All Saints’ Day

I.
The number elevens on the necks
of hungry children. Tendons pushing
flesh at the base of the head. They record
the odds. One to one. A fifty-fifty
chance of making it out alive.
And in what way? With no winnings.
That was 1973, the same year
poor kids and men burned a black horse
alive on Halloween night, leading her to [...]

Book Review: The Ask, Sam Lipsyte (2010)
Milo Burke is a man in distress. He’s a man who was whelped in a liberal college that let him believe he was the future of visual art, but now he’s stuck raising the money for another such institution to prop upsimilar self-delusions. But he’s not very good at [...]

Book Review: Prison Notebooks Vol 1, Antonio Gramsci, Columbia University Press (2011)

“Culture is a fundamental concept of socialism because it integrates and concretizes the vague concept of freedom of thought.” Antonio Gramsci
Antonio Gramsci’s cultural awareness permeates every single reflection recorded in his notebooks. Arrested and imprisoned in 1926 on conspiracy charges of an alleged attempt [...]

You Dream Again of Bus Conductors

In that corner of your mind
that’s always on its way into Leicester, circa 1979.
Men in brown coats deliver rented TVs.
Your sister’s going out with an arsehole called Andy,
and smoking is good for you. You gobble
nationalised sandwiches on trains
that are all the same colour. These are the years
of porridge and brick [...]

This is the first of a three part analysis of Owen Jones’ book Chavs. The second part will be published tomorrow, with the concluding part appearing on Thursday. All three can be read here.
Book Review: Owen Jones, Chavs: The Demonization of the Working Class. London: Verso, 2011. 298 pages. £14.99

To get rid of class-distinctions you [...]

This is the conclusion of Maybe It’s Because, Vincent’s autobiography which has yet to find a publisher. Vincent wanted to make it available online so people could read it, share and let him know what they think. The links to each section are available on facebook or you can browse his blog, as each section has [...]

What is unacceptable about dreams
for Illan
is not the terror we feel
but that we create them
that the twin towers meant first
the globalist dream
& only later humanity
& people who were falling not flying
this is the terror we fear
that we dreamed of the falling tower
William Wall is the author of four novels, a collection of short fiction and, [...]

The recently formed Peter Daly Society Wexford will unveil a memorial stone to the Socialist Republican Peter Daly in Monageer (Enniscorthy) Co. Wexford on Saturday the 3rd of September at 6.00 pm.
Peter Daly fought and died with the Irish contingent of the International Brigade in the war against fascism in Spain in September 1937. [...]

Book Review: Embassytown, China Miéville (Pan MacMillan) and Wittgenstein’s Antiphilosophy, Alain Badiou (Verso)
Words are a funny old kettle of fish and good sci fi has always been alert to this. In Heinlein’s novel The Whipping Star, what engages the reader’s attention throughout is the difficulty the central character has in communicating with Fannie [...]