False choices: the faux feminism of Hillary Rodham Clinton ed Liza Featherstone, Verso, London & New York 2016 No one wants to see a fascistic, racist, misogynist blowhard in the White House – no one, that is, except some dangerous groups of right-wing fanatics, half the Republican Party and some millions of deluded, uneducated (not…
When the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) convened in Havana on January 28, proceedings began with a huge torchlight procession in tribute to the poet José Martí, born 161 years ago on that day. The celebration has been held every year since the revolution of 1959, but to have the participation of…
Translation, writes one of its outstanding practitioners, “helps us to know, to see from a different angle, to attribute new value to what once may have been unfamiliar. As nations and as individuals, we have a critical need for that kind of understanding and insight.” The words are Edith Grossman’s, from her 2010 book Why…
The black arts of marketing, Murdochism and right-wing academia have made the term “working class” almost as much of a taboo as the word “socialism” in mainstream public discourse. As Noam Chomsky says about the US, “you’re supposed to say ‘middle class’ because it diminishes the understanding that there’s a class war going on”. (Occupy:…
We’ve left our dream home in the hills of the Tweed Valley after a five-year fight against a development project that we consider environmental lunacy. We’re making the best of our enforced migration from one end of the Tweed Shire to the other – an easier and healthier lifestyle, more time to exercise, read, write…
Germaine Greer’s new book, White Beech, is essential reading for everyone who cares about the future of the planet – and a revelation to anyone who, like me, has ever fallen in love with the area of the Mount Warning caldera and the Numinbah Valley. In Byron Bay on October 24 we joined a packed…
A year ago Alex and I sat on the balcony of a modest apartment in Athens talking late into the night with our old friends, Savvas Michael-Matsas and his wife Katerina. The discussion ranged over world politics, philosophy, poetry and history and, as always, we were struck by Savvas’ erudition and passionate interest in all…
My book Art Lovers has just arrived from the printers, and it looks terrific! It’s the 60-year history of the Art Gallery Society of New South Wales – six decades of social and cultural change. I’ve loved working on it. It will be launched by the Governor of NSW, Professor Marie Bashir AC, during a…
Spare me all the guff about Margaret Thatcher. British Labour leader Ed Miliband says that “we can disagree and also greatly respect her achievements”. Here in Australia Labor leaders, including Julia Gillard and Penny Wong, follow suit. I don’t respect her. We didn’t have “disagreements”. We were on opposite sides of the biggest battle between…
There’s sad news about Iain Banks, the Scottish novelist. He has cancer, and only months to live. His brilliantly imaginative novels include The Wasp Factory and The Crow Road, and he can also write in a lighter vein. I liked his satirical post-9/11 thriller Dead Air. There must have been something in the air in…
