s Brett Gregory, and I’m an associate editor of the UK arts, culture,…
Callout for short stories from the Morning Star
Andy Hedgecock introduces a callout for short stories. Image above: not Lenin writing flash fiction, but Lenin in Smolny, by Isaac Brodsky, 1930 (detail) Photo: Tretyakov Gallery/CC In the summer…
Culture Matters Presents: Charlie Hill & Wayne Dean-Richards Double Header
Culture Matters are proud to present an online prose double-header featuring the writerly talents of CM stalwarts Wayne Dean-Richards & Charlie Hill. Charlie will read from his…
A Drive to Change the World: James Baldwin, Black Author, Socialist and Activist
James Baldwin, the important left-wing, Black author and activist, was born one hundred years ago in Harlem, New York, on 2 August 1924. Baldwin’s stepfather David, a…
Where We Go, Others Will Follow: Review of ‘Gaza: This Bleeding Land’ by John Wight
The current horror in Gaza is just the latest in a long line of such horrors. The present incursion is called Operation Swords of Iron. The metallurgical…
The Suitcase
He carries the suitcase like he means business. He carries it like he cares about it. He carries it like he cares about it too much. He…
‘Gaza: This Bleeding Land’, by John Wight
John Wight presents an extract from his new book, Gaza: This Bleeding Land, which tells the story of this prolonged tragedy through the eyes of two rival combatants….
East German Literature: Challenges and Triumphs in Cultural Recognition
Germany’s minister of state for culture, the senior Green politician Claudia Roth, one of the almost exclusively West German-born government officials, voiced her surprise at a recent…
‘Prophet Song’: The secular apocalypse
In his book, How The Irish Saved Civilization: The Untold Story of Ireland’s Heroic Role from the Fall of Rome to the Rise of Medieval Europe, Thomas…
Dark Stories for Dark Times: The 2024 Crime Novel
This year the Quais du Polar in Lyon, the largest European festival of crime novels and one of the largest in the world, in celebrating its 20th…
Maybe Monday
Managers are mystics. Must be because they’re always telling the people who work for them about their fucking vision. Their fucking vision for the company,…
‘Fixing Time’: Photographs by Ian Macdonald
Above image: Salmon Net Drying Rack, 1973. This photograph and all the others in this review are courtesy of the artist. Fixing Time is the title of a comprehensive exhibition…
Art that’s rooted in the upheavals of his time: Caspar David Friedrich, 1774-1840
On the 250th anniversary of his birthday, Jenny Farrell writes about Caspar David Friedrich, September 5, 1774 – May 7, 1840 The French Revolution sparked great hopes…
Great art exhibition, shame about the politics: ‘Expressionists: Kandinsky, Münter and the Blue Rider’ at Tate Modern
Nick Moss reviews Expressionists: Kandinsky, Münter and the Blue Rider, at the Tate Modern, London, to 20 October 2024. Image above: Wassily Kandinsky, Murnau – Johannisstrasse from a…
‘Everyone is an artist’: but how good is the access of women to culture?
Reading the Communist Party’s recent Class & Culture pamphlet led Ruth McCann to consider the diminishing space for women to socialise and create When it comes to…
International Women’s Day: Women’s Artistic Narratives in Times of War
From its outset, International Women’s Day was characterized by the fight for peace, against militarism and war. At the Second International Conference of Socialist Women at Copenhagen…
Integrity, Professionalism and Accountability?
Risgi Sunak promised us ‘integrity, professionalism and accountability’ when he became leader of the Tory party…….
Art, colonialism and change: ‘Entangled Pasts’ at the Royal Academy
Nick Moss reviews Art and Colonialism: Entangled Pasts 1768 – Now, Royal Academy of Arts to 29 April 2024 The premise of this exhibition is, according to…
Ramping up the cultural struggle: CPB conference on class and culture
Around 60 people gathered last Saturday in Barnsley for the Communist Party’s first-ever conference on culture. Called ‘Class and Culture’, the conference was held in the inspiring…
Boycott of Israeli cultural institutions
More than 1,000 authors have launched a boycott of Israeli publishers complicit in the dispossession of the Palestinian people, and Culture Matters supports the boycott. These writers…
What is the source of alienation? Jim Aitken reviews ‘Soil and Soul’ by Alistair McIntosh
Soil and Soulwas first published in 2001, and it was a thoroughly well-received book. In his Foreword to it, George Monbiot described it as ‘a ground-breaking book.’ …
Fair Play Cabaret: shows with a social and political purpose
Fair Play Cabaret With the backing of Equity, a cultural campaign is being launched which is centred around an ongoing series of events across the country. They…
‘A deep, poetic beauty’: Review of ‘This Albion: Snapshots of a Compromised Land’ by Charlie Hill
Bobby Seal from the Psychogeographic Review reviews This Albion: Snapshots of a Compromised Land by Charlie Hill I had for some time believed the key to effective writing…
Cultural heritage and cultural democracy
Richard Penderyn outlines some of the current problems in the heritage industry, and some ways of introducing cultural democracy Heritage and the historic environment in the UK…
What’s the source of alienation? Jim Aitken reviews ‘Soil and Soul’ by Alistair McIntosh
Soil and Soul was first published in 2001 and it was a thoroughly well-received book. In his Foreword to it, George Monbiot described it as ‘a ground-breaking…
Review of ‘Left Cultures 2, a Lexicon of stories past and present’
In the Foreword to this publication we are asked to reflect on how Left-leaning culture has helped to inspire us. What was the journey we made? What…
Left Cultures: A Lexicon of Stories Past and Present.
Left Cultures delves deep into the left’s cultural past to discuss gems of storytelling within film, literature, music, art, people, place and much much more. Cultures…
Falange Goes to Salo
Nigel Falange MP. He’s ditched the Gieves and Hawkes country squire Master of the Hunt outfit because that race has been won. The “man of the people”…
‘It’s easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism.’ Brett Gregory interviews Bram Gieben, author of ‘The Darkest Timeline: Living in a World with No Future’
Below is an edited version of the interview. Brett: Hi. What’s your name, where do you live, and when, and why, did you first become interested in…
Poverty, Class and Education: A report from the Alliance of Working-Class Academics’ Conference, 2024
Image above: People take turns to do the difficult jobs, by Chad McCail The 3rd annual conference of the Alliance of Working-Class Academics (AWCA), in conjunction with…
Public libraries: an island of socialism in a sea of capitalism
Libraries and communism are like Marx and Engels – you can’t have one without the other. Marx did some of his most important work in the British…
In defence of GCSE poetry
Razia Parveen criticises the government’s decision to make poetry optional for study at GCSE level. The image above is of John Agard The Tory government has recently…
Why and how education must be decolonised
Razia Parveen argues that pulling down statues should only be the beginning of a radical decolonisation of the educational curriculum I didn’t know that. Why didn’t they…
Thou Shalt Teach Revolution
Jane Rosen writes about revolutionary children’s literature, based on the recent book she co-edited with Kimberley Reynolds and Michael Rosen, Reading and Rebellion: an Anthology of Radical…
Don’t Shoot Your Class!
Jane Rosen introduces ‘Don’t Shoot Your Class!’, by Tom Anderson, first published in The Revolution, June 1918. It is extracted from Reading and Rebellion, an Anthology of…
Is There a Marxist Perspective on Education?
Martin Brown considers what a Marxist approach can tell us about our education system. Like everything else in a class-divided society, education is a battleground. In present…
Social haunting in the Brexit coalfields
Dr Geoff Bright introduces a fascinating arts-based educational project, concerned with remembering, re-imagining and re-enacting alternative community futures in the abandoned, de-industrialised pit communities in the North…
Education, Culture and Capitalism
Chris Guiton presents a foundation essay for the education section, sketching out some of the links between education, culture and capitalism. The purpose of this introductory article…
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destroying angel by Fran Lock this delicate supremacist, our cipher. tonightunder the fractioned moon, we wait. we arewaiting. for the angel, rankly warriored outof soft... Continue reading
What Three Words by Marilyn Longstaff A clever app pinpointing a precise location,useful, simple, when it works: if you understand,if there’s a decent signal. what3wordssaw... Continue reading
Around 60 people gathered last Saturday in Barnsley for the Communist Party’s first-ever conference on culture. Called ‘Class and Culture’, the conference was held in... Continue reading
More than 1,000 authors have launched a boycott of Israeli publishers complicit in the dispossession of the Palestinian people, and Culture Matters supports the boycott.... Continue reading
Holding the Fort by Mark Cassidy In April 1802, African slave soldiers took over the Fort Shirley garrison (on the Cabrits peninsula of Dominica) for... Continue reading
Being able to afford something, or for a child not being able to have something, is where the narrative of poverty begins. However, it has... Continue reading