The Tate’s Sylvia Pankhurst exhibition

7th March 2014 Socialist Action 0

Lessons from a ground-breaking political artist

By Christina Prentice

Tate Britain’s current spotlight on Sylvia Pankhurst’s art work gives an extraordinary new insight into the most important feminist leader of the 20th century.

It challenges the view that she gave up art for politics and brings alive the importance of her distinctive brand of feminism – not the narrow struggle for parliamentary democracy for elite women, but a hegemonic view of the struggle needed to take the whole of society forward, in Britain and internationally.

Review: A season in the Congo

10th September 2013 Socialist Action 0

By Tom Castle

Patrice Lumumba was murdered in 1961. The leader of Congo’s first post-colonial government lasted just weeks in office and was dead within months of his election. A Season in the Congo, playing an extended season at the Young Vic, is a joyous celebration of his life and a poignant record of his death.

Wagner and how a woman saved the world

14th May 2013 Socialist Action 0

By Jude Woodward

It can hardly have escaped even the most committed Wagnerphobe that this year is a centenary celebration.

Alongside concert performances of all his major operas at the Proms, radio and TV broadcasts there are countless assessments of his life, politics, opinions and their relationship to his work.

Is the Book Of Mormon’s last laugh on the Black communities?

18th April 2013 Socialist Action 0

 

By Hassan Malik

The Book of Mormon opened last month having come to London on the back of nine Tony awards and rapturous New York reviews. Created by the team behind the successful South Park TV series, it features songs written by the composer from the irreverent Muppet musical Avenue Q.

It is marketed as a satire on the Mormon religion, which there is plenty of material about in the show. However, this is not the only target.

Lincoln

25th February 2013 Socialist Action 0

By Paul Roberts

The award of a record breaking third Oscar for best actor to Daniel Day Lewis for his title role in Spielberg’s Lincoln has drawn even more attention to the film than its epic subject matter was already attracting. Because the film focuses attention on such an enormous revolutionary class struggle it plays a progressive role. But it is a very partial reflection of the real character of the US Civil War.