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By Alan Woods
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Thursday, 22 January 2009 |
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Robert Burns (1759-1796) the poet needs no further introduction. But Robert Burns the revolutionary democrat is another matter. It is a matter of great regret that nowadays it seems to have become the fashion among certain left circles in Scotland to renounce Burns. To some degree this is understandable. After his death, Burns was hijacked by the Scottish Establishment, who turned him into a harmless icon. On Burns' night each January, upper class Scotsmen in kilts (!) make use of the great man's anniversary to eat and drink to excess, declaim poems to the haggis, and generally make fools of themselves. This grotesque parody would, of course, have had Rabbie Burns splitting his sides with laughter. His poems, his politics, his philosophy, his life and his death - all bear witness against these stage Scotsmen and hypocritical Pharisees.
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By Mark Turner
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Tuesday, 06 January 2009 |
 A review of The Damned United
by David Peace
Why would
socialists be interested in this book? Because it is a fictionalised account of
a period in the life of one of Englands’ greatest football managers – the man
destined to be England manager, but
who never was.But not only was ‘Cloughie’ (Brian Clough) a great football
manager, he was also a man who constantly challenged and criticised the
footballing establishment; the club directors and chairmen, the FA and the
powers that be generally.
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By Leon Trotsky
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Wednesday, 17 December 2008 |
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“Art can neither escape the crisis nor partition itself off.
Art cannot save itself. It will rot away inevitably — as Grecian art rotted
beneath the ruins of a culture founded on slavery — unless present-day society
is able to rebuild itself. This task is essentially revolutionary in character.
For these reasons the function of art in our epoch is determined by its
relation to the revolution.” Leon Trotsky, 1938.
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By Alan Woods
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Tuesday, 16 December 2008 |
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We publish here the transcript of a speech by Alan Woods on the subject of the relationship between
Art and the Class Struggle. The speech was given at a Marxist Summer School in Barcelona (Spain),
in July 2001.
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By Alan Woods
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Friday, 29 August 2008 |
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 In May this year Alan Woods of the IMT spoke to a meeting of the Socialist Appeal in London on the question of Marxism and Art. Why should socialists be interested in culture in general? At first sight these things might appear secondary with millions of people around the world living in miserable conditions under capitalism. But If you can imagine a world without art, without music, without colour, rythmn and harmony - then you can imagine that life would be near intolerable, when the lives of workers are hard enough as it is. Alan also traces the development of art and class society from the origins of human society, where art, science and religion were all one, and prized much more than they are today.
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By Alan Woods
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Tuesday, 16 December 2003 |
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Someone has said that one of the criteria for winning the Turner Prize
is not to be understood. The philosophy behind this is: the less I am
understood, the better the art.Yet the kind of art that wins the Turner
competition also has merit. They have the merit of holding up a mirror to the
society that produced them, and saying: “This is what you are, and this is
all you are capable of producing.” These works point out to us that
beneath the sleek, comfortable bourgeois surface of modern society, horrors are
lurking: dead vermin, murder, death and decay.
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By Mordachai Peargut
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Wednesday, 05 November 2003 |
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A contribution by Mordachai Peargut.
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